Research projects

Borders, boundary mechanisms and migration examines factors shaping civil society engagement with migration and forms of bordering through comparative international case studies and place-based ethnographies, and explores how social boundary activation mechanisms are articulated by civil society groups. Start date provided is that of the WISERD Civil Society Centre. Work packages will have their own…

Civil society, and place-based strategies for sustainable development undertakes regional policy studies in Wales, UK and Europe and action research in specific foundational sectors. Drawing on place-based social innovation approaches, it considers to what extent regional growth policies focus on foundational sectors and address inclusive growth through social innovation. Start date provided is that of…

New arenas for civic expansion: humans, animals, and Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) involves cross-national qualitative research to explore what factors shape individualism, and human and nonhuman relations in civil society, with reference to animal rights and welfare, and A.I. Start date provided is that of the WISERD Civil Society Centre. Work packages will have their own…

Machines, platforms and capabilities utilises mixed methods to examine the significance of different sectors of the gig economy within local labour markets, and includes the study of co-operative alternatives to more dominant forms of platform capitalism. Start date provided is that of the WISERD Civil Society Centre. Work packages will have their own individual start…

Children and young people’s rights: formal and informal constructions of citizenship utilises an international comparison of the civic expansion of children’s rights in four Western countries (including Wales), and how this can rebalance the civic deficits associated with childhood. Start date provided is that of the WISERD Civil Society Centre. Work packages will have their…

Identity and civic divides in the UK examines the relationship between different forms of identity (disability, sexuality, religion) and political participation and wellbeing. It explores whether identity groups experience differential abilities to exercise rights, and possible explanations for any differences. Start date provided is that of the WISERD Civil Society Centre. Work packages will have…

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

Excluded Lives is a multi-disciplinary project across the four jurisdictions of the UK led by the Department of Education at the University of Oxford and in partnership with the universities of Oxford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Queen’s Belfast, and the LSE. The overarching aim of this project is to provide a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary view of the…

Led by Professor Paul Chaney, this international project links with Professor Nasir Uddin of the University of Chittagong, a leading international scholar on the Rohingyas. This new collaboration aligns with the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) call for new research on promoting human rights, good governance and social justice. By focusing on the recurrent Rohingya…

  Overview Understanding Welsh Places is a website that aims to be the first point of call for statistical information about towns and communities in Wales. A significant proportion of people in Wales live in towns and small communities. Too often, however, such places are overlooked by public policy. While targeted funding exists for city regions and rural…

This project examines the benefits of volunteering for the political engagement of young people in the UK. Voting is the single most common and important form of political participation in a democracy, and yet today’s young voters have an unprecedented reluctance to turn up at the ballot box. What’s more is that this decline of…

Administrative Data Research UK The ESRC, as part of UKRI, are funding an important new investment in research infrastructure to maximise the potential of administrative data as a resource for high-quality research in the UK – Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK).  ADR UK  aims to engage government and academic communities in innovative research to address…

The WISERD Politics and Governance Research Network is a multidisciplinary network which brings together scholars who conduct and publish research that centres on Welsh politics and governance, from across the five WISERD partner universities. The Network is jointly led by Dr Matthew Wall and Dr Bettina Petersohn from Swansea University’s Department of Political and Cultural Studies. Network…

This is an international research project funded by the ESRC under the remit of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). It is a collaboration between researchers at Cardiff Business School and WISERD and our partners at Cividep-India. The research is distinctive in being a longitudinal, workplace-centred study of access to remedy at the grass roots…

The research investigates workplace the grievances of garment workers employed in factories in the city of Bangalore, south India. Specifically it examines access to remedy at the workplace, and seeks to illuminate local conditions against the backdrop of national and international forms of regulation.

WISERD researchers, Melanie Jones and Esgi Kaya have evaluated the size of the gender pay gap within UK public sector occupations such as teaching and nursing after they successfully secured a research grant from the Office of Manpower Economics (OME). The research has informed the work of the independent public sector pay review bodies. They used large…