This series of publications is primarily aimed at providing opportunities for disseminating technical resources, tools and manuals designed to advance the generation, management and access to social science data. The editorial team welcome submissions from WISERD colleagues, partners and linked academics. Queries, suggestions and submissions should be forwarded to the editorial team in the first instance.

Editorial team: Rhys Davies (daviesor@cf.ac.uk) (Co-ordinator), Alexandra Plows (a.plows@bangor.ac.uk)

The following have been released as part of the WISERD Data Resource publication series:

• ‘Getting fitter for the job: Improving the quality of labour market information using individual level surveys‘ Felstead A, 2009 (WISERD/WDR 001)
• ‘Quantitative research resources within the social sciences‘ Davies R, Jones S, 2011 (WISERD/WDR 002)
• ‘International Access to Restricted Data – A Principles-Based Standards Approach’ Ritchie F, 2011 (WISERD/WDR 003)
• ‘The TEMPO Survey of Recent Polish Migrants in England and Wales’ Drinkwater S, Garapich M, 2011 (WISERD/WDR 004)
• ‘Disclosure control for regression outputs‘ Ritchie F, 2011 (WISERD/WDR005)
• ‘Statistical disclosure detection and control in a research environment‘ Ritchie F, 2011 (WISERD/WDR 006)
• ‘Access to sensitive data: satisfying objectives rather than constraints‘ Ritchie F, 2012 (WISERD/WDR 007)

WISERD Methods Briefings are short and accessible papers reporting on advances in research methods, methodological development and research innovation. The series provides a platform for WISERD projects, researchers and affiliated colleagues to communicate methodological findings and contribute to dialogue about innovation and research practice.

Notes for contributors

Methods briefings are designed to be succinct summaries of methodological work and engagement. Contributions are usually no more than 2000 words in length. There are no set headings, though contributors are asked to include the following; A brief abstract (including key words), a summary of the project(s) on which the contribution is based and bibliographical information / links to further linked methods /methodological publications and outputs.

Potential contributors are advised to contact the editorial team prior to submission.

Editorial team: Amanda Coffey (Cardiff) (co-ordinator), Yvonne Tommis (Bangor), Robert Berry (Glamorgan), Claire O’Neill (Cardiff), Laura Jones (Aberystwyth)

The following have been relseased as part of the WISERD Methods Briefings publication series:

• ‘Using Survey Data to Identify Migration Patterns‘ Drinkwater S, Garapich M, 2011 (WISERD/MBS 001)
• ‘Audio Walks: The Purpose, Practice and Politics of Production‘ Moles K, Saunders S, 2011 (WISERD/MBS 002)
• ‘Anonymisation in Social Research‘ Coffey A, et al, 2012 (WISERD/MBS 003)

Both studentships for the 2012/13 academic year will be in the field of education. The first topic will examine adult community learning participation and involvement in schooling and the second topic will study the learner and teacher experience of the Welsh Baccalaureate.

Adult Community Learning participation and involvement in schooling

This project will examine whether or not participation in adult community learning has links with the nature and extent of parental or familial involvement in schooling.  It will be focused on areas of social disadvantage and will include adults with relatively low levels of qualification.  It will make use of carefully chosen and justified case studies which enable in-depth qualitative analysis of the experiences of family members, young people and teachers through fieldwork running over a period of up to 18 months.

This studentship includes collaborative funding and in-kind support from the Worker’s Educational Association (WEA South Wales). Outcomes will include a tangible contribution to the policy deliberations of the WEA and Welsh Government and may include recommendations for possible future quantitative work on similar research questions.

Learner and teacher experience of the Welsh Baccalaureate

The focus of this study will be learner and teacher experience of the Welsh Baccalaureate, and on indicators of potential parallel effects in adjacent courses, programmes and achievements. The study is likely to include data from interviews with students and teachers across a sample of settings that reflect the national picture, and also a quantitative element in which a sample of students are matched on background variables to allow a comparison of Welsh Baccalaureate and non- Welsh Baccalaureate students on various measures of outcome. The study will complement other research projects carried out within WISERD that are examining the progression and progress of Welsh Baccalaureate holders in Higher Education. This studentship includes collaborative funding and in-kind support from the WJEC.

More information about these studentships is available here:

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/newsandevents/news/esrc2012.html

Deadline for applications is Friday 16^th March 2012.

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Times: 10.00am – 4.15pm

Location: Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University

Overview

This exploratory seminar will bring together a range of social science researchers and visual media experts, working within and across a variety of fields, to explore the challenges and opportunities of using visual media in the representation of research findings.

The role of visual media in the communication of qualitative and quantitative research findings is underresearched. These can include: mapping and graphics; film and video; and hyper- and multi- media websites. Key issues that will be addressed and debated at the seminar include:

• contested notions of voice, agency, ethics, reflexivity and interpretation;
• the role (or not) of participants in relation to representation and dissemination of research findings;
• remit, control and collaboration for researchers and disseminators in mediated research findings;
• the implications for researchers, research and findings in using visual media for dissemination;
• responsibilities, challenges and opportunities in representing data to a diverse and distinct audiences; and
• funding, feedback and impact in using visual media to communicate research findings.

