News and Blog

Local authorities in Wales have had to make difficult decisions to close or rationalise a wide range of services in response to changes in the incidence of COVID-19. This has had major impacts for those sectors of the community most dependent on various forms of service provision.  Where there have been partial closures involving changes…

New research by WISERD Co-Director, Professor Paul Chaney, analyses civil society organisations’ perspectives on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in nine former Soviet republics, latterly renamed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Namely, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Over the past…

On an Wales Online interview, Dr Catherine Foster said life had “changed dramatically” for many young people who suffered from effects such as loneliness and loss of routine. She said: “Although some children have been able to continue going to school at least part of the time, most have lost the organization and structure that…

Dr Sioned Pearce highlights the impact of COVID-19 on youth unemployment. In an interview with BBC Wales, she said the pandemic had “exacerbated issues of uncertainty” for young people with zero hour contracts, part-time work and low-paid jobs.  

Over the past decade successive rounds of bank closures and increasing trends towards the provision of fee charging ATMs have attracted widespread media and political attention. WISERD researcher, Mitchel Langford, an Associate Professor at University of South Wales has published a report on access to banking services as a result of his recent Academic Fellowship…

Cardiff is working to become recognised as a Child Friendly City. This blog looks at how the initiative has been implemented in Finland and how that experience could inform Cardiff city council’s work in this area. The UNICEF initiative was launched in 1996 with the overarching goal to ensure the rights of the child are taken…

As the pandemic unfolded in 2020, people around the world found themselves confined to their homes. In some neighbourhoods, social support flourished as people reached out to those who perhaps were not their most dearest but happened to be the nearest. Whilst this was brought on by unusual circumstances, this reflects patterns of neighbourly solidarity…

Social Sciences Prof Chris Taylor, from Cardiff University, said this gap was continuing to widen. “Closing schools exposes and accentuates the deep disadvantage that many families have across Wales in the different circumstances that they’re in,” Prof Taylor said. BBC article

New research by WISERD Co-Director Professor Paul Chaney analyses civil society organisations’ perspectives on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) that was ratified by India in 2008. This is a benchmark study; the first to systematically examine the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights…

On 5 November 2020, we launched our new Civil Society book series with Policy Press. This new series provides interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives on the rapidly changing nature of civil society at local, regional, national and global scales.   The first four books draw on research findings from our previous ESRC Civil Society Research Centre….