News and Blog

New research by WISERD co-director, Professor Paul Chaney examines state and civil society organisation (CSO) perspectives on the contemporary situation of human rights defenders (HRDs) in South Asia using data submissions to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the United Nations five-yearly monitoring process. “Human rights defender” refers to anyone acting to: address any human right on…

A new, open access journal article on measuring accessibility to banking services by Dr Mitchel Langford, Andrew Price and Professor Gary Higgs from the University of South Wales, has been published in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. The article demonstrates how accessibility can be measured to bank branches by different times of day and…

Cardiff University researcher, Dr Nick Hacking, along with members of the Barry Citizen Science Group, recently oversaw the installation of a high-quality air pollution monitor from Think Air Ltd, which marked a new stage in the group’s investigations of local air quality. This ongoing investigation by the local community group is the focus of a…

  The Excluded Lives project aims to understand the contextual and institutional processes that lead to different types of formal and informal school exclusion and the consequences for excluded young people, their families, schools, and other professionals across the UK. Jemma Bridgeman from the Excluded Lives team at Cardiff University teamed up with Monika Conti…

On 4 July It was reported on the Welsh news website Nation-Cymru, that Anas Sarwar, the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, and a member of the Scottish Parliament, has called for a new Senate of the Nations and Regions to replace the House of Lords. Speaking to the Fabian Society at Westminster, Anas…

The Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit together highlighted many of the challenges facing rural Wales, from poor accessibility to services and youth out-migration to the over-concentration of tourism and reliance on European export markets. At the same time, as Wales navigates the post-pandemic recovery and designs post-Brexit policies and programmes, there are opportunities to approach problems…

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…

I joined a team of researchers from Bangor University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Public Health Wales and the University of Kentucky to investigate attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccines in coal mining communities in Wales and the US. Our findings are published in a new report for the British Academy, Covid and the coalfield: Vaccine hesitance in Wales…

The persistence of inequalities between regions despite over three decades of interventions under the EU Cohesion Policy is a wicked problem for Europe and there is growing appetite to rethink approaches. Over the last six years, WISERD at Aberystwyth University has been leading a major project, IMAJINE (Integrative mechanisms for addressing spatial justice and territorial…

Researchers associated with WISERD working at the Administrative Data Research Centre Wales have been looking at coronavirus infection rates among people experiencing homelessness in Wales. Their research was in response to concerns from the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic of possible high rates of infection, hospitalisation, and death amongst homeless populations. Experiencing homelessness potentially means…