Presentations

Chair: Professor Rosalind Edwards (University of Southampton)
Discussant: Dr. Bella Dicks (Cardiff University)

• Reithian principles for communicating research findings in the twenty-first century – Inform, educate and engage (Joanna Mack and Pete Mitton, The Open University)
• VJM Visual Intelligence and the London School of Economics: bringing your research project to the attention of a global audience (TBC)
• Facilitating relationship support for ‘mixed’ couples and families: academic and voluntary sector collaboration on visualization of findings (Elaine Bauer, London South Bank University)
• Visualising bodies in place: reflections on a participatory film-making project with young people (Emma Renold and Gabrielle Ivinson, Cardiff University)
• Visualising numbers: when is it good to map statistical analyses? (Scott Orford, Cardiff University)

Fee Information

Attendance at the seminar will cost £15 (or £10 for registered postgraduate students). Places will be limited and booking is essential.

Click here to download a booking form for this event.

Please return your booking to wiserd.events@cardiff.ac.uk. Queries about this event should also be directed to the same address.

The research project – ‘Stay, leave or return? Patterns of Welsh Graduate mobility’ – was undertaken in collaboration with the ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) and investigated the nature and scale of graduate flows to and from Wales.

The research revealed the existence of a net outflow of graduate labour in Wales, since some of the brightest students leave Wales to study and work elsewhere in the UK. This could be interpreted as a ‘brain drain’; however the mobility patterns are very complex. The data compiled by the researchers at Cardiff and Swansea also revealed that Welsh graduates who stay in Wales are less likely to have studied subjects deemed “strategically important”.

The project focused on key questions such as to what extent does Wales retain its human capital in higher education and subsequent employment? Does Wales retain those who come to study from elsewhere in the UK? And do Welsh graduates who have studied or worked elsewhere return to Wales at a later stage?

The project also investigated the location and employment outcomes of successive ‘graduate cohorts’ since the 1992 expansion of Higher Education. It augmented the widely-used graduate first destinations data produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency with detailed analysis of the Labour Force Survey and Annual Population Survey data.

The research team comprised Rhys Davies, Dr Madeleine Pill and Dr Gillian Bristow based at Cardiff University and Dr Stephen Drinkwater from Swansea University.

Rhys Davies said: “The analysis has helped to provide new insights into the returns to human capital acquisition and to our understanding of the different stages of graduate mobility.

“This in turn has implications for higher education and skills policies in Wales and highlights important inter-relationships between the mobility of students and graduates” he added.

The report was launched at a workshop in October 2011 at Cardiff University and published on the e-journal ‘People, Place and Policy Online’.

 For further details about the research and to view the report in full, please visit the project website: http://www.wiserd.ac.uk/research/wiserd-projects-current/welsh-graduate-migration/

View an online version of the media coverage here: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2012/01/05/brain-drain-alarm-as-many-who-study-in-wales-leave-91466-30062589/

Listen to Dr Stephen Drinkwater discuss the report on BBC Radio Wales this morning (5^th January) available to listen again for the next seven days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018lc20 starting at 2:52:30.

The third annual Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods’ (WISERD) conference will bring together researchers, politicians and third sector agencies from Wales and beyond to discuss ‘Devolution, Place and Change’.

Lord Elis-Thomas’ speech ‘Sut mae deddfu dros gynaliadwyedd?’(How to legislate for sustainability) will be delivered in Welsh (with simultaneous translation) on the first morning of the two-day conference.

WISERD Director, Professor Gareth Rees, said:”We are delighted to welcome such a well respected figure to the WISERD conference next year. Dafydd Elis-Thomas is one of the major figures in contemporary Welsh politics. I’m sure that his contribution will be well-informed and thought-provoking.

“He will provide an excellent beginning to what is becoming Wales’ most important conference for people concerned about social and economic issues in Wales today.”

Dafydd Elis-Thomas is currently the Assembly Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd and was Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales since its first opening in 1999 until 2011. He is also President of Bangor University where he was formerly a student and lecturer.

His political interests are focused on the development of devolution in Wales, and the status of Wales in Europe. Recently he was appointed as Chair of the Assembly’s Environment and Sustainability Committee and Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for Environment and Energy.

Aside from his work in politics, Dafydd Elis-Thomas has also served on the Welsh Language Board, the British Film Institute and the Arts Council of Wales, as well as working in the private sector as a director of an environmental surveying company.

Further information

The third annual WISERD Conference entitled ‘Devolution, Place and Change’ takes place at Bangor University on March 28^th and 29^th 2012. To book a place at the conference please download a booking form here. Early bird rates are available until Tuesday 17th January 2012.

