Research projects

Description This project examined the role of a new kind of institutional actor in crime and disorder reduction, the ‘night-time economy co-ordinator’ (NTEC), appointed in Swansea and funded out of the Home Office Tackling Violent Crime Programme. The NTEC was appointed specifically to inform and co-ordinate responses to alcohol-related violence at night in the city centre…

Aims The aims of the project were to examine the pay statistics for Wales, for 2008 and other relevant years to determine possible reasons for the widening of the pay gap between women and men. Methodology The research methodology was desk based analysis of published data sets, primarily, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)…

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 aim of the European Social Fund (ESF) Leavers’ Survey was to assist in assessing the effectiveness of the 2007-2013 ESF Convergence and Competitiveness Programmes in Wales.  The two ESF Operational Programmes (referred to as the Convergence and Competitiveness Programmes) benefiting Wales for the programming period 2007-13 provided just over £1.4 bn1 of investment, with approximately…

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…

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.

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…

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 was a joint venture with the Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies and the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-cultural change (Manchester University). The main study, funded by ESRC, undertook 180 qualitative interviews with cohort members of the 1958 National Child Development Study. In the first stage of the project WISERD…

The National Equality Panel’s report An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK provided a milestone in our understanding of relationships between people’s characteristics and their financial position. Through detailed analysis of complex datasets, some newly available, it charted in depth how ‘inequalities in people’s economic outcomes – such as earnings, income and wealth – are related…

This research aimed to improve understanding of the implications of introducing a living wage policy in Wales. In March 2009, The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) commissioned an exploratory study into the implications of introducing a Living Wage in Wales. This report presents the interim findings from the first phase of the analysis. The objective of…

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 WISERD training and research capacity building programme was established in September 2009 with two objectives. The first was the implementation of a training programme, aimed primarily at professional researchers within the social sciences, and encompassing colleagues from other disciplinary areas and sectors. The second was to identify, encourage and facilitate networking between social science…

About PATCCh The Place-based Approaches To Climate Change research network (PATCCh) unites and develops perspectives from academics, researchers, and industry experts on the concepts of place and climate change, to exchange knowledge on notions of sense of place in relation to climate change. It bridges social science and scientific approaches to climate change from a…

Project Lead: Robert French The purpose of this project is to explore patterns and trends in education in Wales and to inform policy making within Welsh Government. The project will bring together national datasets on education from primary school to university. The aim is to explore issues around school-level attainment, school improvement, progression to higher education,…

Project Lead: Alexandra Sandu Project Overview : The project explores the relationship between household and family characteristics, socioeconomic factors, and educational outcomes in Wales. By linking census and education data and using advanced geospatial techniques like Geographically Weighted Regression, the research seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of how various factors relate to and interact…

Project Lead: Jennifer Keating The broad aim of this project is to investigate education outcomes for children with additional learning needs (ALN). In particular, I am interested in whether the timing of receiving ALN support has an impact on children’s attendance, exclusions, and attainment. Previous research has shown that children with ALN are more likely…