News and Blog

I have followed WISERD’s civil society project with great interest over the years. There is much for civil society organisations to learn from and to reflect upon in Wales as elsewhere. Yet in all of WISERD’s work there was a gap – and that was on think tanks. I was therefore delighted when WISERD asked…

Rhys Davies explores how he uncovered problems with official UK government figures on trade union presence and coverage – and how the government recognised and corrected the error.  In a time when trade union membership is decreasing in both the UK and the USA, The decline in union membership has been well documented for many…

This week we launched our five-year plan for civil society research at a stakeholder event at the Senedd. Our new research will explore social and economic inequality, migration and multiculturalism, the foundational economy, the changing dynamics of work, and animal rights and A.I. Celebrating Civil Society Research – A New Chapter was attended by over 70…

The Series entitled ‘Civil Society and Social Change’ is published by Policy Press and edited by Professors Ian Rees Jones,  Mike Woods  and Paul Chaney.  This timely landmark will extend the field of knowledge, offering new criticality and providing an original set of perspectives on the challenges facing civil society in the twenty-first century. It…

New research by WISERD Co-Director, Professor Paul Chaney, analyses civil society organisations’ (CSOs’)  perspectives on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Over the past decade, the majority of CIS countries have finally ratified the CRPD, offering new rights for the region’s…

Professor John Morgan’s 2019 book Philosophy, Dialogue, and Education: Nine modern European philosophers (with A. A. Guilherme), Routledge, London and New York, has been translated into Portuguese and published in Brazil by the UNESCO Chair of Youth, Education, and Society, the Catholic University of Brazilia, DF, 2020.

During November, WISERD hosted a joint conference with the Voluntary Sector Studies Research Network, entitled ‘Civil society in the four UK nations: past, present and future challenges’. The day included a diverse range of papers from academics and third sector organisations. The first session presented research findings on civil society and the state across time…

Professor John Morgan was invited to a symposium on ’Twenty Years of Putin: How has Russia changed’ held at the Russian and East European Centre at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, on 7th December 2019. The invitation symposium brought together Russian and other international experts on contemporary Russia from academia, diplomacy, and international business….

Professor John Morgan, Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow, gave two seminars in Moscow during October. Professor Morgan, who was on a research visit to the Russian State Library as part of his Leverhulme project on UNESCO and other UN Specialized Agencies and the Cultural Cold War, spoke first at the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences….

Efforts to promote minority languages among children and young people would benefit from improving the way projects are evaluated, and from adequate funding. These are among the key findings of research into minority language promotion activities in the Celtic nations. Academics at Aberystwyth and Edinburgh Universities conducted research into the activities of organisations in Scotland,…