News and Blog

A blog co-written by WISERD’s Dr Sioned Pearce for the National Assembly for Wales Research Service

‘Have you done any research on how to recruit volunteers?’; ‘Can I use the WISERD DataPortal to map my members?’. These were just some of the questions we were asked when WISERD returned to this year’s gofod3, the WCVA’s annual gathering of the third sector. We had a stand in the exhibition hall, along with 60 other organisations…

To mark International Women’s Day, we want to create a space for the voices of young, ethnic minority women in the current Brexit process. With EU-UK exit negotiations well underway, this study is an extension of both WISERD’s ‘Young People and Brexit’ study and Welsh Crucible-funded ‘Migration, Moral Panic and Meaning’, exploring representations of EU migrants…

Our latest annual report details what we’ve achieved as an institute throughout 2017

A new WISERD international partnership project examining civil society in India and Bangladesh has been announced. The project, entitled “Exploring effective practice in civil society organisations’ promotion of human rights, good governance and social justice in India and Bangladesh” is led by Professor Paul Chaney (Cardiff University) and Sahoo Sarbeswar (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi). Funded by the…

An enquiry into rough sleeping by the National Assembly’s Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee this morning heard evidence from Dr Peter Mackie, Chair of WISERD’s Housing Research Network. Dr Mackie told the Committee that recent changes in Welsh housing laws with the Housing Act 2014, while effective on a wider basis, haven’t worked as…

13% of shops on Welsh high streets were vacant in 2017

In 2014 we embarked on a comparative study of two villages in North East Wales. Our research focused on how people come together in local areas – in clubs, societies and groups – and observed how such association is changing. We spent two years interviewing local people, listening to their life histories and experiences, observing…

According to available estimates, residents living in more rural areas of Wales generally need to travel farthest to access a number of key services. Take access to GP surgeries, for instance. A two-way journey by car to a local GP surgery is considered to take, on average, between 10-14 minutes for those living in smaller…

WISERD’s Dr Scott Orford from Cardiff University was featured in two parts of a three part series on BBC Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ programme, exploring why rates of empty shops are higher in Wales than they are in other parts of the UK.   Image credit: Gwydion M. Williams (CC BY 2.0)