Newyddion

Transparency – a commitment to greater accountability or an overpriced pint?

The seemingly unending decline of trust in politicians and the political process has been a recurring story within the media in recent years. In January, the annual Edelman Trust Barometer reported a “global implosion of trust”, with levels of trust in government falling across half of the countries surveyed, from South Africa to Spain. Politicians…

WISERD Education Director comments on school categorisations

Professor Sally Power, Director of WISERD Education, warned against using the new Welsh Government school colour categorisations as a results league table. Prof Power told the Western Mail that “categorisation is more useful for schools and local authorities, and is not a very useful indication for parents to select a school.” As well as appearing in the Western…

The ‘youthquake’ myth & Britain’s Millennials

Dr Stuart Fox suggests there was no real increase in youth turnout at last year’s election After the polls closed in the 2017 general election, the ‘youthquake’ quickly became one of the hottest talking points amongst academics, politicians and journalists alike. Driven on by photographs on social media of young people queuing outside polling stations,…

The perils and pitfalls of feeding back on local field studies

In 2014 we embarked on a comparative study of two villages in North East Wales. Our research focused on how people come together in local areas – in clubs, societies and groups – and observed how such association is changing. We spent two years interviewing local people, listening to their life histories and experiences, observing…

Should levels of access to essential services be measured by travel time alone?

According to available estimates, residents living in more rural areas of Wales generally need to travel farthest to access a number of key services. Take access to GP surgeries, for instance. A two-way journey by car to a local GP surgery is considered to take, on average, between 10-14 minutes for those living in smaller…

Piloting Academic Fellowships with the National Assembly for Wales

Dr Alexandra Plows shares her experience of a Knowledge Exchange Fellowship pilot scheme to enable Welsh Assembly Members to develop policy and practice: Between March and June 2017, Dr Alexandra Plows was engaged on a Knowledge Exchange (KE) Fellowship pilot scheme with the National Assembly for Wales (NAfW) – sharing expertise to enable Assembly Members to…

Dr Scott Orford talks empty shops in Wales on Radio 4

WISERD’s Dr Scott Orford from Cardiff University was featured in two parts of a three part series on BBC Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ programme, exploring why rates of empty shops are higher in Wales than they are in other parts of the UK.   Image credit: Gwydion M. Williams (CC BY 2.0)