News and Blog

British farmers are protesting against proposals in the recent budget to change inheritance tax relief on farms. They claim the change will force many farm families to sell land in order to pay tax bills. While that is debatable, this is only the latest grievance for farmers who have had to face rising costs, volatile…

Trade unions across the globe face a range of disruptions that are destabilising traditional structures, practices and strategies. A new book, Experimenting for Union Renewal, which includes a chapter by WISERD researchers on the international garment sector, sets out a novel approach centred on experimentation in response to these disruptions. Drawing on in-depth analysis of…

At the recent WISERD Annual Conference, I gave a seminar with partners from civil society on school exclusion in Wales. The seminar explored the role of civil society in school exclusion and how families experience it. Below, I have included a summary of each presentation and a key takeaway for improving policy or practice. Excluded…

Professors Paul Chaney (Cardiff University) and Sarbeswar Sahoo (IIT Delhi) (pictured), in association with Dr Reenu Punnoose (IIT Palakkad) and Dr Haneefa Muhammed have been conducting fieldwork examining civil society perspectives on the contemporary citizenship rights of indigenous people in south India. This is part of research funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences. By…

Over the summer holidays, we were delighted to host two Cardiff University undergraduate students as part of our WISERD hub team. As administrative assistants, Genevieve Gunn and Afon Hoare helped us to deliver our WISERD Annual Conference 2024. We asked the students to write about their experience… Genevieve Gunn “As a final year International Relations…

A new study by Professor Paul Chaney examines civil society perspectives on the contemporary human rights situation of indigenous people in Bolivia. It is part of research funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences undertaken in partnership with Professor Sarbeswar Sahoo (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi) and Dr Reenu Punnoose (Indian Institute of Technology, Palakkad)….

Drawing on their written evidence submissions Professors Melanie Jones and Victoria Wass gave oral evidence to the Equality and Social Justice Committee on the barriers to employment for disabled people. During the discussion they highlighted the recommendations in the Disability Employment Charter, called for monitoring and analysis of broader measures of disability inequality in the…

The 7th Foundational Economy Conference, entitled ‘Making things work: social innovation for liveability’ was held at sbarcIspark on the 10th and 11th of September 2024. It brought together researchers and practitioners in themed sessions that explored foundational issues and interventions from Wales, the rest of the UK and all across Europe. Our challenge is making…

The UK’s new government has promised to take action to prevent homes ‘turning into 24/7 offices’.  The risk of ‘always on’ working has grown since the pandemic with the boundaries of home and work blurred for many more working people. Around a quarter of workers, for example, now report working some of the time at…

In June, Welsh Higher Education Brussels (WHEB) hosted a group of early and mid-career researchers from WISERD, as part of their work in supporting researcher networking for future funding bids to Horizon Europe and other funding programmes. The group, from Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Cardiff University and Swansea University, had meetings with key European organisations,…