Wales Institute of Social & EconomicResearch, Data & Methods

NEWS

Issue 4 October 2011

WISERD Conference 2011Highlights from the second annualconference Pages 9 -12

Updates from WISERD's ThematicReference Groups Page 2

The WISERD GeoportalPage 16

Evaluating the Foundation PhasePage 19

economic • social science research •

working methods • real impact • equalities •

• human rights •wales • social vision •

• education • social mobility • class •

employment • aspirations • change •

• ageing • homelessness • earnings •

• health • migration • poverty • tourism •

• citizenship • wealth • criminology •

• devolution • social • participation •

• skills • political •

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Paul Milbourne (Cardiff University) openedproceedings with a review of work onmobilities in rural Wales, pointing out howmigration has been a long-standing featurebut is now added to by many other sorts ofmovements. Drawing on evidence fromseveral ‘deep rural’ communities, heconcluded that rural identities arethreatened by but also dependent uponmobilities of many kinds. Hywel Jonesintroduced a session organized by theWelsh Language Board with anexamination of some statistical sources,showing the problems involved in trackingthe movements of young Welsh-speakers,especially those who leave Wales. Twopostgraduates, funded by the Board,presented their work in progress. LowriWynn Cunnington (Bangor) is researchingthe reasons behind the high rate of out-

In SeptemberWISERD’s Language, Identity and Citizenship thematic network held a one-day workshop at the University of Glamorgan on the topic of migration andmobilities.Introducing the session, the group’s convenor, Graham Day, explainedWISERD’sobjectives and the role of the network, and noted howmigration andmovement provideda cross-cutting theme for its concerns.

migration of children from non-Welshbackgrounds. Catrin Edwards(Aberystwyth) is investigating policiestowards migration in minority languagecommunities in Wales, Quebec andCatalonia.

In the afternoon three presentationsprovided different takes on the recentexperience of Eastern European migrationinto Wales and the UK. StephenDrinkwater (Swansea University) gave astatistical overview, drawing onadministrative data, and outlined findingsfrom survey interviews about migrants’strategies and future plans. AndrewThompson (Glamorgan) discussed findingsfrom a qualitative study in Llanelli,stressing the part played by recruitmentagencies, and pointing to the significance

‘Migration and Mobilities’Workshop‘Gweithdy Ymfudo a Symudedd’

of ‘migratory drift’, as migrants adapt theirinitial plans according to circumstances.This gives migration a temporal as well asspatial character. Stuart Tannock (Cardiff)and Lesley Hodgson (Glamorgan) spokeabout the example of Merthyr, where alarge food processing plant relies almostwholly on foreign labour. A number ofimaginative schemes have been developedto try to integrate migrants into the localcommunity, and overcome some localprejudices.

Finally Sue Leake from the WelshGovernment Statistical Directoratedescribed some developing sources ofofficial data, and how researchers couldengage with them. By the end of themeeting it was clear that there was scopefor much more discussion of the meeting’sthemes, including conceptual andmethodological issues, and a considerablepotential research agenda to be explored.A further meeting, possibly on the topic oflanguage and community, is planned forthe new year.

Ymmis Medi cynhaliodd rhwydwaith thematig Iaith, Hunaniaeth a Dinasyddiaeth WISERDweithdy undydd ymMhrifysgol Morgannwg ar bwnc ymfudo a symudedd. Gan gyflwyno’rsesiwn, esboniodd cynullydd y grwp, Graham Day, amcanionWISERD a rôl y rhwydwaith,a sylwodd sut oedd ymfudo a symudiad yn darparu thema drawsbynciol ar gyfer eibryderon.

Agorodd Paul Milbourne (PrifysgolCaerdydd) y digwyddiad gydag adolygiad owaith ar symudedd yng Nghymru wledig,gan nodi sut y bu ymfudo yn nodweddhirsefydlog ond erbyn hyn ychwanegir atogan lawer o fathau o symudiadau eraill. Yntynnu ar dystiolaeth gan nifer ogymunedau ‘perfeddion cefn gwlad’, daethi’r casgliad y caiff hunaniaethau gwledig eubygwth gan wahanol fathau o symudeddond hefyd maent yn dibynnu arnynt.Cyflwynodd Hywel Jones sesiwn adrefnwyd gan Fwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeggydag archwiliad o rai ffynonellauystadegol, sy’n dangos y problemau syddynghlwmwrth olrhain symudiadausiaradwyr Cymraeg ifanc, yn enwedig yrhai sy’n gadael Cymru. Cyflwynodd daufyfyriwr ôl-radd, wedi’u hariannu gan yBwrdd, eu gwaith sydd ar y gweill. MaeLowri Wynn Cunnington (Bangor) yn

ymchwilio i’r rhesymau y tu ôl i’r gyfradduchel o allfudo ymhlith plant o gefndiroedddi-gymraeg. Mae Catrin Edwards(Aberystwyth) yn ymchwilio i bolisïau tuagat ymfudo mewn cymunedau ieithoeddlleiafrifol yng Nghymru, Quebec aChatalonia.

Yn y prynhawn soniodd tri chyflwyniad amwahanol agweddau ar y profiad diweddar oymfudo o ddwyrain Ewrop i Gymru ac i’rDU. Rhoddodd Stephen Drinkwater(Prifysgol Abertawe) drosolwg ystadegol,yn tynnu ar ddata gweinyddol, acamlinellodd ddarganfyddiadau ogyfweliadau mewn arolygon amstrategaethau ymfudwyr a’u cynlluniau argyfer y dyfodol. Trafododd AndrewThompson (Morgannwg) ddarganfyddiadauo astudiaeth ansoddol yn Llanelli, ganbwysleisio’r rhan a chwaraeir gan

asiantaethau recriwtio, ac yn nodiarwyddocâd ‘drifftio ymfudol’, wrth iymfudwyr addasu eu cynlluniaucychwynnol yn ôl eu hamgylchiadau. Maehyn yn rhoi cymeriad amserol i ymfudo, ynogystal ag un gofodol. Siaradodd StuartTannock (Caerdydd) a Lesley Hodgson(Morgannwg) am enghraifft Merthyr, llemae gwaith prosesu bwyd yn dibynnu bronyn gyfan gwbl ar lafur o dramor. Cafoddnifer o gynlluniau dychmygus eu datblyguer mwyn ceisio integreiddio ymfudwyr imewn i’r gymuned leol, a goresgyn rhairhagfarnau lleol.

Yn olaf disgrifiodd Sue Leake oGyfarwyddiaeth Ystadegol LlywodraethCymru rai ffynonellau data swyddogol sy’ndatblygu, a sut gallai ymchwilwyrymgysylltu â nhw. Erbyn diwedd y cyfarfodroedd yn glir bod lle ar gyfer llawer mwy odrafod themâu’r cyfarfod, gan gynnwysmaterion cysyniadol a methodolegol, acagenda ymchwil bosibl sylweddol i’warchwilio. Mae cyfarfod arall, o bosibl arbwnc iaith a chymuned, wedi’i gynllunio argyfer y flwyddyn newydd.

