News and Blog

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,…

In October 2019 WISERD co-hosted a collaborative workshop with the Sustainable Places Research Institute and the Wales Governance Centre to discuss the environmental and social justice considerations of food systems in Wales. The event brought together a range of experts – including policy makers, civil society activists and other stakeholders to assess the major challenges…

  Over the past three years, WISERD has been part of a successful international Newton Advanced Fellowship scheme with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and funded by the British Academy. This has been led by Professor Sin Yi Cheung (School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University), Dr Xiao Lin (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing), Professor Paul…

In September, we returned from a research exchange trip to Canada. The aim of the visit was to locate recent Civil Society project findings in an international context and develop greater insights through comparative reflection going forward. Canada, as a Federal state, develops and delivers much of its social policy at a Provincial level. This sub-state…

Following nearly a decade of austerity, local authorities face funding challenges that are having major impacts on the ways public services are delivered. Financial pressures, combined with increasing demand and expectations from the public for accessible and timely services, are having a detrimental effect on those social groups most reliant on essential facilities. In our…