WISERD Civil Society is featured in issue 8 of the Exchange Magazine, a Bevan Foundation publication.

Professor David Blackaby comments on issues surrounding the electrification of the railway line between Cardiff and Swansea on ITV’s ‘Good Morning’.

  Alzheimer’s Society has announced today that it has committed almost £2 million to the University of Exeter, as part of its biggest-ever single investment in dementia care research, which WISERD will be continuing to contribute to. The funding will be used for the national collaboration led by Exeter to improve both quality of life…

  There is a well-established conventional wisdom that today’s young people are a politically alienated generation, meaning that they are seen as estranged or withdrawn from politics. Whether it is their low turnout in elections or their support for protest and social movements, the young are held up as a generation put off politics by…

The idea that Brexit has engaged the young to such an extent that they voted in high numbers in the recent general election has been a prominent feature of the public autopsy of the result.[1] There is little question that the young voted in greater numbers than in the last half dozen elections, and that this had…

Public trust in the political establishment is an integral part of voter choice in any election or referendum, but more crucially it upholds the democratic process. Without some degree of trust in politicians, political parties, experts and the media, state-societal relations would hit a gridlock. Without trust, people would be less likely to vote and…

In light of the 2017 General Election, in which the youth vote became one of the defining features, Dr Stuart Fox updates us on the latest findings from the Young People and Brexit project. Using new data, he discusses whether there really was a ‘youth surge’ in votes and whether this election really was the ‘revenge of…

Dr Sioned Pearce and Dr Stuart Fox write about the 2017 general election results, in an article published by The Conversation. It can be found by following this link.

It is difficult to think of an election in which the votes of young people – age 18 to 25 – have caused more of a stir. Of course, the youth vote was expected to be important in the EU referendum, the Scottish independence referendum and just about every general election since the voting age was lowered…

On Wednesday 7th June, WISERD Co-Director, Professor Paul Chaney gave a keynote address on Women, Civil Society, Politics and Policy-making at the College of Human and Health Sciences (CHHS), Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and University of Wales Press Research conference, ‘Gender in Wales Then and Now’ at Swansea University. In the presentation, Professor Chaney…

WISERD researchers presented our work on young people, education and politics, as part of this year’s exciting line-up at the 30th anniversary Hay Festival. ‘Mind the gap’ formed part of the Cardiff Series, presented by Dr Dan Evans, Dr Esther Muddiman, Dr Stuart Fox and Dr Sioned Pearce, which considered the striking divisions revealed between…

WISERD colleagues were delighted to welcome Professor Grigori Kliucharev from the Institute of Sociology at the Russian Academy of Science last month, as part of the WISERD Civil Society seminar series. Professor Kliucharev’s presentation, ‘Social and political participation in building democracy in Russia: The role of literacy programmes and educational reforms’, is based on research data…

Professor Grigori Kliucharev recently presented as part of the WISERD Civil Society seminar series. His presentation, ‘Social and political participation in building democracy in Russia: The role of literacy programmes and educational reforms’, is based on research data on literacy, and social and political participation in Russia. This was conducted in 2014-2016 by Professor Grigori…

This week, the Learned Society of Wales awarded the inaugural Hugh Owen Medal, funded by the Welsh government, to WISERD’s Co-Director, Professor Chris Taylor in recognition of his outstanding contribution to educational research. The ceremony took place at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. This year, for the first time, the…

Dr Stuart Fox and Cardiff postgraduate student Jake Smith were quoted in an article about young people and non-voting. A link to the article can be found here.

On Tuesday 2nd May, WISERD Director, Professor Ian Rees Jones gave an assembly briefing on the IDEAL study, which explores factors that influence the possibility of living well with dementia. The project, which started in 2014, seeks to identify changes that could result in improved well-being and quality of life for both individuals with dementia, and…

Two WISERD colleagues, Professor Sally Power and Professor Mike Woods, are among the newly elected fellows of The Learned Society of Wales. The Learned Society of Wales was established in 2010 in the absence of a national society of learning in Wales. Its aims are to contribute to advancing and promoting excellence in all scholarly…

Professor David Blackaby comments on BBC Wales Evening News about the latest figures showing that Welsh furniture manufacturers are benefiting from the weak pound with a growth in exports. A link to the article can be found here.

Professor John Morgan recently presented his research on higher education and social justice in China at a WISERD lunchtime seminar. Professor Morgan has been collaborating with Dr Bin Wu, senior research fellow at Nottingham University Business School on this topic. China is a country marked by sharp differences in regional development and by social inequalities,…

WISERD PhD student, Sian Evans, recently presented her PhD research as part of the WISERD Cardiff lunchtime seminar series. She explores whether the Omnivore Thesis can be found within the field of social participation.  The Omnivore Thesis was originally identified in the context of cultural participation – music tastes, attendance at the theatre, cinema, art…

An announcement about new Fellows, Professor Sally Power and Professor Mike Woods, being elected to the Learned Society of Wales. A link to the article can be found here.

– College student, Heads of the Valleys. The dominant view among young people with regard to Brexit, is one of anger or frustration at not being allowed to vote. As part of a broader WISERD project exploring education, language and identity, a research team at Aberystwyth University has been travelling around the country to interview under-18s…

WISERD welcomes the news that Cardiff has been chosen as one of the locations for the UK’s largest dementia research initiative. The £13m investment at Cardiff University is the biggest Wales has received for scientific study into dementia. The research will provide new ways to diagnose, treat, prevent and care for people with dementia. Social…

Theresa May’s shock announcement of a general election to be held on June 8th (assuming Parliament approves) means that in just six weeks the country will once again be going to the polls to fight over the UK’s membership of the European Union. Other issues will no doubt feature in the election campaign – the…

Dr Rhian Barrance argued that many schoolchildren today believe climate change and poverty are just as much a threat as terrorism. A link to the article, published by The Conversation, can be found below. https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-poverty-are-as-much-of-a-threat-as-terrorism-for-many-young-people-74218

In recent blogs, we have explored the impact of Brexit, and the stances taken by the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties towards the triggering of Article 50, on the political support of young voters. Those blogs showed that while there have been some small changes, for the most part Brexit has had little impact: younger voters still overwhelmingly…

Last Friday evening, Dr Ceryn Evans presented her research on higher education and civil society at Public Uni’s 15th event at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. Public Uni is an event organised by Cardiff University and aims to provide researchers with an opportunity to communicate their research in engaging, bite-sized ‘chunks’ to a ‘lay audience’….

Dr Ceryn Evans presented her research on higher education and civil society at Public  Uni’s 15th event at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. Public Uni is an event organised by Cardiff University and aims to provide researchers with an opportunity to communicate    their research in engaging, bite-sized ‘chunks’ to a ‘lay audience’. Each presenter has just…

A WISERD PhD student from Aberystwyth University was one of twelve finalists in this year’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) writing competition, ‘Making Sense of Society’. Siobhan Maderson is studying the environmental knowledge of beekeepers and is funded by the ESRC. Siobhan, who is based at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Geography and Earth Sciences,…

The Liberal Democrats are the party most people expect to do well out of Brexit. Virtually destroyed in the 2015 general election, Brexit has given them something to rebuild their support around, by pitching themselves as the only (UK-wide) major party determined to reverse the result of the EU Referendum and keep the UK in…

The Conservatives have every reason to be on cloud nine these days: they have a majority in the House of Commons (albeit a small one); they have a commanding lead in the polls more typically seen for opposition parties on the way to win the next general election; they recently won a by-election against the…

It will probably come as little surprise that recent surveys have found the majority of adults in Europe think that international terrorism is the most pressing threat to the continent.  Though this is valuable information about what adults think, little is known about what children and young people perceive as the greatest threats to life and democracy…

As part of the WISERD Cardiff lunchtime seminar series, Dr Wil Chivers recently reported early findings from his research into trade unions on Twitter.   Back in September I introduced the Social Media Research Series of blogs here at WISERD. Following a period of data collection for WISERD Civil Society work package 3.3 at the beginning of the year,…

WISERD has recently been awarded ESRC funding to carry out a new interdisciplinary study into how young people in the UK feel about, and are responding to, the most significant policy issue of this Parliament: the UK’s exit from the European Union. Young People and Brexit will include new and existing WISERD research, employing a variety…

Professor Paul Chaney’s article about equality for disabled people in Britain was published on The Conversation, and can be found by clicking the link below. Without European intervention, equality for disabled people in Britain would be a distant dream    

Poverty and the rise of food banks in Wales were the focus of research shared at WISERD’s latest Civil Society seminar, held at Cardiff last night. PhD student, David Beck and Dr Hefin Gwilym from Bangor University’s School of Social Sciences presented findings from their research exploring the experience of food poverty in Wales. Representatives…

Research by WISERD Co-Director, Professor Paul Chaney, reveals the institutionalised ableism of parliament. In his recent article on The Conversation, he emphasises that without the EU’s help, the situation for disabled people could become even worse than it already is. “The representation of disabled people in government has never been more important. In 2014, 19%…

The representation of disabled people in government has never been more important. In 2014, 19% of British residents said that they were disabled. The country also has an ageing population and 42% of state pension age adults – 5m people altogether – are living with disabilities. Before the EU referendum, fears abound that the laws in place to help and protect…

After yesterday’s ‘trigger warning’ we await with bated breath the news that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty has been enacted. This will kick off two years of UK-EU negotiation followed by what is likely to be a slow and complex process of disentangling legislation post EU-exit. Today’s date could herald a new wave of political domination…

Dr Dan Evans commented on the possibility of a Welsh Independence Referendum on BBC Radio Wales’s Jason Mohammad Show.

WISERD Co-Director, Professor Paul Chaney’s research into gender equality and public policy was featured in an International Women’s Day blog written for the ESRC by former political correspondent and Daily Telegraph social affairs correspondent, Sarah Womack. International Women’s Day 2017 took place on 8th March with the theme: #BeBoldForChange. The aim of this globally-supported day…

Given that the EU Referendum was one of the most dominating, bitterly contested and emotional political campaigns in Britain for decades, that British politics is now and for the foreseeable future dominated by Brexit, and that support for or opposition to EU membership is a reflection of one’s deeply held political values, convictions and beliefs,  it…

Professor Paul Chaney’s research on gender equality in politics was highlighted in an International Women’s Day blog for the ESRC, which can be found below. Social science helping to close the gender gap  

Sociologist and lecturer, Dr Robin Mann, based at Bangor University’s School of Social Sciences, discusses the differences in the way that national identity is expressed in Wales, Scotland and England, and how national identity affects attitudes towards current issues such as Brexit and immigration in a unique comparative study, which has recently been published. In…

Brexit in Scotland and Wales A majority 64% of young people voted in the UK referendum on EU membership last June, but 70% of them were disappointed. Media coverage brought this disappointment home with wide coverage of the generational divide, depicting a young generation forced to live with the consequences of a decision made by…

Baroness Eluned Morgan AM delivered a keynote speech on Brexit at Aberystwyth University last night. Joined by members of the public, the Labour Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales discussed one of the defining political issues of our time, surveyed the political landscape after last year’s referendum vote, and asked whether anything positive can…

Thousands of families across Wales will shortly be learning which primary and secondary schools their children will be attending in September. For many, this will be their local catchment school, however for a sizeable minority, the outcome will not be what they wanted. Many will find themselves without a place for their child or have…

  In last week’s blog we discussed the generational divide between the Millennials and their elders in terms of hostility towards Brexit, highlighting how this reflects more than a simple difference of opinion about the EU and is actually the result of deep rooted differences in national identity and political values. In this blog we take advantage…

Professor Chris Taylor was interviewed about the implementation and impact of play-based education on the BBC Breakfast Show.

  The EU Referendum highlighted a dramatic difference of opinion regarding the most important decision facing the British electorate for a generation, with younger voters overwhelmingly supporting EU membership while their elders voted to leave. This ‘generational divide’ has been a prominent theme in the media, which has repeatedly documented the anger and sense of ‘betrayal’ felt…

Emeritus Professor Gareth Rees looked at the power of statistics in public debate in relation to Wales’ international Pisa results.

Professor Melanie Jones participated in a panel discussion focused on disability and self-employment for BBC Radio 4’s Money Box Live.

New research highlights the need for policy support to be directed towards helping those who develop a disability to retain work owing to the lasting negative effect on employment even when they recover. WISERD academics Professor Melanie Jones and Rhys Davies from Cardiff University and Professor Stephen Drinkwater, University of Roehampton, researched the impact of disability…

Hannah Blake is a PhD student at Cardiff University and recently contributed to the WISERD Cardiff lunchtime seminar series with a presentation on her master’s degree research into volunteer accounts of participation.   Research in the volunteering phenomena is increasing. Having been a volunteer for six years, the decision to undertake my own research in…

As part of the Young People and Brexit project, WISERD will be creating a series of short films with young people. In this blog, Dr Sioned Pearce discusses some of the questions that the films will be asking. This week I sat on a debating panel to discuss young people and politics at the National Assembly…

Professor David Blackaby interviewed by ITV Wales News at 6 and later in the evening by ITV News Cymru Wales on the Tata Steel ballot result on pensions and the future of the steel industry.

The decision to leave the European Union on 23rd June 2016 was potentially the most dramatic ever taken by the British electorate. Not only did it fly in the face of the expectations of the majority of the media, opinion pollsters and politicians (both in the UK and Europe), but it has come to dominate politics…

It’s Safe Internet Day today – an opportunity to focus our attention on the growing popularity of social media among young people and some of the challenges this poses, such as the potential risks associated with young people’s use of social media during the night and a growing concern around cyberbullying. Dr. Constantino Dumangane Jr….

The latest Administrative Data Research Centre Wales (ADRC-W) seminar on ‘Alcohol Consumption and Population Health’ took place today at Cardiff University’s main building. ADRC-W provides a data linkage service and is one of four UK centres within the Administrative Data Research Network (ADRN). The centre is located within Swansea University and the Wales Institute of Social…

Dr Marta Eichsteller reflects on the challenges of biographical narratives in ethnographic research on civil society. Doing biographical narrative research as part of an ethnographic project is becoming established research practice. The method’s place in social research is to give context and meaning to what can be observed in the field and establish historical background…

Over eighty people packed the Morlan Centre in Aberystwyth on Wednesday 25th January for the launch of the WISERD Centre for Welsh Politics and Society, with a lively discussion on ‘Brexit and Wales – the Key Questions’.   Following a week in which the Prime Minister Theresa May had set out her plans for negotiations…

On Tuesday 17 January Professor Paul Chaney presented findings from the WISERD Civil Society Programme research project ‘Territoriality and Third Sector Engagement in Policy-Making’ at the House of Commons. The presentation at the ESRC ‘Feminizing Politics: Voice, Access and Accountability’ seminar highlighted the role of civil society as political space for accountability with a focus…

The National Assembly for Wales’ Health, Social Care and Sport Committee heard evidence earlier today on the draft national dementia strategy, ‘Together for a Dementia Friendly Wales 2017 – 2022’. Organisations such as The Alzheimer’s Society, Age Cymru, the Wales Carers Alliance and representatives from a range of healthcare professions shared their views on how…

Professor Michael Woods was interviewed on BBC Radio Wales’s ‘Good Morning Wales’ about the Brexit debate in Aberystwyth and the launch of the WISERD Centre for Welsh Politics and Society.

