Newyddion

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…

Organ transplants: knowing more about where donors live could save lives

In 2017-18, a record number of people (1,575 in total) in the UK donated their organs after death, resulting in more than 5,000 life-saving or life-improving transplants. These figures, released by NHS Blood and Transplant, show numbers of deceased donors continue to rise in the UK. The 2017-18 figure was an 11% increase on the…

Trade Union responses to the changing world of work

WISERD researcher Dr Helen Blakely is working with UNI Global Union to identify trade unions’ responses to the changing world of work from around the world. This work is being presented at UNI Global Union’s World Congress in June 2018, the largest single global union gathering in the UK in 2018. Here they outline some…

TGI Friday’s staff go on strike for fair pay and fair tips

Continuing with research into current trade union activity, WISERD researcher Wil Chivers reports from a day spent in London last Friday, as TGI Friday’s staff go on strike for the first time in Covent Garden and Milton Keynes. Another week, another strike. There is definitely something growing here. Hot on the heels of the UK’s…

Ageing, intergenerational relations, and barriers to social participation

In ageing societies, promoting active ageing and intergenerational solidarity has been a key aim of policy at national as well as European level. Governments have promoted these policies as a response to concerns over the social exclusion of older people; critics have suggested that such policies merely serve to ease the economic and financial burden…