Updates fromWISERD’sThematic Reference Groups

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A successful networking eventtook place in June to launchWISERD’s Environment,Tourism and Leisure thematicreference group.

‘Community, Environment andSustainability in Wales’ was held at BangorUniversity as part of Universities Week.The well attended event provided anetwork and knowledge exchangeopportunity for grassroots activists, NGOs,policy makers and academics from acrossWales and further afield, with interests inlocal community sustainability andenvironmental campaigns and initiatives.Dr Alexandra Plows, WISERD Researchfellow at Bangor University, said: “Wewere very pleased with the variety ofpeople at the event, who ranged from'green champion' teachers from localschools through to an economist from theOffice for National Statistics (ONS) whohad travelled from London”.

A packed programme of talks ranged fromoverviews of community-ledenvironmental and artistic projects, tocampaigns, initiatives and businesses.

The talks encompassed local level nationalnetworks of expertise across Wales, aswell as global links through overviews ofthe latest climate change research beingundertaken in Wales, and projectsconnecting communities in Wales andAfrica.

In one talk, Dr Saskia Pagella from BangorUniversity provided an overview of theClimate Change Consortium of Wales(C3W), highlighting its vision of becomingone of the world-leading climate changeresearch centres.

Dr John Barry from the Institute for aSustainable World at Queens UniversityBelfast provided a rousing keynote talk onthe topic of 'Vulnerability and Resilience inContemporary Green Thought and Action'.

All presentations are available on-line at:http://www.bangor.ac.uk/so/research/WISERD/resources.php.en

The Environment, Tourism and Leisuregroup is convened by Professor MichaelWoods of the School of Geography andEarth Sciences at Aberystwyth University.For more information about the group,please visit the ‘Networks’ page on theWISERD website www.wiserd.ac.uk

Diweddariadau gan GrwpiauCyfeirio Thematig WISERD

Bu digwyddiad rhwydweithiollwyddiannus ym mis Mehefin ilansio grwp cyfeirio thematigAmgylchedd, Twristiaeth aHamdden WISERD.

Cafodd ‘Cymuned, Amgylchedd aChynaliadwyedd yng Nghymru’ ei lansioym Mhrifysgol Bangor fel rhan o Wythnosy Prifysgolion.

Mynychodd llawer o bobl y digwyddiad aoedd yn cynnig rhwydwaith a chyfle igyfnewid gwybodaeth ar gyfergweithredwyr sylfaenol, sefydliadauanllywodraethol, llunwyr polisïau acacademyddion ledled Cymru ac ymhellachi ffwrdd, gyda diddordebau mewncynaliadwyedd y gymuned leol acymgyrchoedd a mentrau amgylcheddol.Dywedodd Dr Alexandra Plows, cymrawdYmchwil WISERD ym Mhrifysgol Bangor:

“Roeddem wedi’n plesio’n fawr gan yramrywiaeth o bobl yn y digwyddiad, ynamrywio o athrawon ‘hyrwyddwyr gwyrdd'o ysgolion lleol i economegydd o’r SwyddfaYstadegau Gwladol (ONS) a oedd wediteithio o Lundain”.

Amrywiodd rhaglen lawn o sgyrsiau odrosolygon o brosiectau artistig acamgylcheddol a arweinir gan y gymuned, iymgyrchoedd, mentrau a busnesau.

Cwmpasodd y sgyrsiau rwydweithiauarbenigedd cenedlaethol ar lefel leolledled Cymru, yn ogystal â chysylltiadaubyd-eang o’r ymchwil ddiweddaraf i newidyn yr hinsawdd sy’n cael ei wneud yngNghymru, a phrosiectau sy’n cysylltucymunedau yng Nghymru ac yn Affrica.

Mewn un sgwrs, darparodd Dr SaskiaPagella o Brifysgol Bangor drosolwg oGonsortiwm Newid Hinsawdd Cymru(C3W), gan amlygu ei weledigaeth o fod yn

un o’r canolfannau ymchwil ar y newid yn yhinsawdd sy’n arwain y byd.

Darparodd Dr John Barry o’r Sefydliad argyfer Byd Cynaliadwy ym Mhrifysgol yFrenhines, Belfast brif sgwrs gyffrous ar ypwnc 'Bod yn Agored i Niwed a Gwydnwcho ran Meddwl a Gweithredu GwyrddCyfoes'.

Mae’r holl gyflwyniadau ar gael ar-lein ar:http://www.bangor.ac.uk/so/research/WISERD/resources.php.en

Caiff y grwp Amgylchedd, Twristiaeth aHamdden ei ymgynnull gan yr AthroMichael Woods o’r Ysgol Ddaearyddiaeth aGwyddorau’r Ddaear ym MhrifysgolAberystwyth.I gael rhagor o wybodaeth am y grwp,ewch i’r dudalen ‘Rhwydweithiau’ ar wefanWISERD www.wiserd.ac.uk

Thematic reference group launched atnetworking event in Bangor

Lansio grwp cyfeirio thematigmewndigwyddiad rhwydweithio ym Mangor

Dr Clair Wilkins and RhysDavies fromWISERD at Cardiff

formed part of an inter-institutional teamwhich

analysed the quality of life inethnically diverse

neighbourhoods in EU15countries (Member States

before the 2004/2007accessions) utilizing the 2007

European Quality of Life Survey(EQLS). The results of thisresearch programmewerepublished in August 2011 by

Eurofound.

Here, Dr Wilkins explains the backgroundto the report, its policy context andimplications, and a summary of keyfindings.

Background to the Report

Many European countries have experienceda high level of immigration from all parts ofthe world in the past two decades and thepopulation of visible minority ethnic groupshas grown rapidly. Neighbourhoods with ahigh percentage of minority ethnic groupsare expected to be relatively disadvantagedin social and economic terms.

The focus of the analysis was on thecomparative situation of neighbourhoods inwhich respondents to the EQLS stated thatthe proportion of the population from racialor ethnic groups different from the majoritypopulation was relatively high. The analysisconcentrated on the EU15 aggregate andten selected countries within it. Theselection of these countries was pragmaticand reflected the available sample sizewithin the EQLS of respondents whoreported that they lived in these areas.

Policy Context

It was expected that the emergence ofmulti ethnic neighbourhoods wouldcontribute to areas of relative deprivationcharacterised by relatively high levels ofpoverty, low levels of educationalattainment, poor quality of life and poorquality housing. The mix of people frommore socio-economically disadvantagedgroups in the indigenous populationcombined with an emerging migrantpopulation may in turn contribute toincreased levels of ethnic, racial andreligious tensions. Low levels of cohesionwithin such communities can result inpotentially serious and persistent conflictssometimes culminating in violence.Conditions in specific neighbourhoodstherefore create a serious challenge to thesocial inclusion and cohesion policy of theEuropean Union, which remains animportant policy objective within the EU’sstrategy of ‘inclusive growth’.

