News and Blog

WISERD surveyed young people in Years 7-12 about their home learning experiences during summer 2020, what they missed and whether they should be allowed to see friends. In addition to asking about resources for schoolwork, time spent learning and going to school during lockdown, we asked young people about their worries, how they had been helping…

As the pandemic unfolded in 2020, people around the world found themselves confined to their homes. In some neighbourhoods, social support flourished as people reached out to those who perhaps were not their most dearest but happened to be the nearest. Whilst this was brought on by unusual circumstances, this reflects patterns of neighbourly solidarity…

Social Sciences Prof Chris Taylor, from Cardiff University, said this gap was continuing to widen. “Closing schools exposes and accentuates the deep disadvantage that many families have across Wales in the different circumstances that they’re in,” Prof Taylor said. BBC article

This week, WISERD, the Institute of Welsh Affairs and the Carnegie UK Trust have launched an update to Understanding Welsh Places. Understanding Welsh Places is a bilingual website that presents information on the economy, demographic make-up and local services of more than 300 places in Wales in a quick and easy format. The site presents…

New research by WISERD Co-Director Professor Paul Chaney analyses civil society organisations’ perspectives on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) that was ratified by India in 2008. This is a benchmark study; the first to systematically examine the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights…

On 5 November 2020, we launched our new Civil Society book series with Policy Press. This new series provides interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives on the rapidly changing nature of civil society at local, regional, national and global scales.   The first four books draw on research findings from our previous ESRC Civil Society Research Centre….

In September 2020, WISERD held the Foundational Economy Online Series 2020. This series of online events addressed key questions arising from the current COVID-19 crisis and explored the ways in which foundational thinking can contribute to social and economic repair. The series was made up of three online sessions:   Foundational Economy 2.0: building a…

One of our key priorities at WISERD this year has been to understand the impact of COVID-19 on children and young people in Wales. This is especially important as infection rates continue to rise as we head into winter. In addition to our recent seminar and blogs on home learning during a pandemic, here we…

  Research by WISERD Co-Director, Professor Paul Chaney, Dr Christala Sophocleous, and Professor Daniel Wincott, provides new insights into the issues facing third sector community-based adult care services in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales and Northern Ireland. The findings come from two ESRC-funded studies that are part of WISERD’S civil society research programme. The first…

Research by WISERD Professors Paul Chaney, Ian Rees Jones and Ralph Fevre analyses over 1,300 pledges on animal welfare in party manifestos for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections from 1998 to 2017. It reveals the nature of political parties’ competition over the issue, as well as a significant increase in attention to this topic…