News and Blog

The fact that younger generations are less likely to be interested in politics, and that this is related to the generational decline of turnout in the UK, is often treated as something of a slur; a claim that is not only unfair to young people but lets politicians off the hook. Instead, centre stage is…

  In July, eight young volunteers engaged in participatory action research training de-livered via a collaboration between Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team Wales (EYST Wales) and WISERD. EYST Wales, an award-winning charity, was set up in 2005 by a group of ethnic minority young people in Swansea, with the aim of providing a targeted,…

In a previous post we saw how the turnout of younger voters has fallen substantially over the past fifty years, and that the turnout gap between young people and the wider electorate has trebled since 18 year olds were first allowed to vote. There is an extensive – and sometimes heated – debate amongst academics,…

Earlier this month Cardiff University announced they are conferring an honorary title upon Gwyther Rees. Gwyther is an internationally renowned expert on children’s subjective wellbeing, he has been researching children’s wellbeing in the UK and internationally for nearly thirty years. Gwyther has considerable experience of working in the third sector with various organisations such as…

Constitutionally a secular state, India is a diverse country with marked religious divides. Recent years have seen growing international and domestic concerns over multiple forms of discrimination affecting persons belonging to religious and linguistic minorities, and a growing trend of violence against members of religious minorities. There are similar worries over discrimination and oppression faced…

Our previous blog showed the challenge facing British democracy stemming from the sharp age-based differences in electoral turnout: while younger people have always been less likely to vote, since 1970 the difference between them and their elders has trebled. Since 2001, it has been fair to say that the average British young person does not…

When I first got the email confirming my place on the prestigious Welsh Crucible programme for developing ‘future research leaders of Wales’ my initial thought was; “great that will look good on my CV”. However, over the following six days of Crucible Labs held across Wales, I came to realise that the programme is much…

In the 1970 General Election (the first following the reduction of the voting age to 18), 65% of eligible 18-24 year olds voted – roughly 7% lower than the turnout for the whole electorate.  By the 2017 election (despite claims of a so-called ‘youthquake’), this difference had trebled: fewer than half of eligible 18-24 year…

For the past six years WISERD Education has been following the lives of children and young people in Wales. This has involved an annual survey of over 1,000 young people each year, following them all from the beginning of secondary school in Year 7 to when they leave school (from Years 11 to 13). The…

Earlier this month WISERD colleagues from Cardiff and Bangor attended the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) Conference in Amsterdam. This bi-annual gathering of academics and practitioners from over 80 countries across the world, aims to promote the study of civil society and the non-profit sector. Hosted by Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, the conference saw…