Dr Rhys Dafydd Jones and Dr Elin Royles were interviewed on BBC Radio Cymru (Dr Rhys Dafydd Jones on Post Cyntaf, and Dr Elin Royles on Post Prynhawn) talking about the Brexit debate in Aberystwyth and the launch of the WISERD Centre for Welsh Politics and Society.

A disability report co-authored by WISERD researchers was highlighted in Prime Minister’s Questions. The report in question can be accessed via the link below. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0Bzw2IXFPZj72S0EwenJzNFRNLUE

Finding strategies to live well with dementia is increasingly a focus of UK government policy.  But, we know relatively about what living well with dementia means to the people and families affected by it, or what factors support living well and what factors act as a barrier to living well. I’m a qualitative researcher based…

The Brexit debate, ‘Brexit and Wales – The Key Questions’, which took place in Aberystwyth alongside the launch of the WISERD Centre for Welsh Politics and Society received coverage online from Welsh medium magazine’s. Lleol Cymru The Ceredigion Herald

The second annual report from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) and the Local Data Company (LDC) reveals the contradictory dynamics of the retail landscape in Wales and how this has changed over the past year. It also highlights the wide variance and make-up of Welsh towns along with…

Recommendations made by the Wales Institute for Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) and Cardiff University, as part of an independent three-year evaluation commissioned by the Welsh Government, have been used as part of the Welsh Government’s Foundation Phase Action Plan. The Foundation Phase is an exciting, flagship policy that marks a radical…

The IMAJINE project (Integrative Mechanisms for Addressing Spatial Justice and Territorial Inequalities in Europe) led by the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) team at Aberystwyth University was launched in Brussels on Wednesday 18th January 2017, with a meeting of the consortium partners. IMAJINE is a pioneering new research project…

Research by Professor Sally Power about young people’s social media use during the night has been covered extensively online recently. The Science News Journal TES

Young peoples’ social media usage on the rise Amongst young people social media has been consistently growing in popularity over the past ten years. EU Kids Online’s research on young people’s use of digital media across 25 European countries suggests that from 2005 to 2010 internet use increased from 70 to 93 per cent amongst 6- to 17-year-olds. Research…

A new study by Professor Paul Chaney provides new insight into why Middle Eastern states continue to languish at the bottom of world rankings on gender equality. The core finding relates to the policy process, and poor communication and dialogue between governments and the communities they serve. In short, despite their UN obligations to engage…

90 delegates attended this year’s Wales Housing Research Conference, co-hosted by Shelter Cymru, Welsh Government and the WISERD Wales Housing Research Network. The event took place at Cardiff University’s Bute building and Glamorgan building. Delegates were invited to attend a variety of sessions, with themes including housing policy and devolution, health and wellbeing, the Welsh…

The Sheffield City Region (SCR) faces considerable problems in terms of economic and social inequality. As the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) emphasises, there has been a marked decline in living standards in the UK, which is projected to continue. The Sheffield City Region has the highest concentration of those in work and paid below…

Professor Chris Taylor was featured in the ITV report about screen time at night being harmful to children’s health, which can be accessed through the link below. http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2016-12-12/screen-time-at-night-can-be-harmful-to-childrens-health-researchers-say/

Professor Sally Power wrote an article for The Conversation that questions whether it’s a good idea to buy places for poor pupils in private schools. The article can be accessed by following the link below. https://theconversation.com/the-state-has-helped-poor-pupils-into-private-schools-before-did-it-work-70222

WISERD has hosted five visiting international research fellows led by Professor Lin Xiao from the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing. The visit is part of a two year joint Chinese Academy of Social Sciences/British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowships programme, entitled: ‘Improving Social Welfare System in China: Urbanization, Community…

Professor David Blackaby interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s ‘World at One’ about the prospects for the steel industry, in the wake of the deal agreed between Tata and the unions

Professor Gareth Rees was interviewed on BBC Radio Wales’s ‘Good Morning Wales’ shortly before the release of the PISA results.

Professor Sally Power featured in the Wales Online article that captured the live reaction towards the release of the PISA Results. The article can be accessed through the link below. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/live-updates-wales-predicted-perform-12277256

On Monday 28 November the WISERD Centre for Welsh Politics and Society (CWPS) was launched at Aberystwyth University. This new interdisciplinary research centre aims to develop an understanding of contemporary politics and society in Wales, and contribute to the public and policy debates on a range of issues. The centre aims to achieve its objectives…

On Monday 28 November the WISERD Centre for Welsh Politics and Society (CWPS) was launched at Aberystwyth University. This new interdisciplinary research centre aims to develop an understanding of contemporary politics and society in Wales, and contribute to the public and policy debates on a range of issues. The centre aims to achieve its objectives…

Last night leading figures in Welsh education gathered for a debate on the future of education in Wales at Cardiff University’s Hadyn Ellis Building. The event was held ahead of the next round of PISA results due for release on 6th December 2016. PISA is a triennial survey which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide…

A major conference on The French Regions at 30: evaluations and prospects (Les Régions ont 30 ans. Et Demain?) recently took place at the Champs Libres Convention  Centre, in Rennes, France. It was organised by the WISERD team working on the Trust and Transparency in multi-level governance project, Prof. Romain Pasquier (Institute of Political Studies, Rennes,…

  As part of my ethnographic research on the WISERD Civil Society project examining participation over place and time, I’ve spent the last year or so visiting two north east Wales villages, where I’ve been interviewing local residents and surveying neighbourhoods. The location of each research site is about an hour away from my house…

‘Should 16- and 17-year-olds be given the right to vote’ is a topic that has been discussed a lot recently in the UK. The Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 was a case to the point as the 16- and 17-year-olds were given the opportunity to vote and the results indicated that 89% of all 16-…

Rhys Davies presented his work at the Labour Force and Annual Population Surveys User Conference 2016 today, at the Royal Statistical Society in London. Data producers and data users came together to share updates on the development of these surveys and to showcase research that is being carried out using the data. Rhys Davies’ presentation…

Remembering and remembrance are incredibly important to the labour movement. Trade unions hold their history dear and the hard fought battles of the past are positioned firmly in the minds of those who take pride in their allegiance in the present: cohort after cohort of novice activists are schooled in trade union history; the spectacle…

Recent findings by WISERD have found that Millennials are the most politically disinterested generation in the history of British survey research. WISERD research examining youth political engagement in Wales has found that while young people exhibit unremarkable levels of the attitudes most commonly associated with political alienation, they demonstrate a noticeably high level of apathy…

WISERD offered three events as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)’s week-long celebration of the social sciences and social science research. As with previous years’ events, the festival provided a variety of free activities across the UK. One such event was hosted by WISERD in Cardiff and facilitated by Dr. Scott Orford….

Professor Sally Power was quoted in an article published in The Times about the Michaela Community School in Brent. A link to the article is provided below. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/20a493d0-a5d0-11e6-89ad-c090de2d496c

On Wednesday 27 October Professor Paul Chaney presented findings from “Territoriality & Third Sector Engagement in Policy-Making and Welfare Provision” – a project that is part of the WISERD Civil Society Programme. These have been published in a chapter (‘Women and Policy-Making: Devolution, Civil Society and Political Representation’) – in a new edited collection by…

Following our event ‘Young People and Politics: the future direction of youth engagement in Wales’ on the 6th of this month, we are pleased to publish Jake Smith’s reflections on the day. Jake is a postgraduate student at the School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University and was involved in recording and writing-up discussion and debate…

Following our event ‘Young People and Politics: the future direction of youth engagement in Wales’ on the 6th of this month, we are pleased to publish Jake Smith’s reflections on the day. Jake is a postgraduate student at the School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University and was involved in recording and writing-up discussion and…

Thursday 20th October saw Professor Paul Chaney introduce Visiting International Fellow Professor Sahoo Sarbeswar of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Professor Sarbeswar was giving the latest in the WISERD civil society seminar series at Cardiff University. The presentation examined how Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), as part of civil society, contribute towards democratization in India. In…

As Professor Sir Ian Diamond says in his introduction to The Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance Arrangements in Wales “in times of austerity it is easy for society to focus solely on current challenges and forget that it is essential to continue to invest in educating the future generations who will drive the economy…

Elin Jones AM will open up the debate around youth engagement today at the Pierhead Building.  The event Young people, politics and the future direction of youth engagement in Wales follows on from WISERD research and will feature the screening of two short films presenting recent findings on young people’s attitudes towards and engagement with…

Since February 2016 we at WISERD have been running a small project on Young People and the EU Referendum in partnership with Youth Cymru, the Council for Wales of Voluntary Youth Services (CWVYS) and the National Assembly for Wales’ Youth Engagement Team and our talented cameraman Justin at Farsight Creative. As well as writing around 30 blogs on this site, giving presentations at…

The Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance Arrangements in Wales led by Professor Sir Ian Diamond has been published today.  The review, commissioned in 2014, focuses on widening access; supporting the skill needs of Wales; strengthening part-time and postgraduate provision in Wales; and long-term financial sustainability. As part of the review, quality research…

Front page coverage on research from Professor Martin Jones regarding WISERD Civil Society research.

Research by Professor Paul Chaney examines civil society organizations input into African states’ implementation of the gender mainstreaming (GM) goals set out in the United Nations’ Beijing Declaration. The Declaration is explicit in its requirement that, in the course of their efforts to promote gender equality, state signatories secure: ‘the participation and contribution of all…

Professor Ian Rees Jones collaborates on new Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) report. The joint report launched on 12 September 2016 at the Fairer Futures: Reshaping Care for Older People symposium, argues that, with a social innovation approach, local authorities could provide better home care which benefited carers and cared. Published to coincide…

Introduction to the Social Media Research Series Welcome to a new blog series here at WISERD, dedicated to exploring some of the key issues with using social media for social research.  This was initially conceived as a chance to outline some of the various tools that exist for collecting and analysing social media data.  However,…

Online coverage in Wales Online on WISERD Education findings regarding pupil and teacher perceptions (and new funding). The coverage can be accessed by the link below. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/listen-us-less-half-welsh-11892203#ICID=sharebar_twitter

“I welcome this announcement. Capturing the views of children and young people is important to help us develop policies and services in Wales that meet their needs,” says Ms Williams on the announcement of a £215,000 grant from Cardiff University. The funding from Cardiff University follows a £1m grant in 2012 from the Higher Education…

Dr Kevin Smith will present the latest findings at the BERA (British Education Research Association) Annual Conference this week at the University of Leeds. The new findings reveal that fewer than half of young secondary school pupils think their views are taken seriously by those educating them while the majority of their teachers disagree. These are…

Professor David Blackaby comments on the recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report on Poverty and the implications for Wales (in particular Port Talbort) for BBC Radio Wales Good Morning Wales. The recent report found that there are currently 13 million people living in poverty in Britain and claims more government intervention is needed for communities like…

Dr Kevin Smith discusses how the WISERDEducation project has benefited from Cardiff University’s School Partnership Project. The project is a Research Councils UK initiative that support researchers’ direct engagement with students and brings contemporary and inspirational research contexts into formal and informal learning to enhance and enrich the curriculum. Dr Smith has run a series…

WISERD research was given prominent attention at the 2016 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference. This is one of the UK’s foremost forums for research on civil society and the third sector, with diverse presentations from academics and practitioners. It was jointly hosted by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the Voluntary Sector Studies…

Professor David Blackaby was featured on ITV News Wales at 6 regarding uncertainty over the Port Talbot Tata Steel plant and implications for the area

BBC Radio Wales’s ‘Good Morning Wales’ interview Professor David Blackaby on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report on Poverty and implication for Wales

Using recent findings from the WISERD Education project, Dr Kevin Smith not only compares how boys and girls perform at school but how they feel when at school. ‘For the past three years, our research group has been analysing the difference in boys’ and girls’ perceptions of their school experiences. Our study, involving approximately 1,500 pupils…

The usual discussions about children’s schooling experiences often focus on academic achievement, personal development and school evaluation. Ask a teacher, parent or policy maker what is the most important thing a school should offer and many will say it is education: they want children to develop the knowledge and skills that will help them build…

Dr Kevin Smith features in The Conversation on how boys and girls perform at school and how they feel when at school: ‘Girls may perform better at school than boys – but their experience is much less happy’. The article is accessed through the link below. https://theconversation.com/girls-may-perform-better-at-school-than-boys-but-their-experience-is-much-less-happy-63161

Professor Stephen Drinkwater was broadcast as part of a feature on Share Radio about whether a cut in the number of low-skilled EU migrants would hurt the UK economy. A recording of the broadcast is provided below. https://audioboom.com/posts/5003441-would-a-cut-in-the-number-of-low-skilled-eu-migrants-hurt-the-uk-economy

  In 2014, I presented a paper at the British Education Research Association’s (BERA) annual conference. Shortly after the presentation, I was approached by an editor with Palgrave MacMillan and asked if I was interested in publishing a book as part of the Pivot series on citizenship education in Wales. I was delighted by the…

New research by Professor Paul Chaney has been published in the leading international academic publication Journal of Civil Society (Routledge, T & F, Impact factor 1.22). It argues that existing studies generally fail to systematically examine the way that contextual factors shape political representation outside of political parties, government and the formal business of electing parliamentarians….

