News and Blog

On 15 April, colleagues from WISERD and the Cardiff Business School came together in sbarc | spark, to launch an exciting new publication for scholars and students of sociology, political science, employment studies, and business and management. The Handbook on the Sociology of Work presents an overview of current research and thinking within the sociology…

New research from the ADR Wales team based within WISERD, at Cardiff University, has uncovered important insights into how pupils in Wales make post-16 subject choices, and what drives their academic success.  Drawing on data from more than 8,000 sixth form pupils, the research examined links between GCSE attainment and AS-level (first year of A-level) subject choices and outcomes. The findings reveal that…

Groundbreaking research pioneered in Wales is transforming how childcare provision is understood and delivered across England, as new evidence shows the UK’s most detailed analysis of ‘childcare deserts’ and ‘childcare oases’ is built on methods developed by Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) academics. The researchers at WISERD – a collaboration…

Horse Race Politics is a free, gamified website that allows users to predict various political outcomes, notably that of the 2026 Welsh Senedd election. It is the third iteration of a platform I built for my MSc and PhD research. This time, it has been designed and built in collaboration with our partners, Focus Games,…

In South Wales, the Community Impact Initiative (The Cii) is transforming lives through hands-on construction projects. By renovating vacant homes with the help of local participants, The Cii creates opportunities for personal growth, skill-building, and community regeneration. As part of WISERD’s Building Social Value and Fair Work in Construction project, The Cii stands out as…

Randomised control trials (RCTs) are often described as the ‘gold standard’ for testing whether new treatments or interventions work. In this blog, Dr Ian Thomas who leads the ADR Wales Housing and Homelessness thematic area, looks at the use of linked administrative data as part of RCTs. Drawing on a pilot trial of an intervention for…

ADR Wales has published the first in a series of Data Insights providing new evidence on Welsh language ability, how it is transmitted across generations and how it influences education and early career outcomes. Carried out by the ADR Wales Skills and Employability team using census and linked administrative data, the research seeks to inform key policy…

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Kate Moles, Cardiff University and Safia Bailey, Cardiff University More than 7.5 million people immerse themselves in lakes, rivers, seas and lidos every year in the UK. But getting in the water means getting in pollution too for most…

Concerns about living in a “post-truth” society – where evidence struggles to compete with misinformation, ideology and emotion – are now familiar. From vaccine hesitancy to climate change denial, public debates increasingly hinge not on a lack of information, but on how people judge evidence, expertise and uncertainty. These concerns are often framed as a problem…

We are delighted to announce that the Call for Papers is now OPEN for the WISERD Annual Conference 2026 at Cardiff University – Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 July.   In Pursuit of Sustainable Futures It has been over a decade since the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 came into force. Widely regarded…