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)…

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 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…

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…

This project will examine the effectiveness of social procurement policies in supporting fair work and initiatives that support vulnerable groups. The research will examine how procurement works in practice and explore the challenges and opportunities of the new social procurement legislation in Wales in supporting the delivery social value and fair work.  The research will…

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 examine the impact of digital and other surveillance activities upon GRT and migrant Roma communities and groups. The research will consider key state surveillance practices affecting these communities across Europe with a particular focus on England and Wales. The project aims to extend knowledge concerning police violence and anti-Roma hate to encompass…

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 examine the contemporary role of civil society organisations in rights advocacy and welfare provision for refugees and asylum seekers. Through a comparative case study analysis of Wales, Scotland and England, interviews with organisations concerned with supporting RAS communities will identify key issues, areas of progress and future challenges to identify transferable lessons…

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…