Blog

The threats facing regional or minority languages will be the focus of an international conference at Aberystwyth University in July. The event will bring together academics and practitioners from across Europe who are experts on the Welsh language and more than ten...

The Aberystwyth University Dialogue Centre and the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society (CWPS) have launched a unique toolkit showing how collage making can help people deliberate important issues.  A Collage of Dialogue: A Creative Method for Setting Up...

The pressing political question of the United Kingdom’s survival will be the subject of a public lecture at Aberystwyth University. ‘Fractured Union’ will be delivered by Professor Michael Kenny, an expert on the UK constitution, national identity, and territorial...

Dr. Amy Sanders has published the paper: A Welsh Innovation in Inclusive Governance. Examining the Efficacy of the Statutory Third Sector-Government Partnership for Engaging the Third Sector in Policymaking. This journal article examines how well the Welsh...

First Minister Mark Drakeford’s government’s decision making during the pandemic was under scrutiny last month at the Covid-19 Inquiry in Cardiff. This newly published paper highlights the failures of state decision making in exacerbating older people’s health and...

On 17 January, following a two-year national conversation, the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales published their report. The publication outlined three potential options for Wales’s constitutional future: enhanced devolution, a federal UK...

A briefing report has been published by the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society (CWPS) at Aberystwyth University, outlining the key conclusions from two research workshops on the topic of out-migration that were held during November 2023.  The workshops...

Amy Sanders has been piloting new approaches to ensure her research can have an impact. She delivered a full day of training for policy actors from across the Welsh third sector. It was called ‘Are you being heard? How the third sector can influence Welsh...

A team led by CWPS Co-Director Michael Woods has been awarded over £5m by UKRI to establish Cymru Wledig LPIP Rural Wales, the Rural Wales Local Policy and Innovation Partnership. The partnership includes CWPS members Lowri Cunnington Wynn and Rhys Jones as well as...

On 25 January, WISERD and Welsh Higher Education Brussels (WHEB) hosted a workshop for policymakers in Brussels and made a case for civil society research being put at the heart of plans for the European Union. Later this year, members of the European...

On Thursday 16th November 2023, the Voluntary Sector Studies Network hosted an event to consider the way the Welsh and Northern Irish Voluntary Sectors are discussed and researched, and whether that differed in comparison to the rest of the UK.  Dr. Amy Sanders,...

Last year, on the 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities,the Special Rapporteur on Minority Rights, Fernand de Varennes, called for a new treaty to better recognize...

Professor Michael Woods gave oral evidence to the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee in early December on their inquiry on the Impact of Population Change in Wales. He presented findings from the Survey of Young People in Rural Wales. You can listen to the...

The UK government alone decides who can enter the country and how migration and asylum policies are made. But devolved governments have scope to use their powers in fields such as housing, education, health and social services to shape the nature of the...

Dr. Elin Royles and Dr. Huw Lewis have developed a framework to analyse the factors that influence the development of language policies.  In their contribution to The Routledge Handbook of Language Policy and Planning, they engage with two public policy...

Dr. Anwen Elias’s insights on Corsican autonomy were included in the Nation Cymru, on 30 September. Discussions about Corsican autonomy have been on-going for 18 months, and in a recent speech French President Emmanuel Macron once again expressed his support...

New research argues Plaid Cymru downplayed its demands for Welsh independence to prioritise vote-seeking goals between 2003 and 2015, and foregrounded calling for independence after 2019, with the new party leadership spurring this shift in the dramatically changed...

A new published blog discusses the objectives of the ARFOR Programme, which aims to understand the relationship between the economy and the Welsh language in Wales.  In this blog, Dr Huw Lewis highlights the need for a clearer definition of how economic and...

Researchers are looking for people in the Caernarfon area with a passion for photography to take pictures reflecting how they think and feel about independence.The photographers will be asked to take four pictures and attend a session at Y Galeri in Caernarfon on...

The Centre for Welsh Politics and Society at Aberystwyth University hosted its Annual Lecture on the prospects for democratic reform in the United Kingdom. Leading academic Professor Alan Renwick, Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit at University College London,...

WISERD academics based at the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society (CWPS) at Aberystwyth University jointly hosted a symposium with partners from the Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) on Wednesday 24 May at the National Library of Wales. Facilitated by Dr Amy...

The role of voluntary organisations in tackling polarisation in local communities will be discussed by the Future Generations Commissioner in Aberystwyth next month. Aberystwyth University academics from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data...

The relationship between voter discontent in rural areas and support for disruptive political movements in Europe and the United States will be explored in a major study by an Aberystwyth University professor, following the award of a prestigious grant. Professor...

Professor Rhys Jones from Aberystwyth University has been appointed to the board of Natural Resources Wales by the Climate Change Minister. Natural Resources Wales is the statutory body responsible for the sustainable management of Wales’ natural resources. Its Board...

An expert on territorial and constitutional politics from Aberystwyth University has been appointed Commissioner to the new Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales. Dr Anwen Elias, CWPS-WISERD Co-Director and Reader in Politics in the Department...

In the latest edition of The Welsh Agenda, CWPS-WISERD Co-Director Dr Anwen Elias, CWPS Executive Board member Matthew Jarvis, Mike Corcoran and Noreen Blanluet discuss what a national conversation on Wales's constitutional future should look like.  The...

From left to right: Aberystwyth University academics Eurig Salisbury, Professor Matthew Jarvis and Professor Mererid Hopwood outside the old gasworks in the town. Three poets from Aberystwyth University have penned a series of poems in response to old manuscripts from...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeci8BLRlXY Racial equality in Wales was the focus for the 2021 Centre for Welsh Politics and Society Annual Lecture that over 200 people watched live on Zoom this week. The lecture, Showing true colours: the changing politics of...

Hate crimes, hostility and the response of civil society to migration will be the focus for a one day symposium held at Aberystwyth University on Tuesday 2 July 2019. An Unsettled status? Migration in a turbulent age, is hosted by WISERD – the Wales Institute of...

We are pleased to publish our report, ‘After Brexit: Ten Key Questions for Rural Policy in Wales’, produced by the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society/WISERD at Aberystwyth University and the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University. The report is based...

We have published a briefing report on 'Evaluation, Impact and Outcomes: What does it mean for us?' that reports on the deliberations of workshops jointly organised by the Wales Institute for Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) ESRC-funded...

A leading Welsh academic working on global health politics has been acknowledge for his life-time’s contribution to social science research in Wales. Professor Colin McInnes, UNESCO Professor of HIV/AIDS Education and Health Security in Africa at the Department of...

Researchers at Aberystwyth University have been shortlisted for awards at the 2017 Welsh Social Research Awards which take place in Cardiff on Thursday 7 December. Hosted by the Social Research Association and sponsored by Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for...

Government evaluation of a scheme developed at Aberystwyth University to reduce carbon emissions will be debated at the National Assembly for Wales on Wednesday 4 October 2017. Sponsored by a cross party group of Assembly Members, the motion calls on Welsh Government...

Centre for Welsh Politics and Society / WISERD@Aberystwyth researchers are involved in a new European study to investigate interactions between rural and urban areas and how they can be more effectively managed. The ROBUST (Rural-Urban Outlooks: Unlocking Synergies)...

Researchers in the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society / WISERD@Aberystwyth are leading a major new European project to examine inequalities between regions and explore how the concept of ‘spatial justice’ can be built into regional policy. The IMAJINE project...

Baroness Eluned Morgan AM delivered the first St David’s Day Lecture for the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society / WISERD@Aberystwyth, with an address surveying the political landscape after the referendum vote to leave the European Union. The lecture emphasized the...