Key Findings

Housing

Relative levels of deprivation anddifficulties with meeting housing costs arefound to be higher within neighbourhoodsthat have high levels of ethnic diversity.Further, socio-economic and spatial factorscombine to produce relatively high rates ofovercrowding and a poorer physical qualityof housing.

Social Exclusion

Social exclusion resulting in socialcohesion is a dominant feature inmultiethnic neighbourhoods. Respondentsliving in areas of high ethnic diversity aremore likely to report being sociallyexcluded and are more likely to report aperceived lack of access to welfareservices. Respondents are also more likelyto report that they are socially isolated

Quality of Life

Subjective quality of life is lower inmultiethnic neighbourhoods. Satisfactionwith life as measured across a variety ofdimensions is substantially lower than inareas with low ethnic diversity.

Ethnic and Religious Tensions andTensions over Immigration

Not surprisingly, ethnic and religioustensions and tensions over immigration arefound to be highest in areas of increasedethnic diversity. However, contrary to whatmight be expected, rural areas seem to memore susceptible to societal tensions thancities.

Perceived levels of ethnic tensions reportedby EQLS respondents are relatively highoverall and highest in the Netherlands andFrance. These findings appear to reflectevents within these countries over the pastdecade that have increased levels ofdiscourse surrounding policy towardsmigrants and have contributed to apolarisation of opinions.

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WISERD publishes report on Quality of Life inEthnically Diverse Neighbourhoods

Quality of Life

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Policy Pointers

Existing ethnic, religious and migranttensions reduce the social cohesion ofmultiethnic communities. To what extentthese will increase the probability of openconflict and even violence is difficult toestimate on the basis of this research.Research from the European network ofcities for local integration policies formigrants (CLIP) looking at the localintegration policy of 35 European citiesshows that a preventive intercultural policybased on tolerance, recognition of culturaldifferences and the ‘law of the land’ cancontribute significantly to reducing thosetensions.

The report ‘Quality of Life in EthnicallyDiverse Neighbourhoods’ is available athttp://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/htmlfiles/ef1122.htm

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Making an impact

into the next stage of its development, theaim is to more comprehensively embedknowledge exchange and collaborationthroughout the institute’s various workprogrammes.

This integration needs to operate at thelevel of individual projects, whereresearchers are responsible for identifyingand liaising with stakeholders as early aspossible in the life of a project, settingspecific knowledge exchange objectives,developing clear research messages andtargeting their knowledge exchangeactivities.

At the WISERD wide level, the aim is toadopt a more strategic approach toknowledge exchange. WISERD’s researchprogrammes will be developed inconsultation with partners in the public andthird sectors. There will be an emphasis onmining the valuable survey andadministrative data sources that alreadyexist for Wales, and making the most of newsources such as Understanding Society andthe new national survey for Wales. Theintention is to provide a series of reportsand briefings aimed at policy makers andpractitioners alongside academic outputs.

In addition, WISERD will also continue todevelop its research resources to supportsocial researchers in a range of sectors.The Geoportal, which provides meta-data ona wide range of quantitative and qualitativedata sources, is currently being tested inadvance of being made more generallyavailable. WISERD also runs a successful

training and capacity building programmeand has a number of workshops and eventsscheduled for the coming year, including anannual conference, taking place in BangorUniversity on 28-29 March 2012.

Over coming months we will be reviewingand strengthening WISERD’s thematicnetworks. The networks, which are atvarying stages of development, provideinformal forums for the development ofinter-institutional and inter-disciplinaryworking and are an important mechanismfor engaging with policy makers andpractitioners. We are also looking closely atthe possibility of establishing a cross cuttingnetwork on behavioural insight, a themethat is of growing cross sector interest.

Another priority is to improve the policydialogue between academics and policymakers. In partnership with the WelshGovernment, WISERD is planning to hold aseries of evidence symposia, bringingtogether leading experts and senior policyofficial/analysts to challenge the evidencebase on important cross cutting policyissues.

As a cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional,pan-Wales institution, WISERD is ideallyplaced to convert knowledge exchange fromgood intentions to practical reality.

The emphasis is on research having thebiggest possible impact on the economy,society and the environment. Publicexpenditure constraints increasinglyunderline the importance of collaborativeinitiatives that support the pooling ofexpertise, ideas and resources. All of this isreflected in the new Research ExcellenceFramework, which sets out to capture andreward these added value benefits.

Having impact is critically important toWISERD’s remit. In addition to improvingresearch quality and grant capture throughcollaboration, WISERD also aims tomaximise the social and economic impact ofits research by forging relationships withpublic policy makers and practitioners. TheWelsh context is key, providing WISERD witha unique opportunity to act as a bridgebetween academic social scientists andWelsh policy and practice communities.

The potential benefits are significant.WISERD’s research can offer insights intoWelsh policy and practice issues, and theinstitute is ideally placed to build up crosssector social science capacity, which isacknowledged as being weak in Wales.There are also benefits for researchers. Byworking closely with policy makers andpractitioners, researchers can develop theirskills, raise their profile and ensure theirresearch has practical outcomes.

From its inception, WISERD has supported arange of knowledge exchange activities andhas liaised closely with partners such as theWelsh Government and the Office forNational Statistics. As the Institute moves

The term ‘Impact’ is firmly on the academic agenda. In the currenteconomic climate, both the Government and research councilsexpect their research investments to have social and economic, aswell as academic, benefits.

Angela Evans

Angela Evans has started work forWISERD in a knowledge exchangecapacity. For further information you cancontact Angela on 07854 882503.

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Dr Taylor said: “Given the attention onchildren's lives much of the research willconsider the role and impact of educationand the educational policies of the differentgovernments and political administrationsin Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland andEngland.”

The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is amulti-disciplinary research project followingthe lives of around 19,000 children born inthe UK in 2000/1. It is the most recent ofBritain’s world-renowned nationallongitudinal birth cohort studies.

The study has been tracking the Millenniumchildren through their early childhood yearsand plans to follow them into adulthood.The four surveys of MCS cohort memberscarried out so far – at age nine months,three, five and seven years – have built up auniquely detailed portrait of the children ofthe new century. They have also amassed avast amount of information on the children’ssiblings and parents.

As well as contributing to social welfare andcohesion, the Fellowship will be beneficialto academic researchers through activitiesintended to directly contribute to theirmethodological development. By utilisingWISERD’s existing methodological and dataintegration expertise, the academic benefitsof the Fellowship will be shared throughWISERD’s Wales and UK-wide networks.

Dr Taylor continued: “Researchers areincreasingly interested in looking at howpeople's lives develop and change fromplace to place, perhaps depending on wherethey live or are brought up. Such 'spatially-based' analyses of longitudinal data offerthe combined benefits of studying changesin behaviour, attitudes and outcomes overtime, whilst also recognising that there arelikely to be important geographicalvariations in, or area effects on, thosetrends.”

