News and Blog

New research from the Clean Clothes Campaign and WISERD at Cardiff University reveals the urgent need for expansion of the International Accord in Pakistan, a legally binding safety agreement to protect workers. 2022 marks 10 years since the horrific Ali Enterprises fire that killed over 250 garment workers in Pakistan yet rights for workers in…

On 11 July 2022, Professor Alan Felstead gave evidence to the Equality and Social Justice Committee on legislation currently before the Senedd. The legislation puts social partnership at the heart of the Welsh government’s approach to how it, and public bodies it supports, promote the well-being of its citizens. This approach follows recommendations given by…

Today (25th May), the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) released its latest figures for trade union membership. The long-term downward trend in union membership in the UK is well known.  Based on union records, trade union membership within the UK peaked in 1979 at approximately 13.2 million. Since then, there has been…

Cardiff’s new sbarc|spark hub will bring together researchers to connect across social science research disciplines to create new ways of working. Professor Sally Power, WISERD, recently published a paper examining calls for an ‘evidence ecosystem’ to address the disconnect between university-led education research, and education policy and practice. Here, she shares thoughts on what the Social…

The Migration Research Wales Network held an online symposium on 19th January for postgraduates and early-career researchers working on aspects of migration in Wales or based at Welsh institutions. The theme of the symposium was ‘New Perspectives on Migration’. Presentations covered research areas ranging from Italians in Wales, refugee women and Welshness, and the challenges facing LGBTQ+…

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities in society. In doing so, it has reinforced the importance of the government’s ‘levelling up’ policy agenda. In terms of protected characteristics, attention focused most immediately on ethnicity given the differences in health risk posed by COVID-19 and was subsequently concerned with gender as a result of…

In this blog post Alan Felstead of Cardiff University discusses the publication of his new book Remote Working: A Research Overview.  The book provides an accessible overview of the history of remote working and the impact of the massive shifts in the location of work that have occurred because of the global pandemic. One of the…

Professor Alan Felstead’s book on the changing location of work will be published on 21 January. Working at home has exploded across the world over the last two years as politicians have advised, and sometimes instructed, those who can, work at home to limit the spread of coronavirus. Remote Working: A Research Overview assesses what impact…

We are delighted to announce that the call for papers is now OPEN for the WISERD Annual Conference 2022. WISERD Annual Conference 2022 Swansea University   Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th July 2022 The theme for our Annual Conference is ‘Civil society and participation: issues of equality, identity and cohesion in a changing social landscape’….

Dr Wil Chivers, recently appointed as a social science lecturer at Cardiff University, has presented findings from his WISERD research exploring the nature of work as a cycle courier in the gig/platform economy, at the Work, Employment and Society Conference 2021. The paper, On your bike: exploring the geography and leisure of work as a…