WISERD/Civil Society

这项建议是由一个国家研究中心（WISERD/民间社会）开展一项针对威尔士民间社会的五年政策相关研究方案。WISERD成立于2008年，为研究提供了“全威尔士”的重点，并对威尔士开展的社会科学研究的数量和质量产生了重大影响。作为WISERD的一部分，WISERD/Civil Society将通过一项重点研究计划，进一步发展我们的研究专长，加强我们的政策影响和知识交流工作，加强我们的研究能力和职业发展活动，使这项工作得以深化和持续。因此，WISERD/民间社会将致力于发展在WISERD工作第一阶段发起的多学科研究的关键方面，以产生新的经验证据，使我们了解在权力下放的政府和深刻的社会和经济变革进程的背景下，民间社会不断变化的性质。关于公民社会是什么以及它可能如何变化，存在许多分歧。我们确实知道，在过去四十年中，经济和工业、政治和治理、社会关系和个人生活过程等领域都发生了前所未有的变化。在当地情况下，个人如何受到戏剧性制度变化的影响并对其作出反应尚不清楚。在描述和解释社会变革对民间社会和民间社会组织的地方形式的影响以及这对社会凝聚力和福祉意味着什么方面，我们的知识存在一个重要差距。此外，在多层次和分权的政府背景下，不同形式的公民社会是如何发展的还不是很清楚。由于其规模和权力下放的政府，威尔士为研究这些问题提供了独特的背景。将威尔士视为一个“社会科学实验室”，拟议中的中心将建立在拥有广泛专业知识和技能的现有研究人员网络的基础上。将利用和分析大型调查数据集，并收集有关威尔士、英国和欧洲公民社会的新数据。对纵向和比较数据采用跨学科和多方法方法将是wise /民间社会研究方案的一个主要特点和优势。我们的研究将以三个原则为基础：(i)最大限度地发挥研究影响，（ii）成为比较，纵向和关系研究方法的卓越中心，（iii）为威尔士研究能力的增长做出贡献。我们还将把研究范围从威尔士扩展到不同地区、国家和国际层面的比较研究。通过这种方式，WISERD将为研究当代公民社会的社会理论的进步以及描述和解释权力下放和多层次治理背景下公民参与模式的方法方法做出实质性和新颖的贡献。实质性研究将应用于四个相互关联的主题下进行的真实和及时的研究问题：地方，社区和公民社会个人，制度和治理经济紧缩，社会企业和不平等的产生，生命历程和社会参与。我们的目标是产生各种不同受众可访问的广泛产出，包括：学术论文；书;工作底稿;研讨会;基于网络的材料；视频和电子学习材料；并通过各种活动传播我们的工作。将通过各种活动提高公众意识；活动;以及旨在培养兴趣、鼓励讨论和辩论的展览。WISERD/Civil Society将拥有强大的管理结构、大量的制度支持和与相关组织的密切联系，并将为新的和早期职业研究人员和博士生提供实质性的职业发展。

This proposal is for a National Research Centre (WISERD/Civil Society) to undertake a five year programme of policy relevant research addressing Civil Society in Wales. Established in 2008, WISERD provides an 'All-Wales' focus for research and has had a major impact on the quantity and quality of social science research undertaken in Wales. As part of WISERD, WISERD/Civil Society will enable this work to be deepened and sustained through a focused research programme that further develops our research expertise, intensifies our policy impact and knowledge exchange work and strengthens our research capacity and career development activities. WISERD/Civil Society will therefore aim to develop key aspects of the multidisciplinary research initiated during the first phase of WISERD's work to produce new empirical evidence to inform our understanding of the changing nature of civil society in the context of devolved government and processes of profound social and economic change. There are many disagreements over what civil society is and how it may be changing. We do know that over the last forty years there have been unprecedented changes in the spheres of economy and industry, politics and governance, social relations and individual life courses. How individuals in local contexts are affected by and respond to dramatic institutional changes is not well understood. An important gap in our knowledge is in describing and explaining the impact of social change on local forms of civil society and civil society organisations and what this means for social cohesion and well-being. In addition how different forms of civil society are developing in the context of multi-level and devolved government is not well understood. Because of its size and devolved government, Wales offers a unique context for studying these issues. Viewing Wales as a 'laboratory for social science' the proposed centre will build on existing networks of researchers who have a wide range of expertise and skills. Large survey data sets will be exploited and analysed and new data collected on civil society in Wales, the UK and Europe. Inter-disciplinarity and multi-method approaches applied to longitudinal and comparative data will be a key feature and strength of the WISERD/Civil Society research programme. Our research will be underpinned by three principles: (i) to maximise research impact, (ii) to become a centre of excellence for comparative, longitudinal, and relational research methods and (iii) to contribute to the growth of research capacity in Wales. We will also extend our research out from Wales to undertake comparative studies at different regional, national and international levels. In this way WISERD will make substantive and novel contributions to the advancement of social theory applied to researching contemporary civil society and to methodological approaches to describing and explaining patterns of civic participation in the context of devolution and multi-level governance. Substantive research will be applied to real and timely research problems conducted under four inter-related themes:Locality, Community and Civil Society Individuals, Institutions and Governance Economic Austerity, Social Enterprise and Inequality Generation, Life Course and Social ParticipationOur aim will be to produce a wide range of outputs accessible to a variety of different audiences, including: academic papers; books; working papers; seminars; web based material; video and e-learning materials; as well as disseminating our work through a diversity of activities. Public awareness will be raised through events; activities; and exhibitions, designed to foster interest and encourage discussion and debate. WISERD/Civil Society will have a strong management structure, substantial institutional support, and close links with relevant organisations, and will provide substantive career development for new and early-career researchers and PhD students.