The Welsh Assembly Government will introduce a system of presumed consent for organ donation in 2015. According to this scheme, if adults in Wales have not expressed their opposition to the use of their organs after their death, and in the absence of opposition from their families, permission to use their organs will be presumed by the authorities. According to the present system, the onus is on the individual to register as a donor, but if this new scheme is implemented, it will be the responsibility of the individual to deregister as a donor. This essay is a legal and ethical evaluation of the proposed changes.
The Welsh Government’s plan to introduce a system of presumed consent for organ donation
Muslims in Rural Wales: disconnection, faith and belonging
In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the experiences of minority groups which are marginalised within a rural context. However, little attention has been paid to religious minorities in rural regions. This scarcity of attention is surprising considering the attention paid to religion in issues of multiculturalism and inclusive citizenship. This paper discusses the experiences of one particular religious group, Muslims, in rural west Wales. The article concentrates on experiences of absence from the landscape (i.e. the physical landscape and the broader images and values that convey ideas about places), which can create difficulties in fostering a sense of community. It also looks at local Muslims’ construction of the landscape in moral and Christian terms. The paper suggests that these experiences transcend ideas of ‘exclusion/belonging’, and attest to a complex relationship between local Muslims and this rural region.
Improving healthcare services with patients' help: Collecting PROMs and PREMs throughout Wales
Pressures on NHS Wales means that we need to adopt new ways of providing high standards of care using available resources. One method is to work closely with patients by collecting Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs). It is hoped that collecting such data will help achieve prudent healthcare. This article provides an overview of the development of the first national collection system in Wales. Over 3 years the system has collected 66,000 PROMs and PREMs from 25,000 patients, and early uses of this data have shown the potential to improve services. The long-term aim is to make such data collection a routine part of secondary care in Wales.
“At the top once again”: early Welsh language pop charts
This article contains an analysis of the pop charts of three Welsh newspapers during the year 1972, concentrating on regional and national trends, and also on the performance of rock records in the charts. It is argued that Welsh language pop charts are of use as indicators of likely sales, but also because of their role as a medium for the record-buying public to participate in the Welsh pop world.
A Battle for Language, Language Battles: Terminology of the Welsh pop world in the 1960s and 1970s
This article offers a detailed examination of the relationship between the campaign to revitalise the Welsh language in the 1960s and 1970s and the coining of new words in Welsh-language popular music. It concentrates on attempts to adapt Welsh to the circumstances of the pop world during this period in particular, and examines the ideological consequences of various strategies for coining terms that were used by writers.
Salem's Peace? A close reading of Cliff McLucas's portrait of Cynog Dafis
In 1987, the artist Cliff McLucas was working at Ysgol Gyfun Ddwyieithog Dyffryn Teifi on a project titled ‘The Dyfed Media Residency’. As part of his work, he created a series of portraits of teachers and related staff using the technique of photographic collage. Amongst these pictures is a portrait of the school’s English teacher at the time, the politician and Welsh-language activist, Cynog Dafis. I propose a close reading of this portrait that centres on Dafis’ public political career in the context of McLucas’ own life experience. McLucas moved from Scotland to Tregroes, Ceredigion, in 1973. At the same time he learnt Welsh. McLucas’s portrait will be discussed in terms of a self-conscious response to his presence as an incomer in Ceredigion whilst facing a member of the intellectual elite of his host culture. In conclusion, a relationship between McLucas’ portrait of Dafis and Sidney Vosper Curnow’s painting from 1908, ‘Salem’, will be suggested. At the end of the article, a short post-script relates the discussion of McLucas’ portrait of Dafis to contemporary issues of in-migration and out-migration in and from rural areas of Wales.