Dr Chris Taylor, Reader inEducation at the Cardiff Schoolof Social Sciences and Chair ofWISERD’s Education and YoungPeople Thematic Group hasbeen awarded an ESRCMid-Career Development Fellowshipto carry out an analysis of theMillennium Cohort Study (MCS).

The Economic and Social Research Centre(ESRC) awards only 10 to 15 Mid-CareerDevelopment Fellowships each year. Theyare intended to enable outstandingresearchers to develop their careers bytaking their research in a new direction or toa new level.

The Fellowship - ‘Growing up in 21stCentury Britain: spatial analysis of theMillennium Cohort Study’ - will provide anunique opportunity to explore in detail thepotential geographical benefits oflongitudinal data and develop spatially-based analyses of this data within themainstream social sciences area ofeducation.

It will also address a number of veryimportant contemporary issues in relationto children growing up in the UK during thefirst decade of the 21st Century.

One of the main objectives of the Fellowshipis to undertake new interdisciplinaryresearch and analysis using the MCS inorder to make a direct contribution toimproving social welfare, social cohesionand well-being. Through its interdisciplinaryresearch and analysis the Fellowship willcontribute directly to the evaluation of keyeducational policies and initiatives in Walesand the rest of the UK.

Key outputs from the Fellowship include:eight research presentations, five workingpapers, four submitted peer-reviewedjournal articles, one newmethodologicalnetwork, one workshop, and a placement inthe Welsh Government.

The Fellowship will establish and convenean MCS user group in Wales for members ofthe academic community and a range ofpublic, private and third sectororganisations. Following an initial face-to-face meeting of the group, WISERD willsupport means for virtual communicationthrough the group’s own Virtual ResearchEnvironment (VRE).

The Millennium Cohort Study wascommissioned by the Economic and SocialResearch Council (ESRC), whose fundinghas been supplemented by a consortium ofGovernment departments and the WellcomeTrust. The next sweep of the study isplanned for 2012.

Education expert awardedprestigious ESRC Fellowship

DrChris Taylor

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Dr Mamata Parhivisits UNU-MERIT, Maastricht,The Netherlands

Dr Mamata Parhi(WISERD Swansea)

was recently awarded ashort visiting grantfrom the EuropeanScience Foundation

(ESF), for its ‘AcademicPatenting in Europe’

(APE) project.

As part of this grant, Dr Parhi visited theUnited Nations University MaastrichtEconomic and Social Research Institute onInnovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT),in the Netherlands in June 2011. The visitwas connected to a project on ‘Acomparative analysis of knowledgediffusion in Dutch, French and Britishacademic networks’.

The visit was highly successful in terms ofinitiating productive academiccollaboration and also in terms ofproducing a first set of results in line withthe proposed project.

This project aims to initiate a comparativestudy of the interaction structure ofacademic inventors based on the ESF-APEdatabase. Based on the Resource-BasedView and Social Network Theory, the studyintends to first explain how (and which)personal characteristics and their specificbrokering behaviour can be helpful forsome scientists gaining a higher networkposition within the academic network. Thesecond aspect of the study attempts toexplore the role of institutionalbackground and personal industriallinkages in the knowledge diffusion model.

Dr Parhi said: “During the visit weanalysed the academic patenting networkin France, UK and the Netherlands inorder to provide a comparative analysis ofthe patenting dynamics in Europe. Thecross country study in this regard intendedto identify the key similarities anddifferences in academic patentingnetworks and especially to understandwhat factors govern the knowledgediffusion over time.

“By invoking the concepts andtheorisations of the networktheory we studied the socialprocess by which the academiccommunity is organised and howthey contributed to thedevelopment of science andtechnology in the three countries.We also examined the socialprocess by which thetechnologies and theirapplications have evolved inthese countries by looking at thepatents and their networkstructure” Dr Parhi added.

This project is in collaboration with Dr. MeiHo (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht), ProfessorPatrick Llerena (BETA, Strasbourg) andProfessor Bart Verspagen (UNU-MERIT,Maastricht). The current project builds onsome earlier collaborative work on thetopic between the same team ofresearchers and extends the scope of thework by including the comparativeperspective.

More information about the programme isavailable at: http://www.esf.org/activities/research-networking-programmes/social-sciences-scss/academic-patenting-in-europe-ape-inv.html

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economic • social science research •

working methods • real impact • equalities •

• human rights •wales • social vision •

• education • social mobility • class •

employment • aspirations • change •

• ageing • homelessness • earnings •

• health • migration • poverty • tourism •

• citizenship • wealth • criminology •

• devolution • social • participation •

• skills • political •

The aim of the 2011 WISERD SummerConference was to establish this annualevent as a major ‘shop window’ for socialscience research in Wales.The conference theme was ‘ChangingWales: Social, Economic and PoliticalPerspectives’ which set out to encapsulatethe broad range of WISERD’s researchactivities and interdisciplinary workingmethods, whilst also reflecting the issuesfacing society in Wales and beyond.Colleagues from across the WISERDpartner Universities, invited speakers,representatives of voluntary organisations,postgraduate students and representativesfrom the public sector met in Swansea topresent their work.When WISERD was launched in 2009, ourvision could be expressed by the then FirstMinister, Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan, in his‘clear red water’ speech (2002). In it, hesaid that the “sense of Welsh communities

as a test-bed for larger scaleexperimentation is paralleled in the way inwhich devolution itself has provided a'living laboratory', in which differentapproaches to common problems can beworked out and applied.”Our founding Director, Professor HuwBeynon, was extremely fond of thisanalogy, and it is our current Director,Professor Gareth Rees, who is now drivingthis vision forward. WISERD has madegreat progress in demonstrating realimpact in social science research in Wales,and the conference confirmed that‘outreach’ and interdisciplinary working iswhat we’re all about.

WISERD Conference 2011

Very good to haveinternationalcontributions tocontrast andcompare withWales.

““

The second annual conference this year showcasedWISERD’s research infrastructure in the economic,political and social landscapes of Wales and beyond.WISERD Co-Director, Professor David Blackaby,reflects on another successful conference and howthis fits into WISERD’s past, present and future.

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Film screening

The conference began with a specialscreening of Professor Gideon Koppel’s(Aberystwyth University) award winningfilm “Sleep Furiously” at the Taliesincinema in Swansea. It was quite a coupsecuring Professor Koppel to introduce thecritically acclaimed film which portrays lifein a village faced by the forces of change.The film focuses our attention on rurallives, beleaguered in ways that are similarto and different from other parts of Wales,such as the post-industrial lives in theSouth Wales Valleys. The screening, whichattracted a wide audience, was chosenbecause it highlights many of the issuesraised in the papers, roundtables andkeynote lectures that formed the mainbody of the conference.

Keynotes

Keynote speakers at the conference wereCharlotte Williams, Professor of SocialJustice at Keele University, and WISERDDirector Professor Gareth Rees.

Professor Williams was approachedbecause of her research interests in issuesto do with equality and social mobility,particularly in Wales. Her work also alignsvery closely with the recent Equalities andHuman Rights Commission (EHRC) reporton ‘An Anatomy of Economic Inequality inWales’ carried out by WISERD researchers.This landmark report has provided amilestone in our understanding ofrelations between peoples economicoutcomes - such as education,employment, earnings, poverty and wealth- and their characteristics andcircumstances. Professor Williams kindlychaired a session about this report at theconference with contributions made byseveral authors of the report.

Professor Gareth Rees’ talk closed theconference with a Director’s addressentitled ‘Home and Away: highereducation, social mobility and locality inWales’. In it, he discussed how thetransformation in the UK higher educationsystem has been one of the great socialchanges of the last few decades. Hispresentation reflected on some of theimplications of this transformation inWales by reference to WISERD research.He paid particular attention to economicrationality in relation to patterns ofparticipation in higher education, and onhow differences in class and aspirationsaffected the distance Welsh studentswould travel to attend university.

Topics

The topics discussed at the conferencereflected on the institute’s interdisciplinaryworking methods showcasing research onthemes relating to Wales. More than 140delegates attended over the two days,providing an opportunity for researchersacross Wales to engage with each otherand with policy-makers and the publicmore widely.

A key topic under discussion at theconference was an analysis of theeconomic contribution of major events inWales, where Rob Holt (Chief Executive ofRyder Cup Wales 2010) reflected on thevalue of the Ryder Cup. The session alsolooked at the wider public policyimplications of major events and atdeveloping methodologies to measure theimpact of similar events in the future.Another session addressed the concept of‘behaviour change’ within a Welsh context.Clive Bates, Director General ofSustainable Futures at the WelshGovernment, was joined by CardiffUniversity’s Professor Ken Peattie toreview the work being undertaken aroundbehaviour change in Wales and itspotential to offer improved policyoutcomes.

Other specific sessions focussed onInequality in Wales, Ageing and Place,Poverty and Homelessness, Education andHealth in Wales, Migration, Tourism,Citizenship, Criminology and Devolution,Participation and Civil Society, and Skillsand Employment.

Really wellorganisedconference.Good range ofpresentations.

““

economic • social science research •

working methods • real impact • equalities •

• human rights •wales • social vision •

• education • social mobility • class •

employment • aspirations • change •

• ageing • homelessness • earnings •

• health • migration • poverty • tourism •

• citizenship • wealth • criminology •

• devolution • social • participation •

• skills • political •

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It is clear from the timetable and from theabstracts submitted that the conferencesucceeded in highlighting a range ofsocial, economic and political issues. Theprogramme was balanced in favour of alldisciplines related to WISERD.Below are just a few of the many positivecomments received from delegates, alongwith a note from Professor Noel Thompsonabout welcoming the conference toSwansea and from Roberta Roberts abouther conference highlights.Copies of the presentations can beaccessed via the WISERD LearningEnvironment (WLE). www.wiserd.ac.uk/wle

WISERD Conference 2012

We now look forward to next year’sconference ‘Devolution, Place and Change’on the 28th and 29th of March 2012. Takingplace in Bangor, we hope to presentWISERD to a new audience and welcomeour existing supporters and interestedparties. Planning is fully underway and thecall for abstracts has now opened.Deadline for submissions is November 7th2011, and authors of shortlisted abstractswill be informed by November 21st 2011.We are delighted to confirm Professor RonMartin (Fellow of the Cambridge-MITInstitute) and Professor John Curtice(University of Strathclyde) as keynotespeakers at the conference.

WISERD Conference 2011

The conferencedelivered well interms of its aims tobring togetherpractitioners andacademics. Indeed,this is a realstrength of theconference and farmore needs to bemade of thissuccess.

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Professor Noel Thompson, Pro-Vice Chancellor forAcademic Development at Swansea University, reflectson the timeliness and significance of the conference.

It gave me enormous pleasure to welcomecolleagues, on behalf of SwanseaUniversity, to the two-day conferenceorganised by the Wales Institute of Socialand Economic Research, Data andMethods (WISERD).

All those who organise and participate insuch conferences like to feel that, in thepatois of the day, they are timely andsignificant. But I think timely andsignificant is more than a form of words asfar as this conference was concerned.

There can be few periods that have thrownup more challenges for the social sciencesand social scientists than the last threeyears: as turbulent as any I can remembersince the dog days of the Callaghan yearsand the dark and dismal days of the firstgovernment of Mrs Thatcher when the IronLady was in her handbagging prime.

The credit crunch and its aftermath; theimplosion of public finances; the social,economic and cultural challenges ofinward migration; the increase in thedevolutionary powers available to thegovernment of Wales; the changing skillbase of an economy in rapid transition;growing economic and social inequalityand a demographic in Britain and Walesincreasingly skewed to the aged end of thespectrum; represent just a few of thechallenges we face as a society.

Of course, such challenges can createopportunities, devolution in Wales being acase in point, but they also engenderpressures and fault lines within nations,within communities and within families.They impinge on every aspect of our socialand individual lives and in doing so they

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Great venueand set-up.Nicely balancedprogramme withvaried approachesand backgrounds.

““

influence and even determine the healthand well-being of our population. Whetherwe can negotiate these challenges, themanner in which we negotiate them,whether we can negotiate them to oursocial benefit will have a fundamentalbearing on the quality of life we and futuregenerations experience.

It was Maynard Keynes who said, in one ofhis Essays in persuasion, that `economistsare guardians not of civilisation but of thepossibility of civilisation’. Of course as afounder of the Cambridge Arts Theatre andthe husband of the prima ballerina LydiaLupokova and as a major benefactor of thearts Keynes could also legitimately havesaid that he was a guardian of civilisation,not just of its possibility.

But what Keynes said is something that, Ithink, can be transposed to social sciencemore generally; namely that socialscientists in important and profound waysare indeed guardians of the possibility ofcivilisation. No mean role to be allocated.And I think the themes of the conferencearticulated just such a role, addressing asthey did:-

Inequality in Wales; contemporarypressures on local communities;generational change and ageing;migration; the delivery of health care;citizenship and participation; skills andemployability; the resilience of the Welsheconomy; work and well-being; housingand homelessness; the evolving nature oflinguistic behaviour – and I haven’ttouched on all of them.

These are issues which impact directly onthe possibility of a full and civilisedexistence for our communities. They arecritical areas of policy making in Wales andmore generally in Britain. And if suchpolicy making is to be well-informed andevidence based then it needs the kind ofresearch activity which WISERD promotesand which this conference reflected.

Roberta Ingman Roberts,Research Advisor at theWales Council forVoluntary Action (WCVA),shares her highlightsfrom the conference

WISERD Conference 2011

Good variedconferenceappealing toacademics andpractitioners.

““

On the evening prior to the conferencethere was a screening of ‘Sleep Furiously’,a film about a rural community in MidWales. The film tied in with the conferencetitle and many of the papers presentedduring the conference that discussed theresilience of rural localities. The filmillustrated how essential services wereprovided to sustain a quality of life in ruralWales and how people adapted to changesbrought on by public sector economictightening.