Just 18 weeks passed between the announcement of a UK referendum on EU membership, and the vote for Brexit. In this startlingly short time an intense and competitive environment sprung-up as the two official campaigns Vote Leave and Britain Stronger in Europe made their case. Both sides quickly succumbed to name calling, dishonesties and emotional arguments. As a result…

Dr Sioned Pearce explores trust in relation to voting preference in the EU Referendum campaigns. The study found remarkably low levels of trust for the campaigns on both sides among all age groups, adding to the argument that the campaigns tapped-into mistrust rather than created it over an 18 week period. For Dr Sioned Pearce’s blog post…

On July 19th Dr Dawn Mannay give a well-attended seminar presentation at Cardiff School of Social Sciences. The event was jointly hosted by WISERD and the Social Research Association Cymru. Dr Mannay’s talk explored how different visual and creative research approaches can be employed to work with diverse communities. The seminar focused on the data production…

The bilingual film Patagonia will be screened on Thursday 4th August with Dr Mirain Rhys taking part in the expert panel discussion following the film. In collaboration with Cardiff University sciSCREEN programme, the screening aims to engage audiences in research through cinema.  The screening will be followed by a panel discussion of five speakers who will relate…

On the 19th July, as part of the WISERD Cardiff Lunchtime Seminar Series, Professor Paul Chaney, WISERD Co-Director, outlined the findings of his research on parliamentary scrutiny and the representation of women and disabled people at Westminster. The work explores patterns and processes of “substantive representation” over the post-war period. This term refers to the situation whereby…

Wales’ largest social science conference took place at the new Bay Campus at Swansea University last week. The seventh annual event brought together practitioners, policy makers and social scientists to discuss and debate themes such as health; social care; wellbeing; education; culture & values; environment; labour markets; devolution; and civil society – with over 70 papers…

Last week (4th-6th July) I attended the 11th international Interpretive Policy Analysis (IPA) Conference in Hull, 2017 UK City of Culture. This article reflects on the conference and the IPA. Most importantly, it highlights the sense and benefits of an IPA community within which a milieu of interdisciplinary and international social and policy researchers can reside. Variation in topics covered…

Danny Dorling delivered his lecture ‘A Better Politics: How government can make us happier and healthier’ at last week’s Julian Tudor Hart Annual Lecture. Academic and author Professor Danny Dorling visited Cardiff University to deliver a public lecture exploring the ways in which our governments can make us happier and healthier.  The lecture was part…

Wales’ largest social science conference is taking place at the new Bay Campus at Swansea University tomorrow. Now in its seventh year, the WISERD Annual Conference brings together practitioners, policy makers and social scientists to discuss and debate themes such as health; social care; wellbeing; education; culture & values; environment; labour markets; devolution; and civil…

Before the referendum our post on ‘Religion and the EU Referendum’ examined how preferences for the UK’s membership of the European Union were affected by the religious affiliations of Christian voters. We found notable differences between the denominations, with Anglicans, Methodists and Baptists supporting a withdrawal from the EU, Presbyterians and those of no religious…

Professor David Blackaby featured on BBC Radio Wales’s ‘Good Morning Wales’ talkinig about Tata Steel’s potential strategic partnership with Thyssenkrupp AG

Bennett and Segerburg write about connective action, personalised content sharing across media networks, which is different from but can be combined with the more traditional collective action or the formation and mobilisation of collective identities (for example marching against government austerity measures). Connective action for political purposes using social media to campaign, lobby and petition…

Since the introduction of its well-being programme in 2010, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has introduced a number of questions into its surveys in an attempt to measure the well-being of the population in the UK.  The Annual Population Survey, the largest regular household survey undertaken by the ONS, now includes a suite of…

The European Union receives a bad press, especially in the UK, for its alleged inability to deal with crises. The British press is world class in its ability to misinform, but the way in which the Commission has handled the Greek debt crisis has not helped the cause of European unity. The EU negotiators representing…

In a new WISERD blog post, entitled ‘Need for Non-Market Institutions for Inter Country Transfers: A lesson from the EU Referendum‘, Professor Shanti Chakravarty, an Emeritus Professor of Economics at Bangor University, reflects on the work of his colleague at Bangor – Professor R. Ross MacKay – in understanding the reasons why the EU might have started…

On 25th June, just two days after Britain voted to leave the EU, the small Welsh valleys town of Ebbw Vale hit the headlines (Town showered with EU cash votes to leave EU.) The article questions why a town that, like so many others in Wales, has received billions in EU funding for infrastructure and economic re-generation…

Professor David Blackaby featured on BBC Radio Wales’s ‘Good Morning Wales’ about Tata Steel, Political uncertainty, Pensions and Brexit

In the weeks, months and years following 23rd June 2016, the long-term consequences of a majority Brexit vote will slowly unfold. Regardless of whether the British economy continues in freefall or stabilises, to what degree EU leaders, not wanting to be seen giving the UK a ‘good deal’, continue trading with the UK and whether or…

WISERD was present at the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) 12th International Conference at Ersta Skondal University College, Stockholm, Sweden. This year the conference theme was ‘The Third Sector in Transition: Accountability, Transparency, and Social Inclusion’. The WISERD stall did brisk business attracting interest from the many conference-goers drawn from all over the…

It is now four days since the UK took the most momentous political decision of this generation, and the dramatic consequences have dominated the weekend news: the Prime Minister has resigned, the Leader of the Opposition is facing a vote of no confidence, a second independence referendum in Scotland is now a serious possibility, and…

Dr Stuart Fox looks at data from a second survey conducted on polling day to explore how young people planned to vote and how engaged they were with the referendum itself. ‘It is now four days since the UK took the most momentous political decision of this generation, and the dramatic consequences have dominated the…

Professor David Blackaby featured on Share Radio Morning Money: Implications for Wales of leaving the European Union. The podcast can be accessed via the link.

Professor David Blackaby comments on the implications for Wales of leaving the EU. In a radio interview this morning with Share Radio, Professor Blackaby discusses the ‘extraordinary’ result and comments how Wales will have benefited from £5 billion of structural funding (between 2000 – 2020) and predicts a possible immediate consequence of ‘Brexit’, following the…

Euronews (France) report Professor David Blackaby as saying that “We are likely to have a more successful industry if we remain in the EU.” Article can be accessed via the link.

Commentary by Professor David Blackaby in The South Wales Evening Post about whether we would be better or worse off out of the EU

The Housing Network brings together researchers and research organisations in the field of housing in order to advance housing studies in Wales and beyond. The latest meeting, which was held on 15th June 2016, included participants from a number of leading universities, government, the public sector, and voluntary organisations. Research updates were given from academics and…

On June 10th Professor Paul Chaney was an invited plenary speaker at the Research in Practice Leaders’ Forum Conference in Birmingham. The Forum brings together Directors, assistant directors and strategic managers across a network of 80+ major third sector organisations and local authorities. This year’s conference centred on the topic of devolution and its implications…

Euronews (France) quote Professor David Blackaby in a report on post-Brexit Britain, and the societal divides the vote in June 2016 caused. The article can be found via the link.  

Euronews (France) quote Professor David Blackaby in a report on post-Brexit manufacturing. A link to the article is provided.

Listen to our latest podcast from Professor Mick Moran speaking at the WISERD CRESC Radical Social Innovation Colloquium last week. Michael Moran is Professor of Government at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK, where he also previously held the W.J.M. Mackenzie Chair in Government. A Fellow of the British Academy, he is a…

WISERD Civil Society WP3.2: Implications of Spatial & Temporal Variation in Service Provision for Inequalities in Social Outcomes This work package will undertake a comprehensive review of the literature on social capital with a particular focus on community level measures at a range of spatial scales. The ultimate aim is to critically assess the suitability of existing secondary…

Updates on the WISERD Annual Conference! The WISERD Annual Conference offers delegates an insight into current social science research through keynote addresses, plenary sessions, workshops and exhibitions. For more information on the Conference and to book visit: www.wiserd.ac.uk/training-events/annual-conference-2016/ This year’s speaker titles are now confirmed: The Right Honourable Rhodri Morgan – The Services/Manufacturing Balance and the Welsh…

Dr Sioned Pearce’s guest blog for The London School of Economics and Political Science: The philosophers have only interpreted the world…The point, however, is to change it (Karl Marx 1888) Drawing from a recent study on how impact occurs in the social sciences, Sioned Pearce looks at some specific issues with the case study approach to understanding impact….

Public engagement used to be something I shied away from but in the past month I have taken part in two public engagement events to present the work of the IDEAL study and even discussed them on BBC Radio Wales.  In the past I worried about how to translate research to the public in a meaningful and engaging…

Dr Stuart Fox was interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor on his blog Religion & The EU Referendum. The blog post can be found here.

Professor David Blackaby interviewed on Share Radio’s ‘Morning Money’ about his research into the Steel crisis

Wednesday 13th July to Thursday 14th July 2016 Great Hall, Swansea University Bay Campus Come and join Wales’ largest social science conference! Swansea 2016 is set to be bigger and brighter than ever, offering an even greater choice of sessions for delegates in addition to plenary sessions, workshops, commercial exhibition and of course, the opportunity…

Undergraduate Bioscience students who achieved the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma Qualification (WBQ) in addition to three A-Levels, performed less well academically at university than students who only undertook three A-Levels. These are the findings of a study carried out by researchers at Cardiff University School of Biosciences and Professor Chris Taylor, WISERD. The analysis also…

WISERD/CRESC Civil Society Colloquium 18th and 19th May 2016, Cardiff   As part of the WISERD Civil Society programme, WISERD and CRESC jointly organised an international colloquium on 18th and 19th May at Cardiff University for academics, policy makers and civil society organisations involved in Social Innovation (SI) initiatives. As an international event the colloquium was organised in…

  One of the most important dates in the entire EU referendum campaign will be the 7th June: the deadline for registering to vote. The introduction of Individual Voter Registration in the last parliament means that every eligible adult must register to vote individually, and can no longer be registered by university halls or the head…

  On 23rd May the Telegraph published the results of an ORB poll which suggested that the traditional advantage of the Leave campaign among older voters was being eroded. The poll showed that 51% of over-65s were planning to vote Remain in the EU referendum, compared with 44% planning to vote Leave. The finding may well have contributed…

Dr Stuart Fox reveals the best route to information about the EU referendum is through registering to vote. ‘For young people, whom research has shown are less likely to vote than their elders, because of their limited interest in and (to a lesser extent) knowledge of the issues at stake, the key step in becoming…

Listen to our latest podcast from Professor Frank Moulaert speaking at the WISERD CRESC Radical Social Innovation Colloquium last week. Frank Moulaert is Professor of Spatial Planning, Head of the Planning and Development Unit ASRO, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium. For more podcasts click here: www.wiserd.ac.uk/news/podcasts

As part of the WISERD Civil Society programme, WISERD and the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) jointly organised an international colloquium on 18th and 19th May at Cardiff University for academics, policy makers and civil society organisations involved in Social Innovation initiatives: The Radical Social Innovation Colloquium. As an international event the colloquium was organised…

  Let me introduce you to Moran’s Law of Academic Conferences: the more a conference draws on a single discipline, the less interesting it is.   The most mind numbingly boring conferences now are those lumbering leviathans, the Annual Conferences of  professional associations, where the only way to survive is to disappear to the bar to…

  With less than a month to go until the polls open, the broad strategies of the Remain and Leave campaigns have become fairly clear. For Remain, led by Britain Stronger in Europe their objective is to highlight the risks of leaving the EU in economic terms alone, for everything from the national economy to…

Dr Stuart Fox featured on BBC Radio Wales Sunday Supplement programme with Vaughan Roderick.

Dr Sioned Pearce featured on BBC Sunday Politics with Andrew Neil and Arwyn Jones talking about Young People and the EU Referendum

This article looks at the reasons behind the ‘rise of UKIP’ since 2013 and applies it to our data on young people and the EU referendum under three headings: employment and education; austerity; and political language. The findings show a divide in support between those who left school at 17 or 18 and those still…

On May 12th WISERD was pleased to welcome Professor Filippo Barbera (University of Torino and Collegio Carlo Alberto) who gave the latest seminar in the WISERD Civil Society series. Chaired by WISERD Co-Director Prof Paul Chaney, his interesting and well-attended presentation explored the role of “social innovators” in Italy. Drawing on a qualitative research design…

Declining levels of trade union membership is often cited as evidence that trade unions have become less relevant within the modern UK economy. In 2012, particular attention was given to this issue as levels of union membership among TUC affiliated unions fell to beneath 6 million members for the first time[i].  The recent development and…

Today WISERD launches its new webpages related to the research programme on trade unions within the WISERD Civil Society Centre: www.wiserd.ac.uk/unions ‘Declining levels of trade union membership is often cited as evidence that trade unions have become less relevant within the modern UK economy.  However, previous WISERD research into geographical variations in trade union membership…

The campaigns to keep the UK in the EU – Britain Stronger in Europe – and their Eurosceptic opponents – Vote Leave – have now had almost a month since the launch of the official referendum campaign to outline and hammer home their key arguments for why we should vote to stay in or leave…

New ESRC Funded PhD Studentships are now available with two posts based at WISERD: focusing on Economic Austerity, Civil Society and Wellbeing & Labour Economics. WISERD is also seeking an ESRC Wales DTC PhD in Social Sciences (Social Policy): The Impact of Devolution on the Promotion of Gender Equality in Wales (PhD Studentship). For more…

With the dust settling on the devolved election results last week and showing a 3% increase in turnout in Wales, now is a good time to explore the links between devolution and political engagement, particularly among young people, and ask what can we learn from this in the run-up to the EU referendum? In terms…

A one-day practitioner conference is to take place on Monday 23rd May to discuss the recommendations from WISERD’s evaluation and the implications these have for the future of the Foundation Phase.  Cardiff University and WISERD were commissioned by the Welsh Government to undertake an independent three-year evaluation of the Foundation Phase. ‘The final report for…

New International Research from WISERD published in the journal World Development* presents civil society perspectives on gender equality in post-conflict states. This comparative study by Professor Paul Chaney examined developments in twelve-countries including:  Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Georgia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. The findings reveal the specific data and governance challenges that exist in war-affected states as…

Dan Evans featured on BBC Breakfast news talking about Welsh language and young people

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is intended to address the political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights of children everywhere in the world. In 1989, this Convention was widely adopted by governments worldwide in recognition of children’s rights and in making a political promise to acknowledge those rights in their…

On 5th May, Professor Alistair Cole and Dr Ian Stafford* delivered a public seminar at Cardiff University linked to their WISERD Civil Society research. Their insightful and well-attended presentation outlined how, against the backdrop of a perceived decline in trust in democracy and government, transparency has frequently been identified as a potential remedy to these phenomena. Using key…

Dr Kirstie Macleod was a guest on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal’s MacIlleMhìcheil program talking about her work on education, language and identity.