WISERD will be holdings its third annual conference in Bangor on 28^th and 29^th March 2012.  The theme of the conference is Devolution, Place and Change.

Keynote speakers confirmed are:

Professor John Curtice (Strathclyde University)

Professor Ron Martin (Cambridge University)

We expect to announce the contribution of another high profile guest very soon.

If you would like to make a submission to be included in conference, please send your abstract to wiserd.events@cardiff.ac.uk by 21 November 2011. Authors of shortlisted abstracts will be informed by 30 November 2011.  Bookings for the conference open on 1 December 2011.

As in previous years submissions may take a variety of forms. To view the full text of the call for papers please click here.

This will be the most significant piece of homelessness research to be conducted in Wales and will directly inform the forthcoming Housing Bill to help improve homelessness law in Wales.

The Welsh Government have set out their commitment to this topic in their Ten Year Homelessness Plan for Wales, and this review will help meet these long term objectives by ensuring legislation on homelessness is suitable to the needs of people in Wales.

Led by Dr Peter Mackie, Lecturer in Housing at the Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning and chair of WISERD’s Housing Research Network, the study will include contributions from Heriot Watt University, Swansea University, WISERD researchers and independent housing consultant Tamsin Stirling.

Dr Mackie said: “Homelessness law is very significant in Wales because, unlike other parts of the world, the law is the key tool used by Government to ensure homeless people are supported.

“However, relatively little is known about the impacts of homelessness legislation in Wales and there has been no comprehensive exploration of possible improvements since it was first introduced.”

The review will build upon an initial study conducted in March 2011 that explored stakeholder perspectives on the deficiencies in the homelessness legislation in Wales. The researchers are keen to gather views from as many people as possible in this current review via stakeholder engagement events and stakeholder interviews planned for early 2012.

 The research teamplan to report back with emerging findings in February 2012 and produce a full report in July 2012.

Please visit the Homelessness web page for more information on the research project: www.cplan.cf.ac.uk/homelessness

WISERD is pleased to support two events as part of the annual Festival of Social Science run by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The week-long festival (29 October – 5 November),  now in its ninth year, celebrates some of the country’s leading social science research, showcasing the valuable work of the UK’s social scientists and demonstrates how their work has an impact on all our lives. 

Both events take place on Wednesday 2^nd November, one in Cardiff and one in Aberystwyth.

The Cardiff event ‘Who are we? From local to global citizens’, organised by the Cardiff School of Social Sciences, aims to promote the use of quantitative social science among schools in South Wales.

More than 100 Key Stage 4 students from nine local schools will learn about what social scientists attempt to discover about different groups in society and the different ways in which they try to find out. The results from an online survey, which was launched four weeks prior to the event, will be discussed at the workshops during the day and compared to similar surveys carried out in other parts of the world.

Mark Drakeford, Professor at the School of Social Sciences and AM for Cardiff West, will talk at the event about the contribution of social science and quantitative methods to understanding social life. He will also discuss how the sense of Welsh identity and use of the Welsh language vary by gender, age group and region.

At Aberystwyth, ‘Connecting Social Science and Science in Environmental Policy’ will bring together social scientists, scientists and policy-makers to discuss how social science and science perspectives can be integrated to inform environmental policy.

The workshop will aim to highlight the contribution of social science research to environmental policy-making and its integration with scientific evidence. Speakers at the event will include representatives from the Welsh Government, Forest Research Wales, and the Countryside Council for Wales.

For more information about the Aberystwyth events, please click here.

This year’s Festival of Social Science has over 130 creative and exciting events aimed at encouraging businesses, charities, government agencies; and schools or college students to discuss, discover and debate topical social science issues. Press releases detailing some of the varied events are available at the Festival website. You can also follow updates from the Festival on Twitter using #esrcfestival.

William Davis Hall, IBERS, Gogerddan Campus, Aberystwyth

Provisional Programme

This event, hosted by Aberystwyth University in association with the Welsh Government and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD), will bring together social scientists, scientists and policy-makers to discuss how social science and science perspectives can be integrated to inform environmental policy.

There is growing recognition of the need to engage with social science research in developing policy responses to major environmental challenges including climate change, biodiversity, land management and pollution. The Welsh Government, in particular, has acknowledged this requirement in developing its new Natural Environment Framework. However, whilst there are established mechanisms for feeding evidence from scientific research into environmental policy-making, knowledge exchange with social scientists is less well developed, and science and social science perspectives are rarely presented to policy-makers in an integrated way.

This workshop will aim to highlight the contribution of social science research to environmental policy-making and its integration with scientific evidence, through presentations by social scientists and scientists on key environmental topics, and discussion of the practicalities of developing an integrated approach.

The intended audience are officials involved in environmental policy development and implementation in the Welsh Government and public bodies including the Countryside Council of Wales, Environment Agency and Forestry Commission, social scientists and scientists working on policy-relevant research, and interested members of the public.

 For more information please contact Joanne Walker: jnw@aber.ac.uk