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"Still a mining community": Gender and change in the Upper Dulais Valley." / Stephanie Jones

Swansea University Author: Stephanie Jones

Abstract

This ethnographic study of a former mining community in the upper Dulais valley explores how major structural changes, in terms of employment opportunities and socio-economic conditions, have impacted on the everyday lives of the villagers, with particular reference to gender relationships and ident...

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Published: 1997
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42484
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Abstract: This ethnographic study of a former mining community in the upper Dulais valley explores how major structural changes, in terms of employment opportunities and socio-economic conditions, have impacted on the everyday lives of the villagers, with particular reference to gender relationships and identities. Evidence of the structural changes is presented, and relevant feminist literature which attempts to explain gender divisions is discussed to contextualise the data, which was gathered during twelve months' fieldwork carried out between 1994 and 1995, ten years after the major miners' strike and five years after the last pit in the valley closed. Methodological, epistemological and ethical questions are raised concerning the values of doing anthropology at home, and an argument is made for the need to acknowledge the reflexive and analytical capabilities of the subjects of research, and the contribution which they make to the final academic project, in this case the ethnography. Utilising the notion of habitus, it is suggested that the practices of everyday life were operating to maintain the identity of the village as a mining community, and that this was facilitated by the retention of traditional gender segregation and identities, albeit that these identities were expressed in a modified form after pit closure.
Keywords: Cultural anthropology.;Social structure.;Gender studies.
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences