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.

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.

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.

Casgliad o glipiau fideo i helpu myfyrwyr i weithio'n effeithiol ac i gyflwyno gwaith ysgrifenedig da.

Government statistics illustrate that by 2050 there will be a shortage of meat and milk due to globalpopulationgrowth and the increaseddemand from the Far East. Ensuring food security in terms of availability and nutritionalsafety is, therefore, important for our future existence. Central to achieving milk and meat security are ruminants. Ruminants have a four chambered stomach composed of the reticulum, rumen, abomasum and omasum with microbial fermentation of forage occurring in the rumen. Rumen microbial fermentation is largely responsible for animal production, ruminant product quality and much of greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, when forage reaches the rumen, the rumen microbes degrade the plant cell wall and subsequently metabolise plant cell content, including plant amino acids and proteins which they convert into proteins that they can utilise. In order to ensure availability of milk and meat of the best possible quality (with the least greenhouse gas emissions) for the future, we must increase our understanding of the plant-microbe interactome using the principles of systems biology and 'omic' technology.

This article examines a Welsh choir’s visit to Franco’s Spain at the invitation of the Francoist organisation Educación y Descans (Education and Leisure). At first the invitation sparked a debate in the local press on the principles of travelling to a country that was at the time shunned by the international community. The choir itself came from an area which had provided volunteers for the international brigades, but which was also co-incidentally involved with the establishment of an international music festival in the name of peace and understanding. The article examines the account of the choir’s journey to Spain, and discusses how the image of the Franco regime is portrayed in that account. The article also analyses to what extent the choir’s visit was used as propaganda by Franco as his foreign policy shifted with the advent of the Cold War.

The development of Welsh medium early years education has been a story of singular success over the last century. With the establishment of the National Assembly in 2000, Wales further forged its own vision for its young children. One of its first priorities, for example, was the Foundation Phase with its radical approach. This paper offers an overview of the historic development of nursery education in Wales, before and post devolution. Welsh language and Wales policies are set in the context of wider influences, both research and pedagogic, on early childhood care and education, for example the evidence on good practice from the EPPE (The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education Project) study. Focus will be on Welsh language provision, highlighting the role and contribution of Mudiad Meithrin. The paper will consider issues, research and theoretic, relating to early bilingualism. It concludes with a critical analysis of the challenges facing the field of early childhood services in Welsh in light of current political and policy developments. For the purposes of this paper, addysg feithrin (nursery education) is defined as the care and education provision for children 3–5+ years, and the term blynyddoedd cynnar (early years) is used for the same group.

The renewable energy sector is growing as states aim to curtail their carbon emissions and establish a more sustainable strategy to generate energy. Despite this, there are arguments that large-scale renewable energy developments do not contribute towards community sustainability and local economies. According to recent research, community energy projects – renewable energy projects that are part or fully owned by a geographically distinct community – are seen as a means of generating energy in a way that is more sympathetic, equitable and sustainable. This article reviews the current literature that debates the benefits and obstacles facing the community energy sector.

After a brief summary of the recent theoretical context of masculinity studies and the notion of identity, this article will analyze the construction of masculinity in a novel by one of Morocco’s most notable authors, Tahar Ben Jelloun’s L'Homme rompu. It will refer to this theoretical context in order to highlight the full weight of discursive pressures that are exerted on the individual. It will offer an in-depth analysis of masculinity and identity in the novel and, with reference to its unofficial sister-novel, Simone de Beauvoir’s La Femme rompue, will question to what extent the existentialist concepts of individual choice and subjectivity are still valid in the current theoretical climate.

This article describes the origins and some of the history of the Welsh-language philosophy journal Efrydiau Athronyddol, which was published from 1938 to 2006. The majority of the papers published in the journal were presented at the annual conference of the Welsh-speaking Philosophy section of the Guild of Graduates (Adran Athroniaeth Urdd y Graddedigion), an annual conference which continues today but which was established in the early 1930s. The article describes the nature and content of the first issue, and provides a summary of some of the main themes of articles published. It shows how the character of the journal underwent a significant change in 1949 as a result of a deliberate policy on the part of those most closely involved with the running of the journal and indeed in the Philosophy section of the Guild. The journal subsequently changed from being a purely philosophical one to a more interdisciplinary publication which dealt with a much wider range of topics, many of which had a distinct focus on Welsh intellectual life. The second half of the article focuses on one of the most influential papers ever published in the Efrydiau, namely ‘The idea of a nation’ by Professor J. R. Jones. Published the year before Saunders Lewis’s radio broadcast ‘Tynged yr Iaith’, its main claims are described and subjected to critical analysis. This paper exemplifies what was best about the journal: it is philosophical, but also interdisciplinary – drawing on poetry and history – and makes powerful political claims which led to Jones being described by Professor D. Z. Phillips as the philosophical inspiration for the Welsh Language Society, in addition to an acknowledged influence on the thinking of Saunders Lewis.

Cyflwyniadau o Symposiwm Gair am Gelf, 21 Hydref 2013.  Gwenllian y Beynon, cydlynydd y symposiwm, yn cyflwyno'r cyrsiau celf cyfrwng Cymraeg sydd ar gael. Yr artist Osi Rhys Osmond yn trafod pwysigrwydd yr iaith Gymraeg a chelfyddydau cyfrwng Cymraeg.

During the summer of 2010, as part of a project by Dr T. Robin Chapman and Dr Dafydd Sills-Jones, Welsh speakers of all generations and backgrounds were questioned about the poems of T. H. Parry-Williams, at the National Library and on the Eisteddfod field. The format was that of asking everyone to select a poem, to read it aloud, and then to explain why they had chosen it in an open-ended interview. The aim was to investigate the current status of the poetry of T.H. Parry-Williams, by analysing different readings on the basis of rhetoric and performance. Although no effort was made to secure a scientifically representative sample, both male and female readers were attracted, from different parts of Wales, and of all ages from early twenties to retirement age. It was expected that the project would raise questions about the reception given to the poems of T. H. Parry-Williams amongst the members of the public who took part in the experiment. Who would choose which poem? How would different performances of the same poem reveal geographical or generational differences? What would be the relationship between the performances and the reasons and stories that appeared during the interviews? There were also methodological questions to be resolved across an interdisciplinary gulf. How would audiovisual and literary techniques inter-relate? How would it be possible to analyse the readings, without following the usual interpretative trails? An exhibition of the interviews was staged in December of the same year in the form of a series of video screens showing the interviews in parallel and concurrent format. Although the project belongs to two similar analytical traditions, namely literary analysis and the analysis of film, the exhibition brought them together through a third tradition, exemplified in video artworks such as the audiovisual installations ‘Forty Part Motet’ and ‘Videos Transamericas’. Thus, this demonstrative/analytical mode posed a challenge to both researchers, and was an inventive journey into a new methodological domain. Although the researchers are agreed on the fundamental research question posed by the project, which is to seek to assess the position occupied by T.H. in Welsh culture thirty five years after his death, it became apparent during their collaboration that this was on the basis of markedly different ideas of the significance of the methods used and the findings obtained. Robin Chapman’s background is in recent Welsh literature. Dafydd Sills-Jones has experience of working in the field of documentary production, and is interested in the performing aspects of such productions. What follows is an epilogue where both use the project’s common ground to explain their methods to each other – and to themselves. The hope is that it will be a means not only for them to say something about our two disciplines, but that it will be an opportunity also to investigate in more general terms the (creative) tension that manifests itself in interdisciplinary collaboration.