News and Blog

The persistence of inequalities between regions despite over three decades of interventions under the EU Cohesion Policy is a wicked problem for Europe and there is growing appetite to rethink approaches. Over the last six years, WISERD at Aberystwyth University has been leading a major project, IMAJINE (Integrative mechanisms for addressing spatial justice and territorial…

Today (25th May), the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) released its latest figures for trade union membership. The long-term downward trend in union membership in the UK is well known.  Based on union records, trade union membership within the UK peaked in 1979 at approximately 13.2 million. Since then, there has been…

Public transport was severely impacted during COVID-19 as people’s daily mobility patterns changed. This led to a substantial drop in demand as many workers were instructed to work from home and social distancing measures were introduced on existing services. Department for Transport statistics show a decline from 91 to 26 million passenger journeys on local…

I remember Mariupol. I visited the Russian-speaking port of around 500,000 people in the summer of 1983. It was then Zhdanov, a city of the Soviet Union on the Sea of Azov, adjacent to the Black Sea. Named, as were many Soviet cities and towns, after a prominent Communist: Andrei Zhdanov, a close associate of…

The murderous onslaught on sovereign Ukraine by Putin and his ruling clique of siloviki, or former members of the security services, has made the world aware of the enormities characterising his regime. We already had plenty of evidence of ruthlessness: Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, fomenting ethnic division in Donbass, and the Crimea. Putin, a KGB foreign intelligence…

A new WISERD paper draws attention to how geographical approaches can contribute to an understanding of inequalities in access to nursing and residential care places in Wales. This research has been carried out by WISERD co-directors, Professor Gary Higgs and Dr Mitchel Langford, along with WISERD Associate, Professor Mark Llewellyn, Director of the Welsh Institute…

Cardiff’s new sbarc|spark hub will bring together researchers to connect across social science research disciplines to create new ways of working. Professor Sally Power, WISERD, recently published a paper examining calls for an ‘evidence ecosystem’ to address the disconnect between university-led education research, and education policy and practice. Here, she shares thoughts on what the Social…

Since February 2021, we have been working with a community group in South Wales who are concerned about the air quality in their local area. We have adopted a participatory approach that facilitates the group’s work, but which also recognises the expertise of individual members and tracks how the group develops, shares and uses this…

The Migration Research Wales Network held an online symposium on 19th January for postgraduates and early-career researchers working on aspects of migration in Wales or based at Welsh institutions. The theme of the symposium was ‘New Perspectives on Migration’. Presentations covered research areas ranging from Italians in Wales, refugee women and Welshness, and the challenges facing LGBTQ+…

We are delighted to announce that the call for papers is now OPEN for the WISERD Annual Conference 2022. WISERD Annual Conference 2022 Swansea University   Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th July 2022 The theme for our Annual Conference is ‘Civil society and participation: issues of equality, identity and cohesion in a changing social landscape’….