News and Blog

WISERD co-director appointed to Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales

Dr Anwen Elias, WISERD co-director and expert on territorial and constitutional politics from Aberystwyth University, has been appointed Commissioner to the new Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales. Dr Elias, a Reader in Politics in the Department of International Politics, was among the nine appointed individuals announced by the Counsel General and Minister…

On your bike: exploring the geography and leisure of work as a cycle courier

Dr Wil Chivers, recently appointed as a social science lecturer at Cardiff University, has presented findings from his WISERD research exploring the nature of work as a cycle courier in the gig/platform economy, at the Work, Employment and Society Conference 2021. The paper, On your bike: exploring the geography and leisure of work as a…

New research reveals civil society perspectives on widespread children’s rights violations in Cambodia

As part of the project Trust, Human Rights and Civil Society in WISERD’s civil society research programme, I’ve been analysing the human rights situation of children in Cambodia. This is an appropriate, yet hitherto neglected area of enquiry because it is almost three decades since the country ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights…

New research exploring global civil society views on the Rohingya crisis

I’ve been analysing civil society organisations’ (CSOs’) perspectives on the crisis facing an estimated one million Rohingya people, members of a Muslim minority group (a variation of the Sunni religion), that have fled persecution in the western state of Rakhine, Myanmar. This work is part of the project Trust, Human Rights and Civil Society in…

More opportunities but same standard of living: young people’s perceptions of generational differences

The news often paints a rather grim future for Gen Z, the generation born between the late 1990s and early 2010s. There is low perceived job security, housing costs continue to rise relative to wages, and the 2012 tuition fee increase means that many now graduate with more debt than previous generations. The ongoing impacts…

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2021

  WISERD researchers are hosting three ESRC Festival of Social Science events, covering youth unemployment and civil society under devolution, local community food systems and a citizen science project exploring air quality monitoring. Youth unemployment and civil society under devolution: a sub-state comparison 11th November 2021 This online event hosted by Dr Giada Lagana, based…

Gender, age, economic position and education affect attitudes to climate change

In my previous blog post, I discussed regional variations in attitudes towards climate change, with people living in Wales appearing more sceptical in comparison to those in other parts of Britain. However, attitudes to climate change also differ according to people’s characteristics such as gender, age and educational level, and these will affect regional differences…

No One is an Island at a Time of Pandemic

Professor John Morgan, together with Dr Ana Zimmermann of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, has published ‘No One is an Island at a Time of Pandemic’ in a special issue of Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice on the social and cultural impact of COVID-19. The article considers the fundamental ethical question of…

Understanding Welsh Places: Filling the evidence gap for places in Wales

A shortage of robust, nationally consistent evidence at a town level has been a longstanding problem in the UK. Without evidence it is difficult for town stakeholders, such as planners, town councils, third sector organisations and community groups, to determine local needs, evaluate the effectiveness of town management strategies and to learn from past success….