The referendum on the Sunday opening of licensed premises in Wales as a criterion of a culture region

Abstract

Carter H. and Thomas J. G. (1969) The referendum on the Sunday opening of licensed premises in Wales as a criterion of a culture region, Reg. Studies 3, 61–71. Culture has been defined as consisting of traditional ideas and their attached values and of historically derived patterns of behaviour. A culture can be considered in terms of its spatial extent and given areal definition as a Culture Region. Such definition presents critical problems in relation to the criteria to be employed. Those conventionally used are language and religion. The Welsh culture area is usually defined in terms of the relative dominance of the spoken language, the matrix of a culture whose traditions are primarily oral and literary. The referenda held in 1961 and 1968 on the Sunday opening of premises licensed to serve alcoholic drinks provide a new criterion. The relevance of the referenda is demonstrated and by regression analysis the close association of the relative dominance of the language, opposition to Sunday opening and a high percentage poll is demonstrated. The patterns of voting, together with language distribution, are examined in the context of the morphology of a culture region and the characteristic features of such a region in decline are proposed.