Left behind? Formations of crisis and community in deindustrialised South Wales

The dissertation project investigates how residents of a deindustrialised village in South Wales deal with social change and crises such as Brexit, Covid-19 or the cost-of-living crisis and how the concept of 'community' needs to be rethought in this context. The project design is characterised as a contemporary 'community study' and qualitative-ethnographic methods will be applied. During longer research stays, participant observations, (biographical) interviews as well as focus group discussions and collaborative workshops will be conducted. Furthermore, methods from visual ethnography are applied. The aim is to investigate with which complex problems residents are confronted, which narratives are often recurring and to look at how the community copes with these challenges and where there are still needs and potential for development. There is a special focus on an intersectional and participative approach.