News and Blog

IMAJINE Scenarios presented to EU Cohesion Policy Conference

Professor Michael Woods presented findings from the CWPS-WISERD-led Horizon 2020 project IMAJINE to the Third Joint EU Cohesion Policy Conference in Zagreb in November. Jointly organized by the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG-Regio), the Regional Studies Association and the Croatian Government, the conference brought together 150 academics, EU policymakers and member…

Counteracting the rise of the robots: exploring the prospects for marginalised young men in ex-industrial areas

  The future of work In recent years, media headlines such as: ‘Robots are coming for your job: and faster than you think’ have become increasingly prominent. Such media coverage derives from research on the future of work and the impact of new technologies and automation, which sets out competing arguments that are widely contested….

New WISERD report on North Wales Growth Deal

As part of WISERD’s ESRC-funded Civil Society Centre research programme, a team of WISERD researchers have published a new report on the process of developing and implementing the North Wales Growth Deal (NWGD), based on observations from a series of interviews with stakeholders between July-December 2021. Fifteen remote interviews were conducted by three researchers: Dr…

Launch Conference for Foundational Alliance Wales

With over 40 delegates and more presenters and delegates joining online, the hybrid conference launched the Foundational Alliance project of building alliances for change and foundational renewal in Wales. A combination of presentations and workshop discussions highlighted foundational objectives and ways of working which can sustain household liveability and responsible providers within planetary limits.

New paper on ‘Refugees, race and the limits to rural cosmopolitanism’ in Wales and Ireland

CWPS-WISERD Co-Director Professor Michael Woods has published an open access paper in the Journal of Rural Studies which examines the settlement of refugees and asylum seekers in three small towns in Wales and Ireland, including Aberystwyth and Newtown. The paper builds on an earlier article that introduced the idea of ‘precarious rural cosmopolitanism’, arguing that…

WISERD welcomes international visiting scholar, Professor Charles Sabel

In early November 2022, we were delighted to welcome Professor Charles Sabel from Columbia Law School as WISERD international visiting scholar. Professor Sabel joined us in sparcIspark for a week of events and discussions about his work on experimental governance. The visit kicked off with an intensive workshop addressing “Industrial Policy for Climate Change and…

20th Anniversary of the ESRC Festival of Social Science

To celebrate 20 years of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science, WISERD hosted two events at this year’s Festival, which aimed to highlight one of our ongoing education research projects and a useful data tool that helps us to better understand our towns and local areas. We began with a…

Strengthening Welsh democracy discussed at media conference

CWPS-WISERD Co-Director will discuss how to strengthen democracy in Wales at a high-profile media conference this week. ‘Citizens’ Voices, People’s News: Making the Media Work for Wales’ takes place at the Institute of Welsh Affairs in Cardiff on Thursday 17 November, and features keynote speeches from Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, Dawn…