The murderous onslaught on sovereign Ukraine by Putin and his ruling clique of siloviki, or former members of the security services, has made the world aware of the enormities characterising his regime. We already had plenty of evidence of ruthlessness: Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, fomenting ethnic division in Donbass, and the Crimea. Putin, a KGB foreign intelligence…

Cardiff’s new sbarc|spark hub will bring together researchers to connect across social science research disciplines to create new ways of working. Professor Sally Power, WISERD, recently published a paper examining calls for an ‘evidence ecosystem’ to address the disconnect between university-led education research, and education policy and practice. Here, she shares thoughts on what the Social…

Since February 2021, we have been working with a community group in South Wales who are concerned about the air quality in their local area. We have adopted a participatory approach that facilitates the group’s work, but which also recognises the expertise of individual members and tracks how the group develops, shares and uses this…

Characteristics closely linked to educational outcomes can vary by individual pupils’ situations and can be the result of a complex interplay between a number of risk factors. For example, being classified as having a disability such as communication difficulties, and experiencing behavioural and mental health problems can increase the risk of losing school days, which…

The Migration Research Wales Network held an online symposium on 19th January for postgraduates and early-career researchers working on aspects of migration in Wales or based at Welsh institutions. The theme of the symposium was ‘New Perspectives on Migration’. Presentations covered research areas ranging from Italians in Wales, refugee women and Welshness, and the challenges facing LGBTQ+…

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities in society. In doing so, it has reinforced the importance of the government’s ‘levelling up’ policy agenda. In terms of protected characteristics, attention focused most immediately on ethnicity given the differences in health risk posed by COVID-19 and was subsequently concerned with gender as a result of…

An initiative that has transformed how de-identified administrative data can be securely used to provide insight into social and economic issues in Wales is set to continue thanks to an investment of almost £17 million. Administrative Data Research Wales (ADR Wales) has been awarded £16,985,944 until 2026 as part of the £90 million UK wide Administrative Data…

In this blog post Alan Felstead of Cardiff University discusses the publication of his new book Remote Working: A Research Overview.  The book provides an accessible overview of the history of remote working and the impact of the massive shifts in the location of work that have occurred because of the global pandemic. One of the…

Dr Igor Calzada has been featured in Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential Academics in Government list. Public servants were invited to nominate the academics who are the most influential to the work of government. Dr Calzada’s work intersects digital, urban, and political transformations, paying special attention to regional governments on 1. smart city citizenship, 2. benchmarking city-regions, and…

Professor Alan Felstead’s book on the changing location of work will be published on 21 January. Working at home has exploded across the world over the last two years as politicians have advised, and sometimes instructed, those who can, work at home to limit the spread of coronavirus. Remote Working: A Research Overview assesses what impact…

We are delighted to announce that the call for papers is now OPEN for the WISERD Annual Conference 2022. WISERD Annual Conference 2022 Swansea University   Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th July 2022 The theme for our Annual Conference is ‘Civil society and participation: issues of equality, identity and cohesion in a changing social landscape’….

The experience of thousands of people affected by dementia has fed into a new resource which aims to be a comprehensive guide to supporting people to live as well as possible with the condition. A wide range of advice, resources, and accounts of people’s own experiences are included in the Living with Dementia Toolkit, which…

Migration Research Wales Network is pleased to announce a one-day symposium (19th January 2022) for postgraduates and early-career researchers (self-defined) working on aspects of migration in Wales or based at Welsh institutions. The aim of the online symposium is to provide a supportive environment for researchers to share ideas on draft work and receive constructive comments. Each contributor will…

WISERD Director, Professor Sally Power features in latest BERA winter edition of Research Intelligence, discussing the unique environment for educational research in Wales.  

Dr Anwen Elias, WISERD co-director and expert on territorial and constitutional politics from Aberystwyth University, has been appointed Commissioner to the new Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales. Dr Elias, a Reader in Politics in the Department of International Politics, was among the nine appointed individuals announced by the Counsel General and Minister…

As part of the project Trust, Human Rights and Civil Society in WISERD’s civil society research programme, I’ve been analysing the human rights situation of children in Cambodia. This is an appropriate, yet hitherto neglected area of enquiry because it is almost three decades since the country ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights…

Professor John Morgan, together with Dr Ana Zimmermann of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, has published ‘No One is an Island at a Time of Pandemic’ in a special issue of Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice on the social and cultural impact of COVID-19. The article considers the fundamental ethical question of…

Dr Wil Chivers presented his WISERD research on job quality in low paid sectors at a seminar to the Wales Cooperative. His presentation, with Dr Sarah Jenkins from Cardiff Business School, asked: “Can cooperatives/employee-owned businesses improve ‘bad jobs’?” Job quality has received increased attention from academics and policymakers across industrialised countries. Yet, there has been…

Delegates join distinguished keynote speakers for special Census debate   A unique opportunity to discuss the Census will take place at the Annual Conference for the Wales Institute for Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD). Now in its fourth year, the WISERD Annual Conference is Wales’ largest social science conference; bringing practitioners, policy…