Newyddion

Female Foeticide and Bride Trafficking in India: New Perspectives from Civil Society

  Constitutionally a secular state, India is a diverse country with marked religious divides. Recent years have seen growing international and domestic concerns over multiple forms of discrimination affecting persons belonging to religious and linguistic minorities, and a growing trend of violence against members of religious minorities. There are similar worries over discrimination and oppression…

Inequalities in Youth Turnout: it’s not only age that matters

Our previous blog showed the challenge facing British democracy stemming from the sharp age-based differences in electoral turnout: while younger people have always been less likely to vote, since 1970 the difference between them and their elders has trebled. Since 2001, it has been fair to say that the average British young person does not…

Six days of induction into life as a Welsh Cruciblee

When I first got the email confirming my place on the prestigious Welsh Crucible programme for developing ‘future research leaders of Wales’ my initial thought was; “great that will look good on my CV”. However, over the following six days of Crucible Labs held across Wales, I came to realise that the programme is much…

Social Action as a Route to the Ballot Box: Can Volunteering Help Reverse Declining Youth Turnout?

In the 1970 General Election (the first following the reduction of the voting age to 18), 65% of eligible 18-24 year olds voted – roughly 7% lower than the turnout for the whole electorate.  By the 2017 election (despite claims of a so-called ‘youthquake’), this difference had trebled: fewer than half of eligible 18-24 year…

Trams, canals and international perspectives on third sector research

Earlier this month WISERD colleagues from Cardiff and Bangor attended the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) Conference in Amsterdam. This bi-annual gathering of academics and practitioners from over 80 countries across the world, aims to promote the study of civil society and the non-profit sector. Hosted by Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, the conference saw…

Gender pay gaps in the UK: statutory reporting and wage transparency at the BBC

The gender pay gap has narrowed since it was first measured in the UK in the early 1970s, however since 2010 this trend has stalled and the gap currently remains at about 25%. With the recent implementation of new legislation requiring UK companies with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gaps this…

Sheffield Needs a Payrise

The Sheffield Needs A Payrise (SNAP) research project follows the campaign of the same name and builds on the WISERD Spaces of New Localism Civil Society research project. It looks primarily into forms of grassroots, civil society and trade union working together to address issues of low pay and precariousness in work in Sheffield. SNAP…

Pioneers voice their hopes and fears for the new Curriculum for Wales

Wales is in the process of developing a curriculum that is designed to transform the nature of teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools. The ‘Curriculum for wales’ – sometimes referred to simply as ‘Donaldson’ after the person who developed the proposals – is based on ‘ a brand new way of developing a…

WISERD in Paris: Bringing lessons to bear from the UK’s experience for the French constitutional reform

Last Thursday I was invited to the French Senate, the second chamber, to contribute my thoughts on introducing territorial diversity into the French constitution, with a focus on drawing lessons from comparable European experiences.  The specific brief was to discuss how the UK government had managed to introduce Devolution almost two years ago. As with…