  The 20th-23rd April marked the 7th Biennial Surveillance and Society Conference, held for the second time running in Barcelona, courtesy of Eticas Research & Consulting. Coming from a background in surveillance studies, these conferences are something of a pilgrimage for me.  There is a thriving and international research community concerned with surveillance in all its various guises.  The Surveillance…

On Monday 11th April WISERD Co-Director Professor Paul Chaney addressed a research community building conference at Cardiff SWALEC Stadium organised by Cardiff University’s new Crime and Security Research Institute (CSRI). This engagement activity is part of ongoing work to develop social science collaboration in Wales. Under the Directorship of Professor Martin Innes, the CSRI will…

Dr Smith joins the Welsh Crucible – an award-winning programme of personal, professional and leadership development for the future research leaders of Wales. Welsh Crucible is based on NESTA’s highly esteemed ‘Crucible’ development programme, and has been informed by the successes of the Scottish Crucible.  The Programme has recently established collaborative links with The Learned Society of Wales, who…

The Canadian film Away From Her will be screened on 18th May with Dr Alex Hillman taking part in the expert panel discussion following the film. In collaboration with Cardiff University sciSCREEN programme, the screening aims to engage audiences in dementia research through cinema.  The screening will be followed by a panel discussion of 4 speakers…

Danny Dorling will deliver a lecture titled ‘A Better Politics: How government can make us happier and healthier’ for the next Julian Tudor Hart Annual Lecture in July. The talk, in collaboration with Cardiff University School of Social Sciences, Public Health Wales and Cardiff Institute of Society, Health and Wellbeing (CISHeW), will make the argument that if we start by…

Professor Howard Davis comments on the latest employment figures – and the problems that lie beneath the surface of the country’s economy, despite months of positive headlines. Along with Professor Tony Dobbins and Dr Alexandra Plows, Professor Davis takes a closer look at the jobs situation in the UK since the 2008 financial crisis and the…

Professor David Blackaby comments on the steel crisis, and was featured in a major US news outlet report. The article can be viewed by following the link below. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/04/22/one-uk-steel-town-one-crisis-that-affects-nation.html

The Western Mail Weekend pages features an article on the steel industry and quotes Prof Louise Miskell, Prof David Blackaby, Dr Bleddyn Penney and Kevin Sullivan. The article, accessed through Wales Online, can be found below. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/what-now-port-talbot-steel-11179848

Dr Stuart Fox and Dr Sioned Pearce look at the role of young people in Wales in the European referendum in a piece for the IWA news analysis magazine, which can be found below. http://www.iwa.wales/click/2016/04/young-people-and-europe/

Professor Howard Davies featured in The Conversation looking at the latest employment figures – and the problems that lie beneath the surface of the country’s economy, despite months of positive headlines. The article, published by the Conversation, can be viewed by following the link below. https://theconversation.com/jobs-figures-mask-bogus-self-employment-in-the-shadow-economy-58017

Professor David Blackaby was interviewed on a number of programmes speaking about Tata Steel’s plans to sell its UK operations, including Port Talbot Steelworks

  It has been common practice for some time – and perhaps now more than ever – for journalists to emphasise the political differences between young and old in areas such as voting preferences or political agendas, and to frame those differences in terms of generational ‘conflict’ or ‘war’. With the exception of electoral turnout,…

  As the official referendum campaign gets underway, polling continues to highlight the vital role Millennials will play in deciding the outcome. They are becoming (albeit slightly) even more supportive of EU membership, even though overall levels of support have remained relatively stable, and young people who support EU membership are – unlike their elder counterparts – more…

Report on the steel crisis, and on the option of replacing the blast furnaces at Port Talbot with electric arc furnaces which critics claim produce lower-grade steel –  Professor David Blackaby is quoted saying that the “only way for Britain to survive as a steelmaker is to produce high-quality steel”. The report can be found…

Dr Sioned Pearce uncovers new findings in favour of the ‘Remain’ campaign. The research, from the ‘Should we stay or should we go: Young People and the EU Referendum‘ project, has revealed young people who want to Remain are more likely to vote than those who want to Leave. 68% of young people who want Britain…

  We know support for continued EU membership is heavily concentrated among younger citizens with 60% under 30 who support REMAIN, compared with only 24% who support LEAVE. Among the Pre/Post-War generation 54% support LEAVE and 35% support STAY. We also know young people are less likely to vote with 70% highly likely to vote compared with 88% among the oldest generations. What we didn’t know is…

Professor Gareth Rees features in a BBC Wales online news item regarding: Election ahead of crucial education decisions, which can be accessed below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2016-wales-35969744

BBC Radio Wales’ Good Evening Wales programme featured a further interview with Professor David Blackaby, School of Management on ongoing developments in Tata’s sale of its UK operations, including the steelworks at Port Talbot

Depending on your perspective, the campaigns for a remain/withdrawal vote in the EU referendum have had between six weeks (since David Cameron announced the date of the referendum on 20th February) or more than two years (since David Cameron announced that the plan to hold a referendum would be in the Conservative Party manifesto for the…

Sky News carries an interview with Professor David Blackaby of the School of Management, who described steel as “a strategic industry, a foundation industry”, which is vital if we want a manufacturing industry in this country.

  With a plethora of upcoming elections on 5th May, we are reminded that devolution of power and delineated boundaries in the UK since 1997 means multi-level political trends and outcomes within and between nations and regions: the EU referendum is no exception. We know that in the UK young people are more likely to support…

Dr Gareth Rees was interviewed by BBC Radio Cymru on education and the Assembly election – focusing on school standards/performance & University/student finance

Professor Melanie Jones’s article Disability and labour market outcomes is a featured article on IZA World of Labor’s website. A link to the article can be found here.

BBC Radio 5 Live Wake up to Money focuses on the steel crisis

An interview with Professor David Blackaby, School of Management, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the Tata announcement and the numbers of and implications for the workforce in Wales.

Coverage in the Financial Times on Dr Stuart Fox and Dr Sioned Pearce’s research on young people and the EU referendum

    Dr Elin Royles reflects on the WISERD Civil Society Seminar that took place at Aberystwyth University on 16 March 2016: How do education policies and policies guiding the work of organisations working with young people attempt to influence their sense of identities? That was the question guiding Prof Rhys Jones and Dr Elin…

This project is currently considering the potential value of an analysis of virtual patterns of trade union organisation and mobilisation and specifically the contribution of social media to the rescaling of trade unionism. This includes both: the virtual linkages of the trade union movement with other forms of social and political activism; and the virtual…

Bookings are now open for Wales’ largest social science conference! The WISERD Annual Conference offers delegates an insight into current social science research through keynote addresses, plenary sessions, workshops and exhibitions. This year the conference is taking place on Wednesday 13th July & Thursday 14th July 2016 at Swansea University Bay Campus. We are delighted to welcome Ottón Solís, Founder member…

  Since David Cameron announced the date of the EU referendum, the gulf in support for EU membership between young and old – not to mention the gulf in the likelihood of voting – has featured heavily in media coverage and opinion polling about the referendum campaign. An explanation for that gulf in support, however,…

    On Wednesday 16th March, Dr Robin Mann, Professor Howard Davis, Dr David Dallimore and Dr Marta Eichsteller presented their emergent findings from the WISERD Civil Society project ‘Researching Civil Participation, in Place, and Over Time’ at Bangor University. The seminar was entitled: ‘Bowling Alone? Civil Society in a North East Wales Village’. The…

Location: Alun Buildings, Bangor University Dates: 23rd March 2015 – Start: 10:00am, Finish: 7:00pm 24th March 2015 –  Start: 9:00am, Finish: 3:30pm – See more at: http://wiserd.ac.uk/news/latest-news/shaping-labour-party/#sthash.w7r8jDYI.dpuf WISERD is committed to delivering a series of Training & Capacity Building events having identified the types of courses that would be of most benefit to WISERD researchers and those outside of…

  In last week’s blog we showed how important Millennials are to the Remain campaign: they make up one in three ‘Remainers’, and also make up the largest chunk of ‘Committed Remainers’ who will most likely vote to stay in the EU on polling day. Once we take into account the fact that most voters – and…

  A recurrent theme any study or discussion of how young people will participate in the EU referendum is (and will most likely remain) their reluctance to do so. According to our latest data, around 70% of Millennials are likely to vote, while one in ten are certain not to. This compares with 85% of the…

  It is well established that today’s generation of young voters – the Millennials – are the most pro-EU since Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973. Even as support for membership of the EU has fluctuated over time, the Millennials have been by far the most supportive. The campaigns ahead of the referendum on the…

Leading-up to Britain’s EU membership referendum on the 23rd of June, WISERD is running a study of the attitudes, preferences and engagement throughout the referendum campaign of today’s young people. The study ‘Should we stay or should we go: Young People and the EU Referendum‘ will include several surveys of young people throughout the UK asking…

  On the 23rd of June 2016, 43 years after a reluctant and delayed entry to the European Economic Community, Britain will vote on one of the most significant political decisions for a generation: its membership of the European Union. For young British citizens who have never known a time before the EU, this is potentially…

The latest edition of WISERD News is now available – featuring updates on current projects and research findings as well as events and engagement activity. IN THIS ISSUE: Flexible Pre-School Education Pilots: Separating the Impactful from the Impractical Dr Daniel Evans gives an overview of his role in evaluating the implementation and impact of flexibility…

Further coverage on school pupil’s modern day heroes and villains from WISERD Education on an article published by The Conversation and Celeb Youth, can be accessed below. The Conversation – https://theconversation.com/race-gender-and-the-stereotyping-of-young-peoples-role-models-55725 Celeb youth – http://www.celebyouth.org/celebrity-culture-and-young-peoples-heroes-and-villains/

Everyone’s agreed that there is a crisis in adult social care and the sector needs more money but no one has looked into where and with whom the money ends up. A new CRESC public interest report titled Where does the money go? The financialised chains and the crisis in social care shows uses follow-the-money research to show how…

Where does the money go when your local authority pays more than £500 per week for a care home bed? Dr Luke Cowie and Professor Ian Rees Jones have been working with colleagues from five universities on a Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) public interest report which aims to help ordinary citizens for…

WISERD Director, Professor Ian Rees Jones, comments on new findings from the IDEAL project which focuses on the potential for living well with dementia from the perspective of people with dementia and their primary carers. Research from the IDEAL project has revealed that people who perceive dementia symptoms as an illness feel more negative than…

A new study by Professor Paul Chaney reveals how governments in South Asia are failing to fully engage and respond to civil society organisations’ policy demands on women’s rights and representation. ‘Under the terms of a key United Nations’ agreement of 1995 (globally subscribed to by 180+ states), countries are required to listen and respond…

We are seeking to appoint a Post-Doctoral Research Associate to work as part of the ESRC (Economic & Social Research Council) WISERD Civil Society Research Centre at Aberystwyth University. WISERD Civil Society is a new flagship research centre funded by the ESRC to undertake an innovative and farreaching five-year research programme of multi-disciplinary, policy relevant…

WISERD Education has uncovered which famous people school pupils most admire and dislike.  The findings reveal that the most admired are celebrities and sportspeople: with Jessie J, Taylor Swift and Beyonce achieving the top three positions. Pupils nominated a wide variety of people – stretching alphabetically from Adele and Adolf Hitler to Zara Philips and…

Professor Stephen Drinkwater is quoted in an article in The Economist looking at Eastern Europeans and migration, which can be accessed via the link below. https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21693639-great-migration-east-has-entered-second-different-phase-tunnels-and-channels

Professor Sally Power and Dr Kevin Smith received coverage from their research into which famous people school pupils most admire and dislike.  The findings reveal that the most admired are celebrities and sportspeople, with Jessie J, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé achieving the top three positions. The coverage, published on My Science UK, can be accessed via…

  The ‘Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia 2020’ focuses on the need to improve the public’s awareness of dementia; one common misconception about dementia is that it is a normal part of ageing. Another area identified in the report is the need to improve diagnosis rates, with current figures indicating that only 59% of those…

From 2018, companies with more than 250 employees will be required to make their gender pay gap publicly available online.  Employers that fail to address gender pay disparities will also be highlighted in new league tables intended to drive progress.  The launch of a new project has coincided with the governments publication of these planned…

Professor Chris Taylor addressed access to higher education in Wales in BBC One Wales’ programme Week In Week Out ‘Is It Because I’m From Wales?’ on Monday 8th February.  He discussed the quality of teaching and the contrast in admissions to University from students who have the same grades but attend different schools.

On 2nd February Prof Paul Chaney presented the findings of a recent study of political representation to a seminar organised by the Chwarae Teg Research Hub. The paper analysed the parliamentary scrutiny of the substantive representation of women (SRW) in UK Governments’ Post-War legislative programmes. The SRW refers to the situation whereby women’s needs and…

    Illness representations, or the way individuals perceive an illness, often shape responses to that illness, affecting the type and level of care and support administered to an individual, either by themselves or by those with caring responsibilities. A recently published paper co-authored by Catherine Quinn and Linda Clare from the Centre for Research…

The inaugural Welsh Retail Summit considered the findings of a new report on Wales’s top 71 cities and towns which reveals increasing polarization between the best and the worst of our high streets. The report’s key findings were presented by Dr Scott Orford, WISERD, Cardiff University and Matthew Hopkinson, the Local Data Company, at Cardiff…

    Media policy in and for Wales should be founded on evidence based on the Welsh market, culture and civil society. And, media policy has yet to realise the realities of devolution. These were amongst some of the key conclusions presented at the latest in the WISERD Civil Society Seminar Series that took place…

On 19th January both the Labour Party’s internal report into the reason for its defeat in the 2015 general election, as well as the British Polling Council’s interim report looking at why the opinion polls had so spectacularly failed to predict the result, were published. A common theme in both documents was the over-dependence of both…

In November, the House of Lords voted in favour of allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote in Britain’s EU referendum, expected to be held sometime in the next two years, and on 14th of December, following a rejection of the proposal by the House of Commons, the issue was put before the House of…

  On Monday, May 23rd, WISERD held a one day practitioner conference to disseminate key findings and recommendations in relation to the three year independent evaluation of the Foundation Phase early years curriculum. The conference brought together practitioners from the length and breadth of Wales, as well as key individuals from the Welsh Government Early…

  Telling stories has always been a good way to grab people’s attention and get them to understand what is important, but it’s not something that academic researchers are very accustomed to doing – after all, is it not a normal part of their training. However, carefully worded and nuanced academic reports – however precise…

  Dr Ceryn Evans presents to the Research User Group   December has seen further key activities as part of WISERD’s engagement work. December 15th saw the meeting of WISERD’s Research User Group – whilst earlier in the month, the Language, Culture and Identity Research Network met on December 4th. Both are integral to linking…

Professor David Blackaby, School of Management, was interviewed about the economy on BBC Radio Wales’ Good Evening Wales programme.

  The 9th Annual Julian Tudor Hart Lecture took place on 9th December in SOCSI. This year’s lecture was titled ‘DIY Welfare or Silver Bullet: The Place of Community in UK Health Policy in the 21st Century’, and was given by Professor Jennie Popay of Lancaster University. The event was sponsored by Public Health Wales and Cardiff University, in partnership with WISERD…

In the first week of November 2015 CISHeW’s Strong Communities, Healthier People (SCHeP) project hosted the first Student Selected Component of the new Curriculum 21 for Cardiff University medical students.  The aim of this component was to give second year medical students the opportunity to engage with local communities to get some real hands on understanding of…

The Welsh Government has published the latest evaluation of its Pupil Deprivation Grant – a programme which sees additional funding being allocated to schools for looked after children and those pupils eligible for free school meals. The report produced by Ipsos MORI and WISERD colleagues shows that: Teachers believe the Pupil Deprivation Grant (PDG) is making…

    Prof Ian Rees Jones, Prof John Morgan and Prof Paul Chaney of WISERD discuss future potential collaboration with Professor Jian Song and colleagues from Renmin University, the leading centre for Population Studies and Demography in China.  

