News and Blog

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…

Today sees the launch at Bangor University of the ESRC Civil Society centre: Changing Perspectives on Civic Stratification and Civil Repair. At the launch, Bangor University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Professor Paul Spencer and WISERD Director Professor Sally Power, Cardiff University, will talk about WISERD, its role in Wales and the ways in which researchers…

New research by WISERD Co-Director, Professor Paul Chaney analyses political parties’ policy record on refugees and asylum seekers in party manifestos for post-war Westminster, and post-1998 Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections. A refugee is someone who is outside her or his country of nationality due to a well-founded fear of persecution and who is…

A WISERD Research Team comprised of Professor Paul Chaney, Dr Christala Sophocleous and Professor Daniel Wincott has worked with Wales Council for Voluntary Organisations (WCVA) and The National Library of Wales to create a historically significant digital archive of the Annual Reports of WCVA and its predecessor organisations. We are delighted to make this resource…

Civil society forms an important element in the Enlightenment trinity of market-state-civil society and has been well studied, with authors attempting to trace its genealogy in political, economic, and social theory. But this approach did not match the concerns of those within the WISERD Civil Society ESRC research centre. Instead, I interpreted civil society as…