Early community newspapers in north Wales and Welsh-language rock music
Since the advent of the papurau bro (community newspaper) movement in Wales in the 1970s, hundreds of articles on rock music have appeared in their pages, giving publicity to local rock bands, gigs, new releases, and so forth. However, these have received no scholarly attention. The present article explores the nature and influence of this little-known collection of sources, positing that this material throws light on the workings of the music scene at a regional and local level, and also that the register of these writings reveals something of the agenda of the contributors: an emphasis on justifying not the existence but the cultural worth of Welsh-language rock music to the older generation influenced young writers and champions of the pop world.
The flow of ionised atmosphere over the north pole
The paper investigates the structure and behaviour of the nighttime ionised (electrified) atmosphere in the polar and auroral regions; the region where the aurora borealis occurs. Of particular interest are plasma structures on horizontal scales of hundreds of kilometres. The observations presented were made by the radiotomography experiment of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, which has four satellite receiving systems in the high Arctic near the north pole, at Ny Ålesund and Longyearbyen on Svalbard, Bjørnøya (Bear Island) and Tromsø on mainland Norway. Comparisons of tomography images with observations of plasma flow by the international SuperDARN radar suggest that large density plasma produced on the dayside flows across the polar region and into the night sector. The results contribute to the interpretation of physical processes that couple the Earth's environment with space, and are also of interest to users of radio systems where the ionised atmosphere can degrade the propagation of the signals.
A critical discussion on the contribution of service users to social work education in Wales
This article reports on the findings of initial work undertaken to assess the contribution of service users / carers to social work education at a higher education institution in Wales and also critically discusses the contribution of service users / carers to social work education. The role of service users / carers in this context continues to be unclear. We suggest that this is reflected in the comments of service users / carers, who often talk about the value of their contribution to social work education in terms of personal benefits - often therapeutic – which they experience from taking part. Social work students are enthusiastic about the contribution of service users / carers to their education, and believe it is useful, but they have varying ideas on how and what the contribution of service users / carers could and should be.
Case study: the impact of digital media on the content and the function of O’r Pedwar Gwynt and Y Stamp
This article examines the influence of digital media on the contemporary Welsh literary field by describing and comparing two literary magazines that combine printed and digital elements. O’r Pedwar Gwynt and Y Stamp were launched during 2016 and they are the only two literary publications in Welsh with regular presence both on paper and online. By analysing them, traditional ideas about the literary production process are challenged, particularly those relating to the nature of the literary object and the role of producers (editors and authors) and consumers (readers). Based on concepts rooted in media studies (Marshall McLuhan) and the theory of social fields (Pierre Bourdieu) the emphasis will be on the possibilities of projects that combine features of both media and literary productions.
The History of Friendship in Michael Roes' Geschichte der Freundschaft (2010)
This article examines the way Michael Roes redefines friendship in his novel Geschichte der Freundschaft (The History of Friendship) by usig texts by other writers and philosophers. After placing Roes’ novel in its historical and cultural context, the article compares Geschichte der Freundschaft with Tahar Ben Jelloun's novel Partir / Leaving Tangier (2006). The final section of the article then interprets Roes’ use of intertexts on the subject of male-male friendships. The focus is on Roes’ appropriation of texts by Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault, which throws light on his treatment of the novel’s central theme, friendships between men, and homosexual relationships.
Evaluating 'Cymdeithasiaeth': the political ideas of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg
This article examines cymdeithasiaeth, a set of political ideas developed by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) arising from the Society’s campaigning experience. The article’s main aim is to evaluate ‘cymdeithasiaeth’, and to consider the ideation and the relationship between the theory and political practice. Community is an integral part of the philosophy of ‘cymdeithasiaeth’, and the article attempts to answer the question; ‘what is the role of community and the political relevance of ‘cymdeithasiaeth’ today?’ The discussion begins by examining the ideation of ‘cymdeithasiaeth’ as it developed alongside Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg’s experience of direct action. The role of community in the political tradition of Wales in the modern period is discussed, and a critical look is taken at the role of community and community development in today’s politics. Finally, a discussion on the evaluation of ‘cymdeithasiaeth’ takes place.