🗞️CWPS March Newsletter 

🗞️ Welcome to the CWPS March Newsletter 

It’s been a great start to 2024! We’ve been awarded £5 million in research funding and organised 6 events and we’re just getting started, with a further 7 events lined up in the next few months!

We’ve also published 3 new videos, 2 new reports, and new papers. All these exciting updates are conveniently in this newsletter to ensure you stay informed about the latest research on Wales, with a global outlook.

📅 Events

Framing the Future

Workers Gallery, Rhondda, 7-21 March, 10.30am-4.30pm Thursday – Saturday.

This is an exhibition of photographs from our project that uses photography to understand how people think about independence in Wales, Scotland and Catalonia. More information.

CWPS/WISERD Research Seminar: ‘Exploring Lived Time and The Lifeworld as Analytical Frameworks to Understand Working-Class Student Experiences’

Online, 12 March, 12:00-13:00

Toni Beardmore will be presenting some of her doctoral research on working class students’ experiences of higher education in an online seminar. More information.

Fractured Union

Aberystwyth University, 29 April 6-7.30

As part of our new series of events on Constitutional Futures, we welcome Professor Michael Kenny, Director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at Cambridge University. He will be discussing his new book, ‘Fractured Union’ which addresses the pressing question of the United Kingdom’s survival, a topic now at the forefront of British politics. Register here.

Creating the Constitutional Future of Wales

The Senedd, 22 May

From 10-5 we are exhibiting photographs from our project that uses photography to understand how people think about independence in Wales, Scotland and Catalonia. This will be followed by an evening panel discussion with the project team and photographers. More information.

Doing Democracy Differently

The Hay Festival, 28 May  

Join us for the launch of ‘Doing Democracy Differently’ by the Dialogue Centre and Dr. Anwen Elias. This innovative project taps into participatory democracy trends, urging us to harness human creativity. Explore how community-led photography, collage, and art can directly shape policies and institutions. More information.

WISERD Annual Conference 2024

University of South Wales, 3-4 July 2024

The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Aspiring to achieve a fairer society’. The conference will explore the following questions: What would a fairer society look like? How can social science research deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that lead to long-term and persistent inequalities? More information. 

‘Research methodologies and regional or minority language research’ Conference

Aberystwyth University, 9-10 July 

As policy-makers and academics alike have become increasingly aware of the threats facing regional or minority languages, academic research into these languages is extremely important. This workshop will discuss and share best practice regarding research methodologies in the field of language planning and policy. More information.

Constitutional Futures: Rhun ap Iorwerth MS 

The final report of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales outlined different options for Wales’s constitutional future. In this video, Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, leader of Plaid Cymru, responds to the report and reflects on the implications for Plaid Cymru’s policy of independence for Wales in the first of CWPS’s new series of Constitutional Futures events. Watch the video here.

The Role of Community and Voluntary Organizations in Addressing Polarisation in Local Communities

We’re delighted to share three videos from this conference.

Meet the community and voluntary organisations from our recent hybrid event, where we addressed how polarisation is experienced by local community and voluntary organisations and, most importantly, the strategies they employ to combat it. 

Marjorie Mayo explores community development and popular education in populist times and Amanda Morris on educating and empowering communities to challenge problematic media representation of Muslims and Islam. Watch the video here. 

Anthony Ince discusses ‘Far-right voluntarism and the figure of the ‘good citizen’ and Ali Abdi shares his expertise on Community Organising, Grange Pavilion & the Great Get Together. Keynote speaker Derek Walker, leads a Q&A on ‘How is Wales well-placed to resist division from an increasingly polarised world’.  Watch the video here.

CWPS to lead major new project to support inclusive sustainable development in Rural Wales

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. Find out more here.

Report summarises findings from recent research on out-migration to inform the work of the ARFOR II programme

A briefing report has been published outlining the key conclusions from two research workshops on the topic of out-migration that were held during November 2023. Read the full article here.

The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales publish final report

On 17 January, following a two-year national conversation, the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales published their report. CWPS-WISERD Co-Director, Dr Anwen Elias, is a member of the Commission. Read the full article here.

WISERD presents civil society research to policymakers in Brussels

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. Read the full article here.=

Using Dialogue to have an Impact with your Research

New approaches piloted to ensure research can have an impact during training for policy actors from across the Welsh third sector. Read the full article here.

Sanders A. (2023) A Welsh Innovation in Inclusive Governance. Examining the Efficacy of the Statutory Third Sector-Government Partnership for Engaging the Third Sector in Policymaking, Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, 28(3).

Michael Woods: Rural Youth Out-Migration and Population Change in Wales, Wales Centre for Public Policy Think Piece, December 2023.

Flossie Caerwynt: Migration, Community and IdentityCountercultural Lifestyle Migration to Rural Wales, 1965-1980, October 2023.

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