Newyddion

This year WISERD celebrates a decade of influencing policy and debate. To mark this important anniversary, a variety of external stakeholders were invited to join WISERD colleagues, old and new, for WISERD at 10, at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay. The event marked the launch of Changing Wales: WISERD at 10, a new publication showcasing…

I sit down with a heavy heart and with great sadness to write of the death of my friend Gareth Williams. I first encountered Gareth when I was cutting my teeth in medical sociology; now a distant memory and long before he was aware of me. Each year a diverse and ragtag band of medical sociologists would…

Earlier this month Cardiff University announced they are conferring an honorary title upon Gwyther Rees. Gwyther is an internationally renowned expert on children’s subjective wellbeing, he has been researching children’s wellbeing in the UK and internationally for nearly thirty years. Gwyther has considerable experience of working in the third sector with various organisations such as…

Work from WISERD’s Civil Society Research Programme features prominently at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) Annual Conference in London, taking place today and tomorrow September 6-7. The WISERD stand (pictured) is doing brisk business with high levels of interest from conference-goers.     WISERD researchers will be presenting a raft of papers. For…

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…

WISERD will have a strong presence at the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) Conference (10-13 July) hosted by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Philanthropic Studies Department. Founded in 1992, the ISTR is the major international association promoting research and education in the fields of civil society, philanthropy, and the non-profit sector. It is committed to building…

WISERD Director Ian Rees Jones pays tribute to Julian Tudor Hart who passed away on 1st July.  It is a great sadness to hear the news of the death of Julian Tudor Hart.  Born in 1927, he studied medicine at Cambridge University and in London, graduating in 1952. Julian worked for 30 years as a…

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…

Rhys Davies reveals how official figures have under-estimated the presence of trade unions within UK workplaces over many years. This morning, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published its latest estimates for trade union membership in the UK based upon data from the Labour Force Survey.  Today’s figures reveal that 6.2 million…

Most of us are used to seeing crazy bargains when we go into the local supermarket, with items such as baked beans, bananas or milk being sold at a price that seems far below what they must cost to grow/make and sell. It’s a well-tried method – “loss leaders” are used to draw us into…