In respect of WCVA activities, sessions on‘behaviour change’, well being and thecontribution of volunteers to major eventsto support the Welsh Economy wereparticularly interesting.

The conference was an excellent event toshare and discuss current research inWales. The event was a great opportunityto network informally with a wide range ofstakeholders from academia, public,private and third sectors.

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The mobility of graduates in the UK is likely to becomean even more important issue as a result of recentchanges in the funding of higher education and theannouncement of different fees policies by the devolvedgovernments.

This is particularly relevant in the Welshcontext since the existence of a ‘braindrain’ of graduate labour has long been afocus of debate (Drinkwater and Blackaby,2004; Fevre, 2004). Furthermore, theWelsh and English higher education andlabour markets are interconnected (Reesand Taylor, 2006) and Wales is a ‘loser’region generating more undergraduatesthan it recruits recent graduates intoemployment (Hoare and Corver, 2009).A research project, being undertakenjointly between colleagues in WISERD andthe ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge andOrganisational Performance (SKOPE)based at Cardiff and Oxford Universities,seeks to deepen the understanding of thenature and scale of graduate flows to andfrom Wales.

The project focuses on key questions suchas to what extent does Wales retain itshuman capital in higher education andsubsequent employment? Does Wales

retain those who come to study fromelsewhere in the UK? And do Welshgraduates who have studied or workedelsewhere return to Wales at a laterstage?The project also seeks to investigate thelocation and employment outcomes ofsuccessive ‘graduate cohorts’ since the1992 expansion of Higher Education. Itdoes this by augmenting the widely-usedgraduate first destinations data producedby the Higher Education Statistics Agencywith detailed analysis of the Labour ForceSurvey and Annual Population Survey data.In so doing, it aims to contribute to theexisting literature on the relationshipsbetween human capital acquisition fromhigher education and migration (Faggianet al, 2007).

The analysis also aims to provide newinsights into the returns to human capitalacquisition and to our understanding ofthe different stages of graduate mobility.

This in turn has implications for highereducation and skills policies in Wales andhighlights important inter-relationshipsbetween the mobility of students andgraduates.

The SKOPE/WISERD report on WelshGraduate Migration will be published atthe end of October 2011 and will beavailable from the SKOPE and WISERDwebsites. It will be launched at aworkshop being held on Thursday October27th 2011 between 2.30pm and 5.30pm inthe Committee Rooms of the GlamorganBuilding at Cardiff University. Invitedguests will include university academicsand administrators, as well as businessrepresentatives, Welsh Government, Officefor National Statistics and HEFCWofficials.

Further details can be found at the projectwebsite:http://www.wiserd.ac.uk/research/wiserd-projects-current/welsh-graduate-migration/

Joint SKOPE/WISERD Projecton Welsh Graduate Migration

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What is the ‘Young Peopleand Place’ project?

AimsThis project is concerned with exploringyoung people’s understanding and use ofpublic and private spaces in a local post-industrial community experiencingregeneration. A key aim of the YoungPeople and Place project is to explore theways in which locality defines their pasts,presents and futures. By investigatingplace on numerous levels (e.g. as physicalenvironments, as sources of symbolicresources, as social constructs and interms of affect) we have gained a fullerunderstanding of ‘locality’ from theperspectives of young people with thepotential to offer richer understandings tothe challenges of social, political as well asmaterial regeneration. The intersection ofgender, age and class have beenparticularly salient in exploring youngpeople’s mobility and movement, socialinteractions and escapades in the publicand hidden corners of their everyday lives(e.g. in schools, on the street, on-line etc.).

MethodsFrom 2009-2011, young people have beenaccessed via local secondary schools andyouth work settings. A range ofparticipatory ethnographic methods havebeen employed to generate multi-modaldata representing the various geographiesof young people’s appropriation andnegotiation of local spaces. The fieldworkto date has produced a range of dataforms, such as visual, material, aural, oral,digital and textual and data types,including photographs/films, interviews,and field notes. For an overview of themethodology seehttp://www.wiserd.ac.uk/research/qualitative/klic/klic-project-young-people-and-place/)

Participatory visualmethods: films andfilm-making

The final phase of the Young People andPlace project meets one of the KLiC (LocalKnowledge in Context Research)programme’s core aims to makesignificant methodological contributions to‘innovation’ in relation to researchmethods, and to ensure that any innovationis contextualised, grounded, productiveand sustainable. Using visual media inparticipatory ways to visually communicateemerging research findings, was one suchcontribution.

Two one week multi-media workshopswere organised in two secondary schoolswith two groups of students who hadregistered their interest and volunteered totake part. These ‘hands on’ workshopswere led by a consultant, Pete Moles, whospecialises in visual media(documentaries, films, videos) andsupported by ourselves (Gabrielle andEmma). It was an intensive, exhausting,emotional and highly productive week forall involved. At the end of the two weeks wehad generated data for the editing of sevenshort films with the following workingtitles:

Still Running (2 girls)Shades of Place (2 girls)Ffrindiau: They Stick Together (4 girls)Simplicity: The Beginning (3 boys)Skid (4 boys)Closing the youth centre (1 boy)

During the film-making weeks we alsogenerated a range of rich narratives thatfurther enhanced our knowledge of youngpeople’s everyday lives, cultures, identities,practices, fears and fantasies in relation toa range of topics: schooling, families,friendships, careers, being a teenager,being a child, sub-cultures, drinking,music, drugs, sex/uality, rurality, nature,death/suicide and many more. As we writethis brief overview, the films are currentlybeing edited, so here we share what we

Girls, Film-Makingand MovementCommunicating the research findings of the young peopleand place project using visual participatory methods.

By Emma Renold and Gabrielle Ivinson

have learned in the making of the filmsand the significance of the genderedmovements in particular.

Stuck girls, moving boys:emerging findings andtheoretical connections

While undertaking extensive interviewswith young people (aged 13-14 years) abouttheir perceptions of the locality where theywere growing up, they spoke a great dealabout the activities associated with places.Many boys spoke of roaming far and wideacross the landscape undertakingactivities such as BMX biking, mountainbiking, building ramps, playing rugby,boxing, going to the gym, hunting, fishingand camping. Girls spoke less aboutoutdoor activities that involved bikes andmachines and talked more about theiractivities in virtual media, in theirbedrooms and within the nearenvironments of homes and school. Fearof others in public space (e.g. of beingattacked, followed, or simply watched) alsopermeated girls’ narratives, such thatmovement became a compulsory practice,with little associated fun, choice, orpleasure. The interviews gave us theimpression that the boys moved and thegirls were relatively sedentary and seemedto be restricted, constrained and evencorporeally suppressed.

Still Running: the camera, rupturedviewpoints and ‘becoming’

Whilst many of these themes endured interms of what the girls wanted to focus onfor their own film projects, somethingdifferent emerged. Despite the welldocumented difficulties that adolescentgirls experience in having their movingbodies scrutinised, this failed to emergewhen the cameras were trained on theminutia of their corporeal movements(Young 2005). In order to begin tounderstand what we learned by workingwith the girls in the medium of film wehave been working with Gilles Deleuze’swritings on cinema (1983/1986, 1985/1989).

