Research projects

This project sought to problematise homogenising narratives of older people as predominately ‘static’ and ‘passive’, and therefore somehow less implicated in wider social and economic networks; perceptions compounded by the context of rural peripherality. While older people’s experiences may offer insights into the changing historical shape of communities, it is also vital to understand how older…

Researchers from the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods, Swansea University, Cardiff University, and the University of Glamorgan will conduct a systematic research review in order to gain an understanding of the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on changing cultures and patterns of connectivity within and between minority communities…

Overview The existence of a ‘brain drain’ of graduate labour from Wales has long been a focus of debate (for example, Drinkwater and Blackaby, 2004, c.f. Fevre, 2004). Welsh and English higher education and labour markets are interconnected (for example, Rees and Taylor, 2006) and Wales is a ‘loser’ region generating more undergraduates than it…

Overview The UK Strategy for Data Resources for Social and Economic Research (referred to as the National Data Strategy – NDS) sought to identify, prioritise and assist in the development of and access to research data.  It provided a strategy for how different organisations can work with the research community to ‘maximise the research potential of existing…

Overview Talk of industry in the South Wales Valleys is preoccupied with the loss of the mining and steel industries and also the failure of foreign direct investment, its transience and lack of loyalty. This is combined with boosterism around tourism and pleas for the promise of higher education. However, there is another industrial presence…

Overview The aim of this project was to investigate public sentiments in Wales towards immigrants and immigration. The monitoring of what people think about immigration has come to feature regularly within numerous national and cross-national surveys and opinion polls. But there has been little or no attempt to consider the nature of these sentiments at…

Overview Existing quantitative evidence points to differences between Welsh speakers and non-Welsh speakers in terms of labour market outcomes, however little is known about the precise mechanisms underlying such differences. A range of factors were identified which may contribute to this including educational attainment (Welsh medium schools), bilingual employment policies (e.g. as a result of the…

Summary and Rationale This project explored the (bio)physical and emotional relationships between people and place. By using state of the art galvanic skin response units alongside geographical positioning technology, this project sought to map (bio)physical records of human interaction with their environment. To date, this potential has been explored through and for artistic means. The…

This project, carried out between 2009 and 2011, was set within the context of the safeguarding children policy agenda, particularly the notion that child protection is ‘everybody’s business’. The research aimed to explore every-day safeguarding of children at neighbourhood level, including how safeguarding is seen, experienced and carried out by residents, community leaders and professionals….

The project aimed at a qualitative understanding of local knowledge as enacted in practice through a case study of the street-level management of public space, taking the city-centre and abutting residential streets of Cardiff as a field site. Aims The project has taken pedestrian patrol as a particular focus, and has sought to map and…

The project was designed as an ethnographic study of one place, chosen by the wider Local Knowledge in Context Programme, referred to hereafter as Cwm Dyffryn. Aims The main aims of this project were as follows: To explore the ways in which young people understand the different places within their locality, and the ways in…

The remit of the WISERD Language, Culture and Identity Research Network is as follows: To bring people together from the academic; public; private; policy and third sectors; with an interest in research in relation to the group theme. To facilitate communication between group members via the website; meetings; social networking; seminars; conferences and other means….

Overview This project focused on increasing the engagement between local authorities and the higher education research community in Wales by reviewing current local authority education research capacity and activity in Wales and identifying factors that had an impact on activities, examining existing datasets, and identifying good practice in relation to collaborative research activities.

Community-led mapping provides an important way of identifying local community assets and understanding their use by local people. This project will explore the use of open digital mapping platforms to help create living online labs where local knowledge is captured, curated and presented in interactive maps. The project will roll out these methods to undertake…

This project will focus on the development of interactive dashboards and web-based tools that enable stakeholders to participate in the design and evaluation of transport services. The research will demonstrate how open source technologies can be used to plan public transport networks and investigate the spatial implications of access to medical, social and employment sites….

This project will focus on the development of the Understanding Places strand of work as a distinct set of interactive dashboards providing a wide range of demographic, socio-economic and asset-based data for specific localities. The work with build on the Understanding Welsh Places and Understanding Cornish places platforms with the intention of exploring new collaborations…

Rural Wales faces governance challenges due to geographical dispersal, limited resources, and demographic shifts. By mapping governance resources and supporting innovation, this research, aligned with Cymru Wledig LPIP Rural Wales, enhances policy interventions tailored to rural needs. Understanding how collaboration occurs – through formal partnerships, community-led initiatives, or hybrid models – is central to the…

Cultural capital is a resource for local and place-based development and Culture Based Development (CBD) is a framework that has been designed to elaborate measurement and empirical exploration of cultural capital as a micro-economic powered endogenous resource for regional and place-based development. Within this context, this research will explore the sources of cultural capital accumulation…

Well-being is a core policy priority in Wales under the Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015). It established Public Services Boards (PSBs) in each local authority area with statutory responsibility to co-ordinate the assessment and improvement of social, cultural, environmental, and economic well-being. This research provides a new perspective on regional development by combining these…

This research will explore Welsh domiciled students’ decisions and transitions to higher education and their expectations and aspirations following undergraduate study. It will examine the extent to which considerations of employment opportunities in local and national contexts inform decisions and transitions to HE, and aspirations for work, study, and life upon graduation. It will also…