News and Blog

  The first lab of the 2019 Crucible took place at Bailbrook House in Bath on the 6th and 7th February. On day one – inspired by Simon Sinek’s ‘Start With Why’ – we were encouraged to start by thinking about why we do the research we do and following on from that, why digital…

A long-standing challenge for charities, policy-makers, think tanks and academics interested in volunteering in the UK has been identifying how and why rates of volunteering might vary across the four countries within it. This matters not only for those interested in how the distinct histories, communities and cultures of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland…

On 23rd June 2016, UK voters delivered one of the greatest shocks to British politics by voting 52% to 48% in favour of Brexit. The closeness of the result masked the depth of difference between the moral, political and social values held by those on each side. These differences continue to be a source of…

Earlier this month we saw an interesting development in the study of young people’s engagement with politics in the form of Professor Will Jennings and Professor Patrick Sturgis’ excellent analysis of Understanding Society data, which led them to argue that there was, in fact, a youthquake in the 2017 general election. As soon as the…

Wales faces an imminent funding hole. After Brexit, we will lose access to the net benefit we gain from EU funds. These include the so-called ‘structural funds’, which support regional development and social initiatives. For 2012-20 alone, Wales has been allocated some £2 billion worth of structural funding. That’s a lot of money to miss…

Friendships made in school play a special part in young people’s development. They are more than just moral support, friends help them learn key social skills, and serve as a source of social support. Close school friends also help young people develop a sense of importance, trust, acceptance and belonging within their school. Young people…

‘Wales still worst in UK in world education tests’. This is how BBC Wales announced the most recent results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study in 2016. But, the headline could also have been ‘Wales tops the table of rich countries in world education tests’. It all depends on the choice of…

When researchers look at the people who are more likely to vote in elections, or to volunteer in their community, they regularly find themselves describing the same group: those who are highly educated, come from middle class backgrounds and households, who believe that interacting with their community is what a ‘good citizen’ does, and who…

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,…