The long resolution? Responding to economic and social change in postwar South Wales

Abstract

This article investigates the period between the late-1950s and the mid-1970s, a time when millions of people in Britain moved from towns and older industrial settlements to the urban periphery. South Wales offers a particularly interesting perspective here, as many moves were within twenty miles and seemed to be driven by high levels of state investment in industry, housing and road infrastructure. This essay aims to examine the long-term impact of these decisions on later generations and to demonstrate the determination - or will - of political actors in Wales, who are often competing with other places. As well as adapting Raymond Williams's well–known The Long Revolution for my title, I use his structure of feeling concept to seek an understanding of how change was experienced. This is achieved by presenting four recent interview accounts gathered from people who lived in South Wales in the first three decades after World War Two