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Here, we have been considering theapparatus: the camera. The camera’s lensis an artificial eye that disconnects thegaze from any person and their point ofview. In the film, ‘still running’, 2 girls re-enact their pre-adolescent pleasure inrunning – a pursuit which as teenagersthey rarely engaged in because of thetension between the socials demands tolook feminine and the functional, hot andsticky appearance that inevitablyaccompanies running. We knew they wereaware of these restrictions, not onlythrough the way they used their bodies inschool, but also because they botharticulated in the story-boarding activitythat “girls leave something of themselvesbehind” when they go running. Yet,somehow, they were able to run again, tore-experience their younger runningselves. Indeed, the girls transgressedagain and again the social conventions offeminine comportment with no judgementbecause, perhaps, there was no a fixedpoint of view. By playing with time, we wereall shifted out of the everyday ordering ofthe world, common sense judgements andtime. The girls’ and our ability to becomeintensely absorbed in the process actedas if it moved us into a different mediumin which the usual social and cultural rulesdid not apply.

Moving Forward

Myths of masculinity as movement andfemininity as stillness perpetuates itselfthrough affects which girls and indeedboys cannot easily articulate. The film-making process, however, generated aspace where something different began toemerge, or in the words of Deleuze andGuatarri (1987), enabled a series of‘becomings’: micro movements whichruptured established embodied andgendered legacies. We have been thinkingthrough how the girls’ movements duringthe making of the film were in some waysremoved from the real and imaginedcritical gaze of others, including theirsense of the social norms that policefemininity and impose restrictingconventions of girls’ and women’scorporeal comportments. The film-makingprocess revealed to the girls again theirlove of movement. Individual experiencesof running seem to give them a sense offreedom, enjoyment, accomplishment andautonomy. We are beginning toconceptualise the girls’ intenseengagement with the film-making processas a generational and historical doubleentanglement where the manifestation of

their desire to run, and whatthey said in interviews and acted outin the school playground around bodilyconstraints and immobility, areexpressions of the pre-personal affectiveforces that reach back to antiquity.

We are now feeling our way through newtheoretical synergies in conceptualisingthe relationship between locality, spaceand young gendered subjectivities,particularly regarding embodiment,relationality, movement and affect. We arebeginning to make new in-roads to explorehow working with cameras reconfiguresthe ways in which young people visuallyrepresent their everyday lives, cultures,identities and fantasies. We will be sharingour analysis of the film-making phasefurther in the forthcoming WISERD event,“Exploring the Use of Visual Media in theCommunication of Research Findings”(Wednesday 9th November). Here we willreflect more upon the challenges andopportunities of using participatorymethods to visually representethnographic research findings. To find outmore contact wiserd.events@cardiff.ac.uk.

References

Young, I.M. (2005) On Female BodyExperience: 'Throwing Like a Girl' and OtherEssays. Oxford University Press.

Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987/2004)A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism andSchizophrenia. Trans. and Foreword byBrian Massumi. London: Continuum.

Deleuze, G. (1985)Cinema I: The Movement-Image,trans. H. Tomlinson and B. Habberjam,Minneapolis:University of Minneapolis Press.

Deleuze, G. (1985)Cinema 2: The Time-Image,trans. H. Tomlinson and R. Galeta,Minneapolis:University of Minneapolis Press.

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Using free and open-source software(FOSS) components and services (Figure1), a range of software tools have beendeveloped by the WISERD Data IntegrationTeam to capture standards compliantmetadata for a variety of socio-economicdata sources. The software developed hasenabled the WISERD Data IntegrationTeam to build a rich meta-database ofgovernment surveys (down to questionlevel), geo-referenced semantically taggedqualitative data (generated from primaryWISERD research), grey data (e.g.Transcripts, journal publications, books,Ph.D. theses) and geo-referencedadministrative data (e.g. education datafrom schools).

The WISERD Geoportal (WGP) providesmap-based and text-based search tools toquery this database using free and open-source software (FOSS) components andservices. Using a FOSS stack (PostgreSQL,

PostGIS, GeoServer, GeoWebcache,OpenLayers/GeoExt/Extjs) a GeoPortal hasbeen developed that enables end users toquery the meta-database using a numberof tools.

Tools for interrogating the data includesimple keyword searches, more complextext queries, point-and-click tools andspatial analysis tools. These featuresenable the end user to query the meta-database using a traditional text basedmethod or by using a dynamiccartographic interface to search for dataspatially. Moreover, using RDF andSPARQL, external data sources may alsobe linked and queried (e.g. Data.gov.uk,Ordnance Survey) to return any datasetspertaining to the search parameters. Theresults of the search are returned intraditional list format but with the ability toview more detailed metadata relating tothe survey (e.g. response rates, number of

The WISERDGeoportalThe WISERD Geoportal is a set oftools that allow socio-economicresearchers to discover and re-use a variety of socio-economic

data relating to Wales (in the firstinstance). The WISERD GIS/DataIntegration Team have developed

a spatial framework thatenhances a researcher's ability todiscover survey (government andacademic), public, administrativeand 'grey' socio-economic data

(both quantitative and qualitative)relating to Wales, with the aim of

encouraging collaborativeresearch and re-use of existing

data. This article provides a briefoverview of the types of data and

functionality available to theWISERD Geoportal users.

Figure 1: WISERD Geoportal Architecture

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questions, frequency, spatial coverage,collection techniques etc.), and to show theresults on a map at discrete spatial unitsor as points, thus enabling spatial analysisand data pooling.

Using the survey metadata form (Figure 2),users are able to explore the various levelsof metadata available for the chosensurvey (Dublin Core, survey, question andresponse), view any associated surveyresponse tables in a separate window, orview other questions in the same survey.Interactive graphing tools can also beaccessed from this form, which enable auser to analyse and visualise the surveyresponse statistics for anygeographical/administrative areas whereresponse data is available. This can informthe user on the sample sizes of responsesto survey data questions for geographicalareas of interest and whether these arelarge enough for quantitative analysis.Furthermore, it also allows users to

compare the sample sizes of responses toquestions in different surveys and, if thequestions and response categories aresimilar enough, whether data fromdifferent surveys can be "pooled" toincrease the sample size of responses toallow robust quantitative analysis.The qualitative metadata form also hasadditional tools that enable further value tobe extracted from the data. If a user wantsto find out more about the content of aparticular research interview for example,they are able to produce a word/tag "cloud"

of the keywords within the interview text,where the relative prominence of eachterm in the document is indicated by thesize and colour of the text font.Another function that has been developedfor discovering more about qualitativeinterview data without infringing oncopyright or revealing any potentialdisclosure material is the qualitative datageography analysis tool. This tool can beused to show the frequency and location ofplace names within the source document,without revealing the source text itself.These place names can also be added tothe map as proportional point symbols.This can help to provide a researcher withan indication of how relevant the researchor interview might be for their particularstudy area. All metadata reports andanalysis can then be saved to a WGP user'spersonal account and/or exported to PDF.Further to the metadata view, all data withresponse statistics can be mapped (Figure3). This allows the end user to visualise thespatial extent of the data and use locationas a variable when searching for data.

