News and Blog

Over the past few years, support for Welsh independence has grown in ways not seen before. A recent poll commissioned by YesCymru, a pro-independence campaign group, found that 41% of people who’ve made up their minds on the issue would now vote in favour of independence. The striking finding is that the number jumps to…

On 4th March, WISERD researchers Jemma Bridgeman and Chris Taylor led a webinar for practitioners on the Excluded Lives project, for Cardiff Council. The Excluded Lives project examined school exclusion across the UK and uncovered informal practices, systemic challenges, and school staff trying to support pupils with complex needs. The data showed a picture of…

Half of people working at home are doing so in the kitchen, on a dining table or in the corner of a room used for other purposes. This is one of the results from the Skills and Employment Survey 2024, the longest-running and most detailed academic study exploring UK workers’ experiences. Bringing together academics from Cardiff…

On Monday 10 March, Professor Alan Felstead – Emeritus Professor and former WISERD co-director – gave oral evidence to the Home-Based Working Committee in the House of Lords. His evidence was broadcast live on parliamentlive.tv. The House of Lords Select Committee on Home-Based Working was appointed on 30 January 2025 and is chaired by Baroness…

We are pleased to announce that cultural sociologist, Professor Michèle Lamont, of Harvard University will be visiting WISERD from 24 – 26 of March, as part of her Leverhulme Visiting Professorship. The programme of events will comprise an evening talk and workshop at Cardiff University, before Professor Lamont travels to Bangor University, where there will…

Dr Anwen Elias, WISERD co-director based at the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society at Aberystwyth University, is lead author of the latest report by the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA): Fostering Democratic Innovations in Wales: Lessons From Around the World. Dr Elias will be in conversation with IWA co-director, Joe Rossiter, on Tuesday 4…

This year’s WISERD Annual Conference will take place at Aberystwyth University on Monday 30 June and Tuesday 1 July 2025. The theme of the conference is ‘Participation and partnership in a time of precarity and polarisation’. The theme for the WISERD Annual Conference 2025 talks to widespread concerns regarding the form and function of civil…

As someone who has a chronic illness and is immune supressed, I was shielding for long periods during the pandemic. In this prolonged isolation, I felt affinity with some older and disabled people, who historically have been theorised and identified separately. I argue that the COVID-19 pandemic brought together these two groups through some similar…

A new Data Insight from the ADR Wales Housing and Homelessness research theme presents findings from research into the underlying causes of death among people experiencing homelessness in Wales. Currently, the main source of information on this topic in Wales comes from annual estimates produced by the Office for National Statistics. The purpose of the analysis in this Data…

A new paper in Electoral Studies by Ralph Scott at the University of Bristol and Melanie Jones at Cardiff University investigates the influence of disability on party political preferences. While there is an emerging evidence base on the effect of disability on voter turnout (including a recent paper authored by Melanie and Samuel Brown), the…