The WISERD Stand was busy at the Wales Council for Voluntary Action Annual Conference 2015. Held in Llandudno, it is the leading third sector conference in Wales. This year’s event was valuable in developing existing strong links between third sector organisations and colleagues working on the Institute’s ESRC- funded Civil Society Programme. Welsh Government minister…

  Wednesday 25th November saw the launch of ‘Making the Case for the Social Sciences: Wales’ at the Pierhead Building in Cardiff. “Making the Case for the Social Sciences: Wales” is the tenth in a series of publicationsproduced by the Academy of Social Sciences and its Campaign for Social Science in order to celebrate the real and important…

    Research undertaken by social science researchers in Wales was celebrated this week at the launch of a new publication – ‘Making the Case for the Social Sciences 10: Wales’ -published by the Academy of Social Sciences and its Campaign for Social Science. The publication comprises 14 case studies of research carried out by…

Professor Chris Taylor, Co-Director of WISERD and WISERD Education, has been appointed to the HEFCW Student Opportunity and Achievement Committee. This is a new committee that will act as an advisory committee to HEFCW Council. The remit of the Committee is to advise on student opportunity and achievement in higher education, including Welsh medium, initial…

Dr Dan Evans wrote an article for The Conversation on Welsh language and young people, which can be accessed via the link below. https://theconversation.com/teenage-apathy-for-speaking-welsh-reveals-struggle-to-keep-it-as-a-living-language-48422

UN Year of Evaluation – Welsh Government Event Series – 17th November 2015 Dr Dan Evans attends the WISERD stand as the Welsh Government picks up the “evaluation torch” with a series of daily policy and research events at the Crown Buildings in Cardiff to mark the UN Year of Evaluation in 2015 (www.unevaluation.org ). WISERD…

On the 4th November, Home Secretary Theresa May unveiled the government’s proposals for updating the UK’s legislative framework for communications surveillance. The arrival in parliament of the Investigatory Powers Bill has been long-awaited and its possible contents have been the source of increasing speculation. We’ve now had our first look at the draft Bill (that’s #IPBill for the…

Professor David Blackaby, School of Management, was interviewed for BBC Wales’ Wales Today news about HMRC’s announcement that it is to close all its offices in Wales and create a regional centre in Cardiff employing up to 3,800 people.

Dr Ruth McElroy, was interviewed on BBC Radio Wales and Radio 4’s Media show, talking about the Cardiff media summit and the IWA’s Media Audit report

WISERD would like to congratulate our colleagues Professor Tess Fitzpatrick and Dr Dawn Knight, and their time, for recently securing £1.8m in funding from the ESRC for their Corpws Cenedlaethol Cymraeg Cyfoes (National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh) project; also known as CorCenCC. The project is funded for 3.5 years and will commence in March 2016….

In early September, the WISERD Education research team joined many other academics in the annual before-term ritual: to leave the warm confines of the university and stretch their legs at another institution – sometimes in a faraway land, sometimes much closer to home. On 7thSeptember we began the journey to Budapest, capital of Hungary and the venue…

As part of the Representing Communities project I worked with a group of Year 10 pupils for four months. The aim of this part of the research was to engage with the young people through photography to explore their perceptions of community life. This included some discussion of their feelings towards media representations of their community, which…

If you keep track of key measures of disability equality in the UK, you’ll know that the gap in employment rates between disabled and non-disabled working-age people has gone down over the past fifteen years.  And you’d be in good company. Many experts have flagged this trend: Dame Carol Black in her influential 2008 Review, DWP indicators…

Children in Wales are required to begin school at age 5. Although parents have no legal obligation to put their children into forms of education before this age, it is widely accepted that pre-school education has a positive impact on children’s cognitive and social development. Pre-school education is therefore universally popular and local authorities in…

Set within the context of UK devolution and constitutional change, People, Places and Policy: Knowing Contemporary Wales Through New Localities offers important and interesting insights into ‘place-making’ and ‘locality-making’ in contemporary Wales. Combining policy research with policy-maker and stakeholder interviews at various spatial scales (local, regional, and national), it examines the historical processes and working…

Our book has finally been published! We say finally, because the idea for the book started to take shape five years ago during the first phase of WISERD. During this phase we were interested in understanding how different localities in Wales were behaving in relation to devolution and devolved policy areas and we developed a research strand…

Cardiff University coverage of WISERD Education’s report to HEFCW – Access to Higher Education in Wales can be found by following the link below. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/141953-catchment-22-school-and-local-authority-impact-university-chances

Welsh school pupils’ chances of getting into university vary dramatically according to the school they attend and the local authority in which it is situated, irrespective of their individual educational attainment, according to a new report from Cardiff University’s Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD). A new report released today…

Professor Chris Taylor has advised the Read On.Get On. campaign, which is calling for the Welsh Government to increase investment in the early years workforce and support for parents in their child’s early years. The article can be accessed via the link below. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/children-living-poverty-twice-likely-10104399?service=responsive

Wales’s poorest children are starting primary school already struggling with language skills argues Ready to Read, a new report out today (22 September 2015). Professor Chris Taylor, Co-Director of the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data (WISERD), at Cardiff University, has advised the Read On.Get On. campaign, which is calling for the Welsh…

When Jeremy Corbyn formally entered the Labour leadership contest in June, nobody expected him to even be competitive – let alone secure almost 60% of the vote in the first round. That Corbyn won so convincingly, and after eliciting the greatest surge in people joining or registering to support the Labour party for decades, is…

BBC Online – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34201905 ITV News – http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2015-09-15/fifth-of-teenagers-wake-up-to-use-social-media-during-the-night/ The Telegraph – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11865757/One-in-five-teens-wake-up-at-night-to-use-social-media.html The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/sep/15/fifth-of-secondary-school-pupils-wake-almost-every-night-to-use-social-media Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/social-media-keeping-your-kids-10055550?service=responsive Daily Mail – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3234568/Teens-wake-night-tweet-One-five-uses-social-networks-early-hours-leading-lower-being.html Daily Mirror – https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/shocking-study-finds-1-5-6442164#ICID=sharebar_twitter Yahoo! News – https://uk.yahoo.com/?err=404&err_url=https%3a%2f%2fuk.news.yahoo.com%2fschoolchildren-tired-class-waking-look-social-media-125527778.html Belfast telegraph – https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/schoolchildren-tired-in-class-after-waking-up-to-look-at-social-media-31527638.html Irish News – http://www.irishnews.com/news/educationnews/2015/09/15/news/facebook-making-children-tired-in-class–262572/ BT.com – http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/tech-news/schoolchildren-tired-in-class-after-waking-up-to-look-at-social-media-11364003878206 The Daily Star – http://www.thedailystar.net/shout/social-media/waking-social-media-leaves-pupils-always-tired-143491 Health canal – https://www.healthcanal.com/disorders-conditions/sleep/66946-want-to-get-a-good-nights-sleep-kids.html  

The impact of social media on young people’s lives is underlined starkly today as a new study by researchers at the Cardiff University-based Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data (WISERD) reports that more than one in five teenagers say they “almost always” wake up during the night to look at or post messages….

This week WISERD Co-Director Professor Paul Chaney was the invited plenary speaker at the 2015 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference, which took place at the University of Leeds from 8th – 9th September. The event is the UK’s leading interdisciplinary research conference for academics, policy makers and practitioners with a shared interest in researching…

A recent review of the national curriculum for Wales has called for a radical reimagining of how curriculum is to be conceptualised, enacted and assessed (Welsh Government, 2015). Currently, citizenship education in Wales is philosophically framed by the Curriculum Cymreig, an initiative to develop a “Welsh ethos” in schools in Wales and delivered through the Personal…

The Alliance for Useful Evidence is an open-access network of more than 2,000 individuals from across government, universities, charities, business and local authorities in the UK and internationally. It was established by Nesta, ESRC and Big Lottery Fund to champion the use of evidence in social policy and practice. We’re grateful to be hosted by WISERD in Wales. Calls for more evidence-based policy…

We are delighted to announce that WISERD has been awarded two modest amounts of funding under the Cardiff Incoming Visiting Fellowship Scheme and International Collaboration Seedcorn Fund. The first award goes to Professor Ian Rees Jones, Dr Sin Yi Cheung and Rhys Davies to build links with Professor Mike Hout at NYU and Professor David Grusky…

Dr Sioned Pearce was interviewed by the BBC’s Radio Cymru’s Post Cyntaf programme about research on the attitudes of 16 and 17 year olds to politics, ahead of her talk on the subject at the Eisteddfod

For the first time, WISERD will be presenting research at the annual National Eisteddfod, taking placed this year in Montgomeryshire. The Eisteddfod Festival is the pinnacle of the Welsh cultural calendar. It travels from place to place, alternating between north and south Wales giving communities across the country a chance to welcome up to 160,000 visitors…

How young people make choices about university, where and what to study has been a question asked by many social researchers, policy-makers and practitioners alike. Research has shown that when young people make choices about going to university, a range of factors come into play including peer influences, their families’ experience of university and their…

Professor Sally Power was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Thinking Allowed’ programme discussing research on how school children say they would spend a million pounds.

On July 6th, Cardiff University hosted the Welsh Baccalaureate Conference. This event was developed through a partnership between the Welsh Government, the WJEC and Cardiff University research staff. The aim of the conference was to engage secondary and further education teachers with some of the ins-and-outs of conducting research, with a particular focus given to enabling them to better assist their…

Ann Keane, former HM Chief Inspector at Estyn, delivered our first keynote address of the WISERD 2015 Annual Conference. Ann discussed what she’d learnt throughout her 5 years at Estyn, and what she regarded as the key issues for Welsh education moving forward. Ann Keane, former HM Chief Inspector at Estyn, delivered our first keynote…

What effects do different environments have upon stress levels in the human body? What affect does it have upon our well-being and health? In order to test this in June 2014 WISERD’s biomapping project was invited by BBC Coast to ‘stress-test’ its presenter Nicholas Crane. The WISERD funded biomapping research project, led by Professor Chris Taylor(WISERD) and Dr Jon Anderson (CPLAN), ‘stress-tested’ the BBC…

What effects do different environments have upon stress levels in the human body? What affect does it have upon our well-being and health? In order to test this in June 2014 WISERD’s biomapping project was invited by BBC Coast to ‘stress-test’ its presenter Nicholas Crane. The WISERD funded biomapping research project, led by Professor Chris Taylor (WISERD) and Dr Jon Anderson (CPLAN), ‘stress-tested’ the BBC…

At the WISERD conference I talked about what people expect from an inspectorate of education and training in Wales and I outlined the methods that inspectors use to come to professional judgements about standards in education.  I also talked about standards in the education system and the challenges that continue to exist. Inspectorates offer public…

WISERD, in partnership with the Research Institute for Applied Social Science (RIASS) and the Academy of Social Science, have today launched a new booklet showcasing the vast array of social science research taking place in Wales; titled ‘Making the Case for the Social Sciences 10 – Wales’. It includes a new study by Welsh researchers which…

The WISERD funded biomapping research project, led by Professor Chris Taylor (WISERD) and Dr Jon Anderson (CPLAN), ‘stress-tested’ the BBC presenter Nicholas Crane for the forthcoming series of the popular television programme ‘Coast’.

Professor W. John Morgan, an honorary professor at WISERD and the Cardiff School of Social Sciences, has co-chaired a senior panel of experts that has produced a major report for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on the future of education in the 21st century. Professor Morgan was appointed to chair the panel…

Last week the 6th Annual Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) Conference took place at Cardiff’s iconic Millennium Stadium. The WISERD Conference is the largest of its kind in Wales, and brings together practitioners, policy makers and social scientists to discuss and debate a range of topical themes such as health; social care; wellbeing;…

Will Hutton was interviewed by Wales Online’s Business Editor Chris Kelsey regarding the themes he covered during his keynote address at the WISERD 2015 Annual Conference. The piece can be found by following the link below. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/new-technology-banking-reform-9-9573802

Ann Keane was interviewed by Made in Cardiff TV following her keynote address at the WISERD 2015 Annual Conference. A link to the video coverage of the event can be found below.

The concept of well-being is very slippery as it has many different meanings and applications. With politicians and governments increasingly using it as an adjudicating value for how policies should be formulated and implemented (including, most recently, the Welsh Government’s Social Services and Well-being Act 2014), it has become especially important to take a step back…

Wales’ Largest Social Science Conference Comes to Cardiff Wales’ largest social science conference is taking place at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium next week. Now in its sixth year, the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) Annual Conference brings together practitioners, policy makers and social scientists to discuss and debate a range…

On May 21st 2015 Magnox announced that 1600 jobs would be lost across its 12 UK nuclear sites. This news came as no great surprise to the workforce at Wylfa on Anglesey, which has been facing decommission for the last few years. The timeline for the final decommission of the plant has stretched considerably, originally anticipated in 2012 and…

WISERD would like to congratulate our Co-Director Paul Chaney on his recent promotion to Professor in the 2015 round of Cardiff University promotions. Professor Chaney said he was delighted to be given a Personal Chair – and was looking forward to continuing to work with colleagues on Wiserd’s exciting research programme. Paul is Professor of Policy and…

The Merthyr Rising 2015 festival is a three day event aimed at remembering the town’s radical past and promoting a positive image of the town’s future with a mixture of music, film, performance and debate. SCHeP were proud to take part in this year’s event by sponsoring and supporting the Waun Common Debates These debates were inspired…

Nursery World give coverage to the  Foundation Phase report, which can be found below. https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1151756/play-based-foundation-phase-improving-outcomes

The release of the WISERD Education’s report to HEFCW – Access to Higher Education in Wales received widespread media coverage.   The Times Higher Education –https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-access-wales-depends-school-attended-study-finds BBC News – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074hk3 Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/school-pupils-chances-getting-university-10121310?service=responsive Research Professional – http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/141953-catchment-22-school-and-local-authority-impact-university-chances

How does attention to the Third Sector in Parties’ 2015 Westminster Election Manifestos compare to previous post-war ballots? Compared to issues like the economy, employment, education and health, the voluntary (or “third”) sector is not a topic that is likely to swing the results of a general election. That said, party pledges on the third…

Professor W. John Morgan is a newly appointed Honorary Professor in the School of Social Sciences and will be associated with WISERD.  John is currently professor and UNESCO Chair of the Political Economy of Education, and Senior Fellow, the China Policy Institute, University of Nottingham. He was Chair of the Board of the United Kingdom…

Dr Alex Hillman discussed dementia and her work on the IDEAL project as part of the sciSCREEN event on BBC Radio Wales’ ‘Good Morning Wales’

Welsh Government have published the final report of a three-year independent evaluation of the Foundation Phase, undertaken by researchers from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD); led by Professor Chris Taylor. The report received substantial local media coverage, which can be found by following the links below. Wales Online…

The Welsh Government’s flagship Foundation Phase has led to overall improvements in pupil’s educational achievements, their well being and their engagement in learning according to  new research published today. The findings follow a three year programme of independent evaluation, commissioned by the Welsh Government and undertaken by researchers at Cardiff University and the Wales Institute…

In recent years the political, economic and social climate in which volunteering by older adults occurs has changed significantly, with the onset of an economic downturn, concern about pensions, a change in the public policy context for volunteering following a change of government, and the abolition of default retirement age. The notion of ‘unretirement’ is…

Dr Sioned Pearce was interviewed by the BBC’s Steffan Messenger regarding Young People and Politics, the interview can be accessed below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-31824693

WISERD Co-Director Professor David Blackaby has spoken to BBC Wales ahead of the election, specifically about how the £8.9bn benefits budget is spent in Wales. A link to the full article can be found below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-wales-32551129

Delegate bookings for the WISERD Annual Conference 2015 are now open! Details about how to register can be found on our events page The 2015 conference is the sixth annual WISERD conference, and follows on from five successful conferences, held in the Universities of Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor, South Wales and Aberystwyth.  Bringing practitioners, policy makers and…

