IMAGINED DIVERSITY: Cultural policy in Wales, 1997–2001

The period that takes in the first term of New Labour in Britain also spans the empowerment of a new elected National Assembly for Wales and the designation of Objective One European structural funds to parts of Wales. Analysis of cultural policy documents from those years finds that the endorsement of an eclectic cultural style as a collective identity for a diverse citizenry is compromised by the implication that it is the Welsh language, rather than diversity itself, that signifies diversity. Scrutiny of proposals for, or assertions about, a “branded” cultural identity reveals inconsistencies between the cultural practices of place‐based communities and the opportunistic affiliations that are deployed in the interests of social and economic development in a “new” information economy.