Olivia Frigo-Charles is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at the University of Zurich and a research associate at the Institute for Diversity and Social Integration at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on the contemporary impacts of deindustrialisation on communities, with a particular emphasis on South Wales. In addition to her doctoral work, Olivia contributes to applied research projects addressing social inequality, urban space, and youth participation, frequently operating at the intersection of academic inquiry and practice. Her methodological approach centres on ethnographic fieldwork and narrative analysis, with a strong sensitivity to intersectionality and the socio-spatial dimensions of social change.
Left behind? Formations of crisis and community in deindustrialised South Wales
What does it mean to live in a place where crisis has become the norm? Olivia FrigoCharles’ doctoral research explores how residents of a former industrial village in South Wales make sense of life amid overlapping disruptions: From the long shadow of deindustrialisation to the cost-of-living crisis, Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and local disasters such as floods. Once shaped by a thriving coal industry and home to the largest steelworks in the UK, the region is now marked by socio-economic precarity, infrastructural decline, and a recurring sense of abandonment. Through ethnographic fieldwork including participant observation, biographical
interviews, and participatory workshops this project examines how deindustrialisation is not merely a historical rupture, but a lived and narrated condition. Olivia investigates how narratives of pride, community, nostalgia, and disillusionment are mobilised to cope with ongoing challenges. These stories not only express grief and survival, but also reflect subtle forms of resistance – whether through informal care networks, local sports, humour, or grassroots initiatives. Furthermore, the project also explores how industrial landscapes and infrastructures become repository for shared memories, identities, and emotional attachments.
By focusing on how people narrate their pasts and envision their futures, this research contributes to broader debates on belonging, marginalisation, and transformation in post-industrial regions. It further addresses the ethical and methodological complexities of conducting ethnographic work in communities shaped by structural neglect, and highlights storytelling as a means of sustaining community amid persistent crisis
Website: https://www.zhaw.ch/en/about-us/person/frgo