The All Wales Academic Social Care Research Collaboration (ASCC) is a three year programme funded by the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research (NISCHR). ASCC was developed in response to the Huxley (2009) report which identified a clear need for increased social care research capacity, and greater levels of collaboration between academics, social care policy makers and social…

Professor Gareth Rees, Co-Director of WISERD, was interviewed by BBC Wales’ Education Correspondent Arwyn Jones this week regarding student financing in Wales in light of the upcoming General Election. The full article can be viewed by following the link below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-wales-32383567  

Our lives, and the landscapes in which we live in, are storied in nature. These stories come in many different forms: from policy materials, census data, media reports, official documents and scholarly insight, to authorial fantasy. According to Piatti and Hurni (2011: 218), these stories form a ‘rich geographical layer’ that ‘hovers… above the physically…

A new social research centre has been launched at Swansea University. Minister for Finance and Government Business, Jane Hutt AM, officially launched the Administrative Data Research Centre Wales at an event at Swansea University on Monday,  March 23, 2015. The Administrative Data Research Centre Wales, led by Swansea University’s Medical School in partnership with the…

On Monday 23rd March, 2015,  Jane Hutt AM, Minister for Finance and Government Business, officially launched the Administrative Data Research Centre Wales at an event at Swansea University. The Administrative Data Research Centre Wales, led by Swansea University’s College of Medicine in partnership with the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) at Cardiff University,…

This week the WISERD blog is delighted to host a guest blog relating to the ‘Global Countryside: Rural Change and Development in Globalization (GLOBAL-RURAL)’ – a major research project funded by the European Research Council. This study aims to advance our understanding of the workings and impact of globalization in rural regions through the development and application…

Dr Kevin Smith, a Research Associate with WISERD Education Kevin Smith is excited to announce he has been offered a contract to write his first book. He was approached by Palgrave Macmillan to write ‘Curriculum, Culture and Citizenship Education in Wales’ which will examine citizenship education in schools in Wales and the curricular complexities that…

WISERD Education has been exploring children’s responses to a single question: ‘If someone gave you £1 million today, what would you do with it?’ Although such an exploration might seem trivial, we argue that their responses provide important insights into children’s values and priorities. The data from which this paper draws derive from a self-completion survey…

With just 50 days until the UK general election the opinions of young people are becoming ever more important to politicians. However research suggests that young people are becoming increasingly disengaged from the political system, with many feeling that politicians are failing to discuss the issues which matter to them. Only 41% of those aged 18 to 25…

With just 50 days until the UK general election the opinions of young people are becoming ever more important to politicians. However research suggests that young people are becoming increasingly disengaged from the political system, with many feeling that politicians are failing to discuss the issues which matter to them. Only 41% of those aged 18 to 25…

Today the heart breaking news of the death of best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett weighs heavily on my mind. Sir Terry died on Thursday 12th March, 2015, following an 8 year battle with Alzheimer’s disease; a disease I lost someone very dear to me to a few years ago. Sir Terry never shied away from talking…

The Furlong Report, published this week, has highlighted the invaluable work undertaken by WISERD Education, and calls for further funding to be injected into the project. The report was written by Emeritus Professor John Furlong, of the University of Oxford, who was appointed by Welsh Education Minister Huw Lewis last year as an adviser on initial teacher…

The Furlong report on future of teacher education in Wales stressed the importance of the work WISERD and WISERD Education undertakes. A copy of the report can be accessed by following the link below. http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150309-teaching-tomorrows-teachers-final.pdf

In the last few of months, we have welcomed several new members of staff to WISERD, to work on a variety of new and existing projects. This week we’ll be focusing on a Bangor based member of staff – Dr Sara Wheeler. Here, she tells us a bit about her backgrounds, research interests, and what she’ll be doing at WISERD.  Dr Sara Wheeler I…

In the last few of months, we have welcomed several new members of staff to WISERD, to work on a variety of new and existing projects. This week we’ll be focusing on two Cardiff based members of staff – Dr Martijn Hogerbrugge and Dr Luke Cowie. Here, they tell us a bit about their backgrounds, research interests, and what they’ll be doing at WISERD.  Dr…

Research conducted by WISERD has formed a key element of the Welsh Government commissioned “Successful Futures” report, written by Professor Graham Donaldson, which proposes a radical overhaul of the national curriculum in Wales. The report can be read by following the link below. http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf

In the last few of months, we have welcomed several new members of staff to WISERD, to work on a variety of new and existing projects. This week we’ll be focusing on two Cardiff based members of staff – Dr Sioned Pearceand Dr Dan Evans. Here, they tell us a bit about their backgrounds, research interests, and what they’ll be doing at WISERD. …

The following discussion provided the basis of some opening remarks Professor Chris Taylor was invited to give at the launch of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, led by NIACE Cymru with support from the Welsh Government and Big Lottery Fund Wales, on 10thFebruary 2015, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. This first event involved a panel discussion on ‘Is education…

Trying to remember back to my first day at WISERD is harder than I expected – probably because of the sheer variety of experiences I’ve had here from that day to now! When I started as a Research Associate back in September 2012, I was fresh from studying for aPhD at Bangor University where I looked…

Location: Alun Buildings, Bangor University Dates: 23rd March 2015 – Start: 10:00am, Finish: 7:00pm 24th March 2015 –  Start: 9:00am, Finish: 3:30pm Overview: To commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the election of the first majority Labour government in 1945, the School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology will be hosting a conference on the history of the Labour…

In collaboration with Public Health Wales, the Cardiff School of Social Science, WISERD and CISHeW View the film of the 2014 lecture ‘Include Me Out. Exclude You In: imagining the future of primary care’ presented by Professor Graham Watt, Norrie Miller Professor of General Practice University of Glasgow. Professor Watt’s slides cover some of the…

On Thursday 5th February, 2015, WISERD celebrated the official launch of its flagship Civil Society Research Centre. WISERD’s Director Ian Rees Jones reflects upon a successful event. I spent a nervous few days prior to the WISERD Civil Society Research Centre launch. I wondered whether we would have an audience, hoped all the speakers would arrive safely, and fretted over…

A new book by John Hills explores key issues in the current debate about ‘welfare’ and the welfare state. The debate contrasts a stagnant group of people benefiting from it all with the rest who pay in and get nothing back – ‘skivers’ against ‘strivers’. John explains how, because people’s lives and circumstances change, most…

On Thursday 5th February, 2015, WISERD’s flagship Civil Society Research Centre enjoyed its official launch. The event was attended by some of the world’s foremost academics, public and policy stakeholders, and civil society organisations. Speakers included: Ruth Marks (MBE), Chief Executive of the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA); Rhodri Morgan, former First Minister for Wales;…

The Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) will celebrate the launch of its flagship WISERD Civil Society Research Centre on Thursday 5th February, 2015. WISERD has received funding in excess of £10 million to found a national research centre which will undertake a five year innovative and far-reaching research programme…

Since the publication in mid-January of the second report on educational outcomes using national administrative data was published, the Foundation Phase has been under considerable media scrutiny. Over the past three years WISERD has undertaken an independent evaluation for the Welsh Government of the Foundation Phase for three to seven year olds in Wales, and will soon be making its…

Professor David Blackaby was interviewed by Lucy Owen for X-Ray. She spoke to him regarding the recent inflation/deflation of food prices and the reasons for this and effect this has on consumers.

This blog was originally featured on the British Election Study website. Academic analysis and media commentary have shifted the emphasis in explaining United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) support away from Tory voter defectors towards working class voters, and potential Labour supporters. This was a good corrective to earlier emphases. But has the new focus on…

Preliminary results from the Evaluating the Foundation Phase second report for Welsh Government received significant online coverage from local media. ITV – http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2015-01-20/first-ministers-questions/ Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/foundation-phase-hoped-break-link-8409110 BBC News – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-30718293

First Minister Carwyn Jones comments on the Evaluating the Foundation Phase second report for Welsh Government – following questions from Welsh Lib Dem Leader Kirsty Williams. A copy of the coverage can be accessed below. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/pressures-wales-ae-easing-first-8482982

One of the UK’s leading social policy experts, Professor John Hills, headlines an impressive panel for a book launch organised by the Bevan Foundation and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD). Professor Hills, Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, will…

The “GIS for Public Health” 1 day workshop introduces a Geographic Information System (GIS) as a tool for use in public health research. This workshop is aimed at public health practitioners who have little or no experience in using GIS and would like to develop the skills to link spatially referenced data to health data….

A WISERD affiliated book entitled ‘Page and Place: On-going Compositions of Plot’, authored by Jon Anderson (Cardiff School of Planning and Geography, Cardiff University) has been published by Rodopi. The book explores how literature can help us understand the nature of the relations between people and place, how humans create connections between their identities and…

WISERD is seeking an experienced researcher to work on a project within the WISERD Civil Society research centre. The project will explore the relationships between participation in higher education and engagement in civil society, especially at the local level; and will consider questions such as: do university graduates play a distinctive role in the institutions…

The eighth lecture in the annual Julian Hart lecture series will take place on between 4.30pm and 8pm on Thursday 27th November. Professor Graham Watt, University of Glasgow, will deliver the lecture, which has the title ‘Include Me Out. Exclude You In: Imagining the future of primary care’. After graduating from the University of Aberdeen…

WISERD is pleased to announce a series of funded PhD studentship opportunities, based at Cardiff University. Studentships will commence in October 2015 and will be linked to a number of key projects including: the IDEAL project, WISERD Civil Society, CISHEW and the Administrative Data Research Centre Wales (ADRC-W). The studentship opportunities are as follows: Living…

We are pleased to announce that the call for papers for the WISERD 2015 Annual Conference is now open. The sixth annual WISERD Conference will take place from 30th June to 2nd July 2015 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. We are delighted to be able to confirm that Karl Wilding, Director of Public Policy at…

We are delighted to be able to confirm that Karl Wilding, Director of Public Policy at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and writer and political economist Will Hutton have agreed to deliver two of our keynote addresses at the WISERD 2015 Annual Conference, taking place from 30th June to 2nd July at the…

Dr Mirain Rhys discusses how home language has minimal effect on achievement, as the majority of children attending Welsh medium education reach expected levels in core subjects.

Professor Chris Taylor’s research, published in Contemporary Wales, features in Times Higher Education, which can be seen below. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/admit-more-state-pupils-using-contextual-data-urges-report/2008274.article

National coverage of Professor Sally Power’s research for the Sutton Trust uncovering the benefits for those from less advantaged homes attending independent schools (through the Assisted Places scheme) Huffington Post The Times The Telegraph The Independent

Research led by Professor Sally Power asked 1,143 youngsters aged between 10 and 15 whether they would keep or give away a £1M if it was given to them, to which over a quarter responded saying they would give it all away, while another quarter said they would give at least some of it away…

What would you do with £1 million if handed it today? Remarkably, half of young people would give at least a large part of it away, with a quarter saying they would keep none of it for themselves, a new study from WISERD Education has found. And while some pupils, perhaps predictably, dream of fast…

Following major grant successes, Cardiff University is making a substantial investment in social science research and we welcome applications from exciting and dynamic researchers interested in working on cutting edge research projects within a leading Russell Group institution. The Wales Institute for Social and Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) is currently recruiting for a…

In my last post, I wrote about what year 10 pupils were going to do post-year 11. Of course there are many other aspects of the future that pupils consider. One question that children get asked a lot is, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” – a question about life, identity…

    As part of the WISERD 2014 Annual Conference, WISERD, in collaboration with the Wales DTC and the Learned Society of Wales awarded prizes to PhD students entering poster and essay competitions. Rhian Field from Aberystwyth University won the PhD student Poster Competition, with a prize of £200 being awarded by the Learned Society…

Applications are being sought for a prestigious (1+3 or +3) full time PhD Studentship which will undertake analysis on linked administrative data on fuel poverty and/or energy efficiency in Wales with secondary survey data. This studentship will be linked to the Wales Administrative Data Research Centre, the ESRC-funded initiative led by Swansea University. This studentship is…

The fifth WISERD Annual Conference was held on 3-4 July 2014 at Aberystwyth University. The event was a great success with nearly 130 delegates and over 70 papers presented throughout the two days. The programme reflected WISERD’s inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional profile, with presentations from researchers from the academic, policy, public and third sectors from across…

An opportunity has arisen for a Welsh speaking research assistant/associate within the WISERDEducation research team. The successful candidate will work closely with schools, teachers and children to establish and maintain a series of longitudinal studies across Wales, collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data. WISERDEducation, which commenced in 2013, is a one million pound three year…

Applications are invited for a three-year ESRC-funded PhD studentship linked to the WISERD ‘Civil Society’ research programme. The studentship, which will examine the contemporary social significance of literary representations of coal-mining communities, will commence in the Autumn of 2014. While the studentship will be based at Cardiff University, the study is expected to make use of the…

Wales’ largest social science conference is taking place at Aberystwyth University this week. Now in its fifth year, the WISERD Annual Conference brings together practitioners, policy makers and social scientists to discuss and debate themes such as health; social care; wellbeing; education; culture & values; environment; labour markets; devolution; and civil society. Established as an…

These are some of the questions that I set out to address in a study that is to be published this month. Despite an extensive academic literature extending back decades – perhaps surprisingly, there has been little work on elections and how the political parties envision the role of the third – or voluntary –…

Dr Stephen Drinkwater gave a presentation Workers Educational Association in Llanelli to celebrate their centenary. On Saturday 7th June, Dr Drinkwater delivered a presentation focusing on recent and possible future economic and demographic developments in the Llanelli area.   The event, held at the Furnace Theatre, was well attended with guests including the Mayor and…

Professor Chris Taylor and Dr Mirain Rhys discuss changes in education as part of Measuring Devolution. Their comments can be seen in the BBC News article below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-27663527

BBC Coast presenter ‘stress tested’ by WISERD biomapping project. This week the WISERD funded biomapping research project (led by Dr Jon Anderson (CPLAN) and Professor Chris Taylor) ‘stress-tested’ the BBC presenter Nicholas Crane for the forthcoming series of the popular television programme ‘Coast‘. The research project uses ‘qsensor’ technology to quantify the affect of the built,…

Dr Robin Mann discusses patterns of migration to Wales on BBC Radio Cymru. Dr Robin Mann, Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and WISERD at Bangor University, took part in the BBC Radio Cymru programme Taro’r Post, to discuss migration to Wales. Dr Mann was asked to comment on new Office for National Statistics…

Read the latest posts from WISERD and WISERD Education blogs. WISERD Co-Director, Professor Howard Davis, writes about the reaction to recent European Parliament elections: Civil society and participation: reactions to the European Parliament elections By Professor Howard Davis, WISERD Co-Director. The recent European Parliament elections grabbed the headlines across Europe as some remarkable results were announced….