Figure 2: Keyword Search with MetaData View

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The Data Integration teamis currently refining many aspects of the Geoportal and adding new functionality. Weare currently embarking on an alpha testing programme that is open for registrationnow. Please visit https://wiserd.comp.glam.ac.uk/home/for more information regarding the Geoportal and to register as an alpha user.

The Data Integration Team:Gary Higgs (ghiggs@glam.ac.uk),Scott Orford (orfords@cardiff.ac.uk),Rob Berry (raberry@glam.ac.uk),Rich Fry (rfry@glam.ac.uk)and Sam Jones (joness97@cardiff.ac.uk).

Moreover, the WISERD Geoportal has thefunctionality to search for data usinglocation as the primer. The tools developedallow the end user to define areas ofinterest or locations and search for datausing spatial and keyword variables. Theresults are returned to the end user asmappable data, which can then be addedto the map interface allowing end users toperform basic spatial analysis upon thedata sources.

Future developments for the WISERDGeoportal include crowd sourcing ofmetadata, incorporating linked datasearches, expanding the Geoportal dataremit beyond Wales to provide comparativedata analysis tools, community features(forums, sharing etc.), potential securedownload of source data, metadatadownload in GIS formats and publishingdata streams of data held within themetadata base for consumption by otherapplications.

The WISERDGeoportal

Figure 3: Choropleth Mapping of Survey Response Data

Figure 4: Spatial Search Capabilities

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Evaluating the Foundation PhaseWISERD wins £1M toevaluate “one of the mostimportant educationalpolicies since devolution inWales”.

WISERD has secured a £1M competitiveresearch bid - commissioned by the WelshGovernment - to evaluate the FoundationPhase early years education policy.The high-profile team, led by researchersat WISERD, will include leading expertsfrom early childhood studies, education,economics and statistics; drawn fromCardiff University, Canterbury ChristChurch University, Swansea University andthe University of Manchester.WISERD Director, Professor Gareth Rees,said:

“The award of this grantdemonstrates theeffectiveness of WISERD indrawing together researchexpertise from across theWelsh universities andbeyond. This has providedthe basis for winning acompetitive tender whichwill have interestedresearchers from acrossthe UK.”

The Foundation Phase (FP) is an earlyintervention approach to learning for allchildren aged three to seven years inWales. It is based on principles ofexperiential learning - or ‘learning throughdoing’ – and marks a radical departurefrom more assessment-based competencyapproaches.

The three-year research project willinclude analysis of educational data andinterviews with teachers, parents, localauthorities, head-teachers, and the schoolchildren themselves. It will evaluate theimplementation of the policy and whatimpact it has had to date. The research willalso assess the value for money of the FPand design a framework to track itsoutputs and outcomes in the future.

Dr Chris Taylor, Reader in Education atCardiff University’s School of SocialSciences and director of the researchproject, said:

“We are delighted to havebeen given the opportunity toevaluate one of the mostimportant educationalpolicies since devolution inWales; designed to raiseeducational achievement,prepare children better fortheir later schooling, andhelp reduce inequalitiesbetween different groups ofchildren. This will be acomplex and detailedevaluation that will not onlyexamine the impacts of theFoundation Phase onchildren’s lives in Wales butwill also help guide andshape best practice forteachers and schools.”

At the heart of the FP curriculum areseven areas of learning: personal,emotional and social development, well-

being and cultural diversity; language,literacy and communication; mathematicaldevelopment; welsh languagedevelopment, knowledge andunderstanding of the world; physicaldevelopment; and finally, creativedevelopment. Children are givenopportunities to solve real-life problemsand gain first-hand experiences throughplay and active involvement. They areencouraged to be creative and investigativein order to develop a positive attitude tolearning, whilst increasing their self-confidence and self-esteem.It is hoped that this kind of earlyintervention and developmental approachto learning will be one of the most effectiveways of combating educational inequalitiesassociated with social disadvantage.

The evaluation by the WISERD team willassess whether the FP has had adifferential effect on children and ensurethat it promotes positive learning for allchildren in Wales. The research will offer atruly independent assessment of the policyin order to make recommendations for thefuture.

More information about the project willsoon be available on the WISERD website.

The research teamChris Taylor(Cardiff University)Trisha Maynard(Canterbury Christ Church University)David Blackaby(Swansea University)Rhys Davies(Cardiff University)Laurence Moore(Cardiff University)Ian Plewis(Manchester University)Sally Power(Cardiff University)

Two full-time additional postdoctoralresearch associates are soon to beemployed with expertise in school-basedresearch.

Keynote speakersalready confirmed:

Professor Ron MartinProfessor of Economic Geography and aFellow of the Cambridge-MIT Institute

Professor John Curtice M.A.(Oxon)Professor of Politics,University of Strathclyde

Call for papersPlease submit abstracts for: panels,workshops, roundtables, papers,documentary film, interactive displays orposters to wiserd.events@cardiff.ac.uk byNovember 7th 2011.

Given WISERD’s research orientation, wewould particularly welcome sessions witha multi-disciplinary / mixed-methodsflavour.All submissions will be considered by theconference planning group and you will beinformed of their decision by 21 November2011.

Prif siaradwyr wedi’ucadarnhau yn barod:

Yr Athro Ron MartinAthro Daearyddiaeth Economaidd achymrawd Sefydliad Caergrawnt-MIT

Yr Athro John Curtice M.A.(Oxon)Athro Gwleidyddiaeth,Prifysgol Strathclyde

Galw am bapurauRydym yn gofyn i chi gyflwyno syniadau argyfer: paneli, gweithdai, trafodaethau oamgylch y bwrdd, papurau, ffilmiau dogfen,arddangosfeydd rhyngweithiol neu bosteria’u hanfon i wiserd.events@cardiff.ac.ukerbyn 7 Tachwedd 2011.

O ystyried pwyslais WISERD ar ymchwil,byddem yn gwerthfawrogi’n fawr unrhywsesiynau o natur ryngddisgyblaethol neusesiynau sy’n trin a thrafod amrywiaethauo ddulliau.

Bydd grwp cynllunio’r gynhadledd ynystyried pob cais ac yn rhoi gwybod i chiam eu penderfyniad erbyn 21 Tachwedd2011.

W: www.wiserd.ac.ukT: 029 2087 5345E: wiserd.events@cardiff.ac.uk

@WISERDNews

www.facebook.com/wiserdnews

WISERD Conference 2012:“Devolution, Place and Change”Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th March 2012Main Arts Building, Bangor University

Cynhadledd WISERD 2012:“Datganoli, Lle a Newid”Dydd Mercher 28 a dydd Iau 29 Mawrth 2012Prif Adeilad y Celfyddydau, Prifysgol Bangor