News and Blog

PrOPEL Hub hackathons help managers take action to improve job quality

In February 2024, WISERD co-directors, Professor Alan Felstead and Rhys Davies hosted hackathons in Sheffield and Belfast for human resource managers interested in improving job quality for their teams. Organised by the PrOPEL Hub and attended by nearly 100 managers from a range of private, public and third sector businesses, including government departments, social care…

WISERD presents civil society research to policymakers in Brussels

On 25 January, WISERD and Welsh Higher Education Brussels (WHEB) hosted a workshop for policymakers in Brussels and made a case for civil society research being put at the heart of plans for the European Union. Later this year, members of the European Council will meet to agree the Strategic Agenda for the European Union…

WISERD research presented at the Senedd

On 30 November, Professor Mitch Langford, a WISERD co-director based at the University of South Wales (USW), presented WISERD research from the ESRC-funded project, ‘Inequalities, civic loss and well-being’, to the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee at the Senedd. The Senedd’s Areas of Research Interest (ARI) event comprised a series of speed talks made…

Monitoring access to warm spaces

A recently published paper by Dr Andrew Price and Professors Gary Higgs and Mitchel Langford at the University of South Wales has drawn attention to geographical variations in access to warm spaces in Wales. Warm spaces provide an opportunity to help households try to minimise the impact of rising energy bills in the winter months…

Cardiff is UK’s first UNICEF Child Friendly City

A wealth of social science research expertise has helped Cardiff become the UK’s first UNICEF Child Friendly City (CFC). The prestigious status has been awarded to the city in recognition of the steps Cardiff Council and its partners, including Cardiff University, have taken over the past five years to advance the human rights of children…

Covid-19 vaccine inequality found among people experiencing homelessness in Wales, study suggests

A year into the mass vaccination programme, people who experienced homelessness in Wales had rates of Covid-19 vaccine uptake that were almost 20% points less than people of similar characteristics. The study, led by Dr. Ian Thomas, also found that the rate at which the Covid-19 vaccine was provided was slower for people with recent…

International, Comparative and Action Research: Triangulating Wales with the Basque Country and California

International, comparative and action research can be shaped through an unexpected and highly unpredictable rationale when conducting fieldwork research. In 1946, Kurt Lewin defined action research as ‘transformative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action that employs a spiral of steps, each consisting of a cycle of planning, action, and…

Job quality is worse for teachers who are expecting an Ofsted inspection, report finds

Teachers in England who are expecting an Ofsted inspection in the coming 12 months have worse job quality and a higher work intensity, according to a report. The study from academics at Cardiff University and University College London (UCL) also showed that the conditions for teaching professionals have barely changed since the pandemic and have,…

Welsh children’s subjective well-being during the pandemic ranks below average in international survey

In my previous Children’s Worlds project blog posts, we looked at the impact of the pandemic on Welsh children’s well-being in relation to school and whether they live in urban or rural areas of Wales. For this third and final instalment, we now turn our attention to how the overall level of subjective well-being for…