Minister for Education & Skills comments on Evaluating the Foundation Phase first reports for Welsh Government, and receives significant coverage across the Welsh press. BBC – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-27290036/welsh-government-s-foundation-phase-policy-varies-reports-say Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/concern-over-literacy-praise-welsh-7074714 South Wales Argus- http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/11194817._Lessons_to_be_learned__on_Foundation_Phase___minister/ Nursery World – https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1143888/welsh-foundation-phase-practice-varies-widely

The recent European Parliament elections grabbed the headlines across Europe as some remarkable results were announced. Protest is in the air, coming from all political directions. Voices of reaction have been most strident but we should not forget that the almost universally low turnout of voters also indicates a kind of sullen refusal. Commentaries have…

The Welsh Government, with their Welsh Language Scheme 2012-2017, (A Living Language: A Language for Living), aim to increase the use of Welsh in Wales. Though the Welsh Language Scheme aims to increase the use of Welsh in all domains, education plays a crucial role. The Welsh Government have strategic plans in place for 2013-2014…

Professor David Blackaby comments on Welsh house prices can be found in the linked article. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/house-prices-up-49-wales-7147588

Professor Gareth Rees is quoted in Time Higher Education regarding the Public Policy Institute Wales, which can be found by following the link below. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/campus-close-up-cardiff-university/2013228.article

This is an exciting opportunity for a doctoral student in the social sciences to have a four month paid internship (£17,200 per annum pro rata) and gain valuable experience in the use of evidence for strategy development. Project Brief As part of the Welsh Government’s plans for developing future strategy for the NHS in Wales,…

Minister for Education & Skills, Huw Lewis, comments on the release of the first WISERD reports for Welsh Government. A series of reports into the Welsh Government’s flagship early years education programme the Foundation Phase have been warmly welcomed by Education and Skills Minister Huw Lewis. The Foundation Phase for children aged 3-7 places emphasis…

Download WISERD report for Welsh Government by Rhys Davies and Huw Lloyd Williams. The Welsh Government published a report last week on: The dynamics of low income.  The report considers the extent to which individuals move in and out of poverty, the characteristics of those who remain in poverty and the types of events that can…

A new research project, evaluating the Foundation Phase Flexibility Pilots, is underway with Professor Chris Taylor as lead researcher. In line with the Welsh Government’s commitment to Early Years development, the Foundation Phase is the statutory curriculum for all 3 to 7 year old children in Wales in both maintained and non-maintained settings. The Foundation…

Mark Drakeford AM, Minister for Health and Social Services, will visit Swansea University on Tuesday, April 15, to speak on the topic of “Prudent Healthcare: what can the NHS learn from social care?”. The Minister has been invited to give the first public lecture in a new seminar series, which has been jointly organised by Swansea…

WISERDEducation is a really exciting initiative which is designed to promote educational research in Wales. The core programme of research is funded by HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council of Wales) and is designed to increase the quantity and quality of educational research in Wales. We are now into our second year, and the first year…

This is my first blog as Director of WISERD and I’m fortunate to have joined just at a time when we are celebrating a number of research successes across a wide range of WISERD activities.  Not least among these is our success in securing funding in excess of £7 millionfrom the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for…

Join Wales’ largest social science conference! Bookings are now open for the WISERD 2014 Annual Conference.  The event follows on from four successful conferences, held in the Universities of Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor and South Wales.  Bringing practitioners, policy makers and social scientists together, WISERD conferences have become established as one of the most important events in…

WISERD has received major funding in excess of £7 million following a successful bid to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). As one of four UK research centres, WISERD will be part of an overall ESRC investment of £29 million in a series of new centres and investments which will focus on a range…

Listen to Professor Sally Power on BBC Radio4 programme Thinking Allowed, discussing British vs French graduate interest in ‘serving’ their country when it comes to their career. Professor Sally Power talks about her new comparative study which finds that British students from top universities seek worldwide opportunities, whereas their French counterparts wish to ‘serve’ France….

Inaugural Director, Professor Huw Beynon will feature on the BBC’s The Miners’ Strike programme at 10.25pm on BBC ONE Wales on Sunday March 9th. The programme marks the 30th anniversary of the historic struggle between the miners and a Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher.  The strike was a well-documented twelve months of hostility. Former…

Professor Sally Power talks about her new comparative study which finds that British students from top universities seek worldwide opportunities, whereas their French counterparts wish to ‘serve’ France.

Wales Online Coverage of the Research conducted by WISERD that formed a key element of the Welsh Government commissioned “Successful Futures” report, written by Professor Graham Donaldson, which proposes a radical overhaul of the national curriculum in Wales. The coverage can be accessed below. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/revealed-radical-education-overhaul-dramatically-8713170

BBC Coverage of the Research conducted by WISERD that formed a key element of the Welsh Government commissioned “Successful Futures” report, written by Professor Graham Donaldson, which proposes a radical overhaul of the national curriculum in Wales. The full coverage can be read by following the link below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-31606122

A Made in Cardiff TV interview with Professor Ian Rees Jones, regarding the launch of the Civil Society research Centre, can be found below.

Professor Chris Taylor was asked to provide comment regarding HEFCW warning that universities in Wales could fall behind those in the rest of the UK unless the way students are funded changes.

WISERD launched a seminar series aiming to examine the impact of the recession on social and economic life in Wales; and to take stock of the policy responses in Wales in the context of a Westminster government committed to austerity measures. 2008 marked the beginning of the deepest and longest recession of modern times.  While…

The fifth podcast of the WISERD Research Podcast Series is now online:  Professor David Blackaby discusses his findings on regional variations in public-private sector wage differences. Labour Market Implications of Changes in the Public Sector: Inequality and Work Quality: This eighteen-month study examines aspects of work within the public sector compared to the private sector.  It is…

WISERD Director Professor Ian Rees Jones speaking at the WISERD Civil Society Centre launch in January 2015.

Welsh pupils should leave school as young adults prepared for living and working in Wales, or in other parts of the world. The WISERD Education project has given us the opportunity to ask pupils about their hopes and expectations for their futures, including, but not limited to, careers. These questions were varied and focussed on…

WISERDEducation has launched a new website. WISERDEducation is a three year £1 million project examining 1,200 pupils aged 5-17 years in 24 schools across Wales, and the new website has been designed to best reflect the aims and objectives of this invaluable research. WISERDEducation is designed to strengthen educational research in Wales.  Funded by the Higher…

The call for papers submission deadline has been extended to Friday 7 February 2014. The WISERD 2014 Conference will be held on 3-4 July 2014 in Aberystwyth University. We are delighted to be able to confirm that Professor Bob Jessop and Professor Karel Williams have agreed to deliver keynote addresses. The 2014 conference is the fifth annual WISERD conference, and…

Recently, the Welsh government has committed to raising standards of literacy and numeracy amongst pupils in schools across Wales by developing the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF). The LNF was developed with the intention of enabling pupils to “develop excellent literacy and numeracy skills during their time in school.” Literacy and numeracy are essential skills in…

Professor Mike Woods presents his new research project: The Global Countryside: Rural Change and Development in Globalization. WISERD Co-Director Professor Michael Woods has been awarded a £2.27 million Advanced Grant by the European Research Council for research on ‘The Global Countryside: Rural Change and  Development in Globalization’ (GLOBAL-RURAL). The five year project, which will begin in February, will be undertaken by…

Professor Sally Power’s research on the Assisted Places Scheme featured in an article by The Times, which can be seen here.

The G8 summit has announced today the launch of a £4 million research project about improving life with dementia. This new project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and National Institute for Health Research hopes to answer some key questions: How can people with dementia be supported to live well?  What affects…

The WISERD 2014 Conference will be held on 3-4 July 2014 in Aberystwyth University. We are delighted to be able to confirm that Professor Bob Jessop and Professor Karel Williams have agreed to deliver keynote addresses. The 2014 conference is the fifth annual WISERD conference, and follows on from four successful conferences, held in Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor and South…

Applications for this post have now closed. Post Reference Number: 1567BR WISERD is seeking to recruit an Administrative Assistant to provide a professional administrative support service to the Cardiff based hub.  The role holder will also be required to provide administrative support to a number of research projects. This is a full time post of 35 hours per week,…

Cardiff University and Shelter Cymru co-host conference today as a platform for current housing research, policy and practice providing inspiration for further development in this important field. Policy makers, practitioners and advocacy organisations rely on sound, credible research to inform and push for changes. As the first ever Welsh Housing Bill enters scrutiny stage this…

Cardiff University and Shelter Cymru co-host conference today as a platform for current housing research, policy and practice providing inspiration for further development in this important field. Policy makers, practitioners and advocacy organisations rely on sound, credible research to inform and push for changes. As the first ever Welsh Housing Bill enters scrutiny stage this…

Further coverage of Professor Chris Taylor’s analysis from Millennium Cohort Study in Western Mail, linked below. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/wales-poorest-children-much-less-6199189

Professor Sally Power uncovers the benefits for those from less advantaged homes attending independent schools. WISERD research has revealed that beneficiaries of the Assisted Places scheme, which provided a means-tested education at independent schools for young people from less advantaged homes until 1997, continue to reap the benefits from their private education. The research, funded…

Professor Ian Rees Jones has been appointed as the new Director of WISERD.     Based at Cardiff University, Professor Jones will lead the Institute which has become a major centre for social science research excellence in Wales and beyond. Talking of his new position, Professor Jones said: “This is a very exciting time to…

Professor Chris Taylor will present his findings on Devolution and Geographies of Education: the use of the Millennium Cohort Study for ‘home international’ comparisons across the UK. Using the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a recent longitudinal birth cohort study specifically designed to provide the potential for geographical analysis, Professor Taylor will present his highly publicised research…

The third podcast of the WISERD Research Podcast Series is now online:  Professor Chris Taylor discusses developments in his evaluation of the Pupil Deprivation Grant (PDG).   This two-year evaluation will look at how schools have used this new grant and what impact this additional resource has had on these children and young people. The PDG was…

The second podcast of the WISERD Research Podcast Series is now online:  Professor Sally Power discusses developments in WISERDEducation. As the anniversary of WISERDEducation approaches, Professor Sally Power looks back on the work of the past twelve months and gives an insight into the key developments taking place in the future. WISERDEducation is a one million pound investment to…

Professor Chris Taylor’s research revealing that children in Wales are behind their counterparts in England in standards of literacy was covered extensively by national news outlets Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/literacy-standards-dropping-wales-new-5835371 The Independent – http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/english-children-outperform-welsh-and-scottish-pupils-at-reading-8797106.html The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/04/reading-england-wales-scotland-pupils ITV News – http://www.itv.com/news/wales/update/2013-09-04/literacy-lagging-behind-england/ BBC News – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-23955938/welsh-pupils-literacy-lagged-behind-england-in-2007

Professor Chris Taylor has uncovered evidence that children at age seven in Wales do not do as well as their contemporaries in England when it comes to literacy. Professor Taylor has found that whilst children in England and Wales score equally in assessments on their numeracy and non-verbal reasoning, the gap in literacy levels between…

Professor David Blackaby discusses the 1,400 jobs created from aerospace company Testia UK in Newport in an article published by BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23934149  

Analysis released on assessment of outcomes for people leaving ESF projects. A report assessing the outcomes for those leaving ESF projects, designed to increase engagement in the labour market and improve the skill levels of the workforce, is now available. The Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) has recently published a report prepared by WISERD and…

WISERD researchers delivered presentations at this year’s Eisteddfod in Denbighshire. Mirain Rhys, Dr Kathryn Sharp and Dr Martin O’Neill delivered presentations at this year’s Eisteddfod on Thursday 8th August in Denbighshire. As part of Cardiff University’s presence at the event, WISERD researchers took part in the Discuss Cardiff space.  This provided an opportunity to showcase the…

Urban Rhythms: Mobilities, Space and Interaction in the Contemporary City will be launched on Tuesday 6th August at Cardiff University.   The book is a Sociological Review Monograph, an edited collection which brings together a range of scholars working in a global range of cities. The chapters of the book, based in cities from Rio…

Dr Kate Moles is working closely with Cardiff University’s School of History, Archaeology and Religion on the Heart of Cardiff Heritage Walk Dr Moles has teamed up with colleagues in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion on the CAER Heritage Project to develop a heritage walk from the Caerau Hillfort to the new Iron…

Research from Professor Chris Taylor and Professor Gareth Rees regarding widening access appeared in a news article run by Wales Online. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/background-no-barrier-university-success-5390966

WISERD researchers reveal how coming from a ‘low participation neighbourhood’ has little affect on a students’ progress through HE Professor Chris Taylor and Professor Gareth Rees have found there is no significant effect on the progress of students in Higher Education who come from areas of widening access. The recently published research, in the Contemporary…

WISERD researchers provide annual report on the evaluation during its first year and provide a summary of the research findings from Stage I. The Foundation Phase is the statutory curriculum for all 3 to 7 years old children in Wales in both maintained and non-maintained settings.  It is based on the principle that early years’…

Front page news! Lead story in the Western Mail on the annual report to Welsh Government as part of the Evaluation of the Foundation Phase. The online copy of the lead article can be viewed below. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/foundation-phase-report-deals-blow-5376601

WISERD’s fifth annual conference will take place on 3rd & 4th July 2014 at Aberystwyth University. The dates for Wales’ largest social science conference have been set.  This two day event will take place on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th July 2014 at the MedRus Conference Centre at Aberystwyth University. This annual event showcases policy…

The ESRC reports that social science research in Wales now has the highest success rate and the biggest improvement of all the UK countries. The Economic and Social Research Council has increased its spending on research grants by £2 million and boosted its success rates for grant proposals from 17 per cent to 27 per…

Read Professor Ian Rees Jones‘ article: Will publishing surgeon performance improve outcomes? Professor Jones has co-authored an article with Professor Jonathan Gabe and Professor Max Exworthy for the Health Service Journal. With the announcement of public reporting being introduced in 10 surgical sub-specialties in England, the article questions whether the publication of surgeon performance will result…

Dr Moles is interviewed as part of the Emotional Geographies Conference at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. The International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies took place on 1st – 3rd July 2013 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.  The event is the fourth is a series that provides a forum for a…

Amy Jones from Swansea University wins the PhD student Poster Competition at the WISERD Annual Conference. Amy Jones, a PhD student from Swansea University, was delighted to win the PhD Student Poster competition at this year’s WISERD Annual Conference. The competition was part of a research poster exhibition at Wales’ largest social science conference.  Hosted…

This year’s WISERD Annual conference was a great success with nearly 150 delegates and over 80 papers presented, cementing the event as the largest social science conference in Wales.  Academics and non-academics from a diverse range of disciplines and areas of interest shared their research at the two-day event at the University of South Wales…

Research, funded by WISERD, finds workers in Wales are happier than workers elsewhere in Britain, despite jobs being lower paid and less skilled. Report findings from the Skills and Employment Survey 2012 were launched at the event: Work, Skills and Well-being in Wales yesterday. Work, Skills and Well-being in Wales: First Findings from the Skills and…

Professor Alan Felstead and Rhys Davies discussion following the launch of their research on the 2012 Skills and Employment Survey. They found that workers in Wales are paid less than elsewhere in Britain and do lower skilled jobs, but they were the happiest and most committed. Wales Online BBC News ESRC

Professor Alan Felstead and Rhys Davies discussion following the launch of their research on the 2012 Skills and Employment Survey. They found that workers in Wales are paid less than elsewhere in Britain and do lower skilled jobs, but they were the happiest and most committed. Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/cardiff-university… BBC News – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23223035 ESRC – http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/publications/magazin…

  WISERD is delighted to announce the first in a series of podcasts about WISERD projects and research activity. Click here to listen to Dr Kate Moles and Dr Alex Morgan talk about their three year evaluation of Pori Drwy Stori, a bilingual reading intervention designed to raise educational outcomes for young children by increasing…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/23052939

Following a FOI, research from Professor Gareth Rees and Professor Chris Taylor featured in The Observer regarding an Inclusive Higher Education System. The Guardian article can be accessed by following the link below. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/16/accesstouniversity-private-schools

The Welsh Government will be hosting a session at the WISERD 2013 Annual Conference which will afford attendees the opportunity to learn more about the Office for National Statistics Beyond 2011 Consultation on the future of the Census programme.  Attendees will be updated on progress on the programme, and be given the opportunity to feedback…

Dr Martin O’Neill and Professor David Blackaby both appeared on the BBC’s The Wales Report.  Dr O’Neill discussed how EU Funding impacts the Valleys community and Professor Blackaby commented on working hours in Wales.

