2021 Event Highlights

Organiser: Dr Louise Roberts & Rachel Vaughan

In this event we discussed our recent efforts to co-develop a best practice charter, aimed at creating meaningful change for parents in and leaving local authority care. The charter has been Co-produced with care experienced parents, practitioners and policy makers, the charter is aimed at Corporate Parents; professionals with responsibility for supporting young people in state care.

Building on our research, this event hoped to raised awareness and to improve support for parents in and leaving care.

View the recording of the event.

Organiser: Dr Zoe Lee and Dr Amanda Spry

In this event, we gave people the opportunity to be a part of the conversation around the emergence of activism in the charity sector and how it impacts supporters and donations.

We discussed whether charity activism increases donations or instead alienates existing supporters and heard from industry experts about research in this area and their stories around opportunities and challenges in engaging in activism.

Organiser: Dr Roberta DeAngelis and Dr Nicole Koenig-Lewis

The circular economy has the potential to radically transform the way in which products are designed, produced, consumed, and disposed, providing us with a potential way to tackle climate change and achieve net zero.

In this interactive session we showcased innovative reuse and repair initiatives and highlighted opportunities and benefits for businesses and consumers alike wishing to take advantage of a circular economy transition in Wales.

Organiser: Dr Giada Lagana

In this online event we explored the role of civil society organisations in youth unemployment, in the context of devolution. We learned about the different theoretical and practical approaches across the devolved nations and heard first hand from civil society organisations about what does and what doesn’t work in policy and practice.

Organiser: Dr Bernd Bonfert

This event gave attendees the opportunity to learn more about community food systems and why they have experienced a strong rise in demand over the past year.

We listened to the expert panel share their experiences and insights into the work, benefits and challenges of community-based food systems, this was followed by a question and answer session and a reflection on what opportunities community food systems may provide for us.

This online event which examined “The Future of Work in Wales” through lively discussions on Universal Basic Income and Productivity – exceptionally important topics to everyone interested in our collective economic and social future.

The event also saw the launch of the recently signed partnership between Cardiff University and the NIESR.

Organiser:  Dr Katharine Steentjes

In this event we learned about and reflected on global and local efforts to tackle climate change.

The event focused on climate change action and debate, the challenges of bridging global, political negotiations, such as the COP26 conference with local, community climate action.

Organiser: Dr Alexis Pala

This event provided attendees with the opportunity to contribute to the development of an evidence gathering toolkit to support practitioners, lawyers, communities, and others to better understand culture, context and place.

We believe the law can be an effective tool for protecting, restoring, and enhancing the livelihoods of indigenous communities when rooted in the community’s needs, aspirations, and ambitions. In this session we tested and explored the concept of legal empowerment and learnt about the social, environmental, and legal challenges that come with development projects and how we can work together to ensure they have the maximum benefit.

Organiser: Dr Gareth Thomas

This in-person exhibition demonstrated how the new technologies needed to make heating climate safe could mean changes to the fabric of our homes, communities, and how we pay for energy. We learnt what net zero might mean for us, not only as consumers but as families and citizens.

Organiser: Dr Alida Payson

In this exciting, hands-on workshop and discussion we looked at reusing and repairing our things.

We learnt more about research into the lifecycles of everyday household objects and mended a garment we brought along and learnt how to make a wallet from an old tetrapak carton.

Throughout the session we reflected on a series of questions about the lives of our things, and discussed the broad challenges and opportunities we face under climate change in prolonging the life and use of our things.

Organiser: Dr John McCrory

In this exciting repair workshop, a group of secondary school students in the Cardiff area explored the environmental consequences of a throw away economy that creates waste and worked with experts to repair household items. The event combined a learning experience with hands on activities to explore what repair means as a practical response to climate change and as a concept key to changing societal behaviour.

Organiser: Dr Jamie Lewis, Professor Robert Evans and Dr Nick Hacking

In this two part event, attendees had the opportunity to learn more about the air quality in their communities. In the first session, attendees were provided with an air monitoring kit and asked to monitor the air in their communities over the course of a week, in the second session everyone shared and analysed their data to see what we can learn about the air quality in our communities and how the social sciences, climate sciences and local communities can work productively together to tackle the problem of air pollution.