News and Blog

  In 1979 at a time of great social and political change I was living in Durham. I was closely involved with the coal miners and the NUM, and also with a group called “Strong Words” that we had set up to record and publish the words and images of working-class people in the North…

As part of the WISERD study ‘New arenas for civic expansion: humans, animals, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)’ we presented new research at a WHEB event in Brussels last month, that reveals the views and concerns of civil society organisations (CSOs) in relation to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the EU. The European Commission is legislating to…

In Anarchical Fallacies (1796), the English utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham said that the concept of natural rights was nonsense and that to claim rights not prescribed in the laws of the state was ‘nonsense on stilts.’ He argued that to confuse wishing that we possessed a right with the existence of the right itself was…

In October, as part of WISERD’s civil society and animal welfare research, a workshop was held in New Delhi. Academics present included co-investigators Professors Paul Chaney and Sarbeswar Sahoo, along with Research Associates Dr Pooja Sharma and Dr Debashree Saikia (pictured). Our work involves comparative analysis of developments in Wales, Scotland, England and India. We…

Pictured above: Dr Rose Butler and Dr Victoria Stead, Deakin University, Australia with Professor Michael Woods, Aberystwyth University. Dr Rose Butler and Dr Victoria Stead kindly contributed to the WISERD blog following their visit to Wales from 1–8th October, 2023. We were thrilled to spend a week as guests of the Wales Institute for Social…

Masculinity is complex, diverse and can be expressed in multiple ways. yanik88/Shutterstock Richard Gater, Cardiff University There seem to be as many interpretations of what “toxic masculinity” means as there are uses of the term. Some believe it’s a way to criticise what they see as specific negative behaviour and attitudes often associated with men….

Welsh language and identity 2022’s WISERD Multi-Cohort Study of secondary school children across Wales provides valuable insight into the attitudes of pupils towards the Welsh language. As we might expect, results vary according to school medium as to whether pupils consider the Welsh language to be a part of their Welsh identity. Pupils in English-medium…

One of my first experiences with activism was within a school setting, when I was involved in the presenting of a petition against the dress code in 2019. It was circulated through social media as a Google Docs link and then forwarded to the headteacher. Unknown to me, this had become an increasingly frequent occurrence…

I am a WISERD education research associate based at Cardiff University in sbarc|spark, the world’s first social science research park. One of the aims of sbarc|spark is to encourage collaboration and creative thinking, but I never expected to join the Cardiff Christmas Dinner Crew and help plan a Christmas dinner for care experienced young people….

Disability is associated with significant labour market disadvantage internationally but despite arguments that trade unions act as a ‘sword of justice’ and protect the most disadvantaged employees, there has been relatively limited exploration of the relationship between trade unions and disability-related labour inequality. Our latest analysis provides new evidence for the UK with important insights…