Professor Lindsay Paterson, Professor Laura McAllister and Professor David Martin to give Keynote Speeches at Annual Conference. Keynote speakers for WISERD’s fourth annual conference have been confirmed.  Discussing topics on national identity; devolution; and the Census, the three speakers will deliver their keynote address to an audience of academic, policy, public, private and third sector…

WISERD Director, Professor Gareth Rees, was one of a panel of speakers involved in a What Works Wales event on Friday 17th May.  The event was organised by the Alliance for Useful Evidence in collaboration with the Big Lottery Fund and in partnership with Wales Public Services 2025. The seminar was the Alliance’s first event…

Delegates join distinguished keynote speakers for special Census debate   A unique opportunity to discuss the Census will take place at the Annual Conference for the Wales Institute for Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD). Now in its fourth year, the WISERD Annual Conference is Wales’ largest social science conference; bringing practitioners, policy…

On 7 May 2013, WISERD held a Longitudinal Research Event, designed to showcase some examples of longitudinal research taking place in and on Wales. The Exploiting the Potential of Longitudinal Research Resources for Wales seminar took place earlier this month with great success. The aim of the event was to contribute to the development of…

Research Director, Professor Chris Taylor presented his findings on the relationship between the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma (WBQ) and Higher Education (HE) at Cardiff University’s Policy Café last night (26th March). The event followed the release of the report: Relationships between the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma (WBQ) and Higher Education (HE) from the Welsh Government…

Professor Chris Taylor is interviewed  on his research for the Welsh Government report: Relationships between the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma (WBQ) and Higher Education (HE) Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-bacc-inflates-pupil-achievements-2513441 BBC News – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21935983 ITV News – http://www.itv.com/news/wales/update/2013-03-26/welsh-bacc/

Tracking the progress of Assisted Place holders thirty years on Co-Director Professor Sally Power will lead on a new research project, awarded to WISERD by the Sutton Trust, which will look into the progress of Assisted Place holders. The research aims to explore the long-term impact of the Assisted Places Scheme on beneficiaries’ occupational and…

Interview regarding the Unequal Wales Seminar: Inequalities in Access to Higher Education can be seen on Wales Online website (link below) https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/share-least-well-off-uni-still-2512987

Professor Chris Taylor’s is interviewed by TES Cyrmu following his Assembly Briefing on the Millennium Cohort Study. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/academic-rejects-schooled-fail-theory-2495925

A report written by academic staff at WISERD Swansea, entitled ‘An analysis of subjective wellbeing in Wales: Evidence from the Annual Population Survey’, was published by the Welsh Government on 31st October 2012. This report examines Annual Population Survey (APS) data containing new questions on Subjective Wellbeing (SWB). It focuses on comparisons between variations in SWB across…

The number of people in Wales claiming help from councils for homelessness has gone up for the second year running. Figures show more than 19,000 people said they had nowhere to live, a rise of about 27% on the previous year. However, Cardiff University lecturer Dr Peter Mackie, who is also the chair of the WISERD…

WISERD has secured a £1M investment into the development of education research in Wales with the establishment of WISERD EDUCATION. This Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funded project has the potential to change the landscape of education research in Wales and will put Wales at the forefront of research capacity building developments in…

WISERD and the Institute of Welsh Politics are jointly hosting a seminar series on the subject of ‘Knowing Wales’. Led by prominent figures from across the social scientists and delivered at Aberystwyth University over the next 12 months, sessions focus on the shifting social, economic and political landscape of Wales in the 21st century, with…

Professor David Blackaby, of WISERD Swansea and Swansea University, has been interviewed by the South Wales Evening Post about  job cuts by Tata. The steel company announced last Friday (23rdNovember) that 500 mainly white collar jobs would be lost at the steel plant in Port Talbot. In the interview Professor Blackaby stated that, although jobs…

Professor Gareth Rees, Director of the Wales Institute of Social Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD), has recently commented in the Western Mail on this year’s GCSE exam figures. The figures, released last week, show that 70.8% of Welsh pupils achieved the Level 2 threshold overall this summer, up from 67.3% last year. The proportion of…

The Call for Papers for the fourth annual WISERD conference is now open. The WISERD 2013 Conference will take place on 25th and 26th June at the University of Glamorgan, attracting colleagues from academic, policy, public, private and third sectors. Following on from three successful events in Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor; the WISERD conference has become…

WISERD has successfully secured a £1m investment into the development of education research in Wales with the establishment of WISERDEDUCATION. The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funded programme has the potential to change the landscape of education research in Wales and will put Wales at the forefront of research capacity building developments in…

Dr Robin Mann is interviewed for the BBC about his research on Public Sentiments towards immigration in Wales.  

A report for the Welsh Government carried out by WISERD researchers has revealed that a larger proportion of people in Wales hold negative views on immigration compared with other parts of the UK. The final report for the Welsh Government New Ideas Social Research Fund project entitled ‘Public Sentiments Towards Immigrants and Minorities: The Difference…

A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation carried out by WISERD researchers and members of the WISERD housing thematic network in the School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University has revealed that increasing numbers of young people are going to be forced into the private rented sector over the coming decade if they want…

Professor Gareth Rees is interviewed about the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification on BBC Radio Wales.

Launch of Audio Walks resources in Grangetown is announced in Western Mail

The resources from an innovative project which used audio walks to create a sense of community in one of Cardiff’s inner-city neighbourhoods, are being launched at an event next week. The ‘Sounding the Way: Audio Walking in Cardiff’s Urban Neighbourhoods’ project was funded in 2010 by the Beacon for Wales and led by Dr Kate…

Cardiff School of Social Sciences has officially launched the European Commission funded NESET website – NESETweb – a Europe-wide online resource aimed at supporting the development of better and fairer education across the European Union. NESET, which stands for the Network of Experts on Social aspects of Education and Training, has launched the website to…

The resources from an innovative project which used audio walks to create a sense of community in one of Cardiff’s inner-city neighbourhoods, are being launched at an event next week. The ‘Sounding the Way: Audio Walking in Cardiff’s Urban Neighbourhoods’ project was funded in 2010 by the Beacon for Wales and led by Dr Kate Moles…

WISERD recently co-organised a special symposium on Qualitative GIS at the 2012 annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in New York.  The AAG conference is one of the largest in the world, attracting an average 7000-8000 international participants. The symposium was organised by Stephen Burgess (WISERD, Cardiff); Mei-Po Kwan (Ohio State University);…

Bangor Social Sciences Conference on Intersectionality and Belonging (28-29 June) On Thursday 28th and Friday 29th June, Bangor University will be hosting an international conference exploring the themes of intersectionality and belonging. The conference is a collaborative venture between the School of Social Sciences Bangor University, the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods…

In February this year, WISERD’s Housing Reference Group teamed up with the Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning’s Innovation and Engagement Unit and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to host a public lecture on the future of homelessness policy in Wales. The lecture entitled ‘The Future of Homelessness Policy in Wales: Learning Lessons from the States and the Scots’,…

One of the most important events in the social science calendar for people concerned with social and economic issues in Wales is travelling to Bangor next week. The third annual Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods’ (WISERD) Conference will bring together social science researchers, politicians, postgraduate students and public sector representatives…

Professor Gareth Rees has offered his expertise to an article this week (March 12th, p.4) about the next Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) results in November. The article leads on Education Minster Leighton Andrews’ comments that he doesn’t expect Wales to show ‘real improvement’ in the school rankings because the Welsh Government’s new education…

WISERD are supporting two ESRC PhD awards as part of 11 fully-funded studentships with the Cardiff School of Social Sciences and the Doctoral Training Centre for Wales. Both studentships for the 2012/13 academic year will be in the field of education. The first topic will examine adult community learning participation and involvement in schooling and the second…

Front page news! The report into graduate mobility that found Wales has lower retention rates with regards to the proportion of students studying and staying to find work in Wales is the lead story in the Western Mail. The online copy, published by Wales Online, can be found through this link.  

A recent project on Welsh graduate mobility by WISERD researchers has been featured on the front page of the Western Mail today (January 5th 2012). The research project – ‘Stay, leave or return? Patterns of Welsh Graduate mobility’– was undertaken in collaboration with the ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) and investigated the nature…

Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM, the former Presiding Officer of the National Assembly, will make a major speech to open an important social science conference in Bangor next year. The third annual Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods’ (WISERD) conference will bring together researchers, politicians and third sector agencies from Wales and…

Cardiff School of European Studies Cardiff’s large and successful School of European Studies is a vibrant multidisciplinary unit that specialises in the different histories, political systems, languages, literatures and cultural identities of Europe. In the most recent independent assessment of the quality of research in British universities, the School was ranked second in the UK…

Researchers at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) have secured a competitive tender from the Welsh Government to review homelessness legislation in Wales. This will be the most significant piece of homelessness research to be conducted in Wales and will directly inform the forthcoming Housing Bill to help improve…

In collaboration with the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) and the Cardiff School of Social Sciences , funded by the ESRC (Ref: RES-622-26-368) Talk of numbers with school teachers, most immediately think of their MAT (more able and talented) students who can ‘do maths’, but where does the social…

WISERD is pleased to support two events as part of the annual Festival of Social Science run by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The week-long festival (29 October – 5 November),  now in its ninth year, celebrates some of the country’s leading social science research, showcasing the valuable work of the UK’s social scientists…

Talk of numbers with school teachers, most immediately think of their MAT (more able and talented) students who can ‘do maths’, but where does the social science bit come in? On Wed 2nd November, in our ESRC Festival of Social Science event ‘Who are we? From local to global citizen’, we took on the challenge…

We are very pleased to announce that Dr Rhys Jones of Aberystwyth University is the new convenor of WISERD’s Language, Citizenship and Identity thematic reference group. Dr Jones succeeds Professor Graham Day of the School of Social Sciences at Bangor University. We would like to thank Professor Day for steering the group and for his…

WISERD wins £1M to evaluate “one of the most important educational policies since devolution in Wales” Researchers based at Cardiff University have secured a £1M bid – commissioned by the Welsh Government – to evaluate the Foundation Phase early years education policy. The high-profile team, led by researchers at the Wales Institute of Social and…

An innovative biomapping research project funded by WISERD was presented at the recent Royal Geographical Society / Institute of British Geographers Conference in London (31st August – 2nd September 2011). The annual event is the second largest geography conference in the world, attracting 1300 speakers and 1500 delegates. The research, devised and constructed by Dr…

An exciting project at WISERD is encouraging social science researchers to test and review new geoportal software. The WISERD Geoportal (WGP) initiative aims to develop a web-based software application to enhance a researcher’s ability to discover socio-economic research data relating to Wales. Run by the WISERD Data Integration Team, the WGP hopes to encourage collaborative…

As part of the second phase of the research programme, WISERD researchers have begun working on a series of mini-projects. These projects build on existing research undertaken by WISERD to date and enable further analysis of key themes and issues identified during the first phase of the WISERD research programme. The projects are diverse in…

Knowing Localities, the WISERD localities programme, is an integral part of the research being undertaken by WISERD. A key activity undertaken by the localities team over the past 24 months has been the stakeholder interview programme.  With the fieldwork now fully completed, and second stage analysis fully underway, WISERD research staff (and a wider tranche…

Professor Gareth Rees has been elected to the Fellowship of the Learned Society of Wales in the most recent round of nominations. Fellows are elected to the Society for demonstrating a record of excellence and achievement in academia and for making distinguished contributions to the world of learning that are used by other learned societies….

Residents of Grangetown in Cardiff are being encouraged to explore their neighbourhood through producing audio walks. The ongoing ‘Sounding the Way’ project funded by Beacon for Wales, is led by Dr Kate Moles of WISERD Cardiff and Angharad Saunders of Glamorgan University in conjunction with Voluntary Action Cardiff. As one of the more deprived areas…

The Welsh Government has announced that it will be supporting four research studies into the economy of Wales by awarding them with Economic Research Grants. These grants have been designed to help develop research capacity and widen knowledge of the economy in Wales by encouraging innovative, smaller-scale economic research. Researchers at WISERD will be involved…

On 28th and 29th June 2011 colleagues from across the WISERD partner Universities, invited speakers, representatives of voluntary organisations, postgraduate students and representatives from the public sector met in Swansea to present their work at the second WISERD conference. Over 140 delegates attended what is quickly becoming established as the major ‘shop window’ for social…

A conference was held on 10 June 2011 at Cardiff University to celebrate the work of foundation Director of WISERD, Huw Beynon. Huw has made a very important contribution to the sociological analysis of work-places, most notably through his studies of the motor car and coal industries. He has also conducted major studies of the…

On June 8th WISERD researchers delivered two ‘knowledge exchange’ workshops on behaviour change at a two-day event organised by Participation Cymru attended by stakeholders across Wales with an interest in public engagement with service delivery. An overview of the policy and political (UK Gov) terrain was firstly given by Jessica Pyket from the ‘Soft Paternalism’…

A special screening of Dr Gideon Koppel’s award-winning film Sleep Furiously, introduced by the Director himself, will be the preamble to the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods’ (WISERD) annual conference, held in Swansea next week. The screening, followed by a Q&A session with Dr Koppel, will take place at Swansea…

The Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods’ (WISERD) second annual summer conference, will reflect on the institute’s interdisciplinary working methods and feature an array of speakers from academia, central and local government, and third sector agencies. A key topic under discussion at the conference will be an analysis of the economic…

WISERD Cardiff Localities Co-ordinator, will discuss her research into hypermedia techniques in the generation of qualitative data at a seminar at London South Bank University on Tuesday 21st June 2011. The seminar, entitled ‘Using Digital Technologies in the Generation of Data’, will bring together a range of inter-disciplinary researchers, consultants and practitioners from a variety…