Study title

The study carried out analysis of existing secondary sources of quantitative data in order to investigate levels of social capital within communities in relation to changing levels of provision of key public services. The study built on WISERD's previous research on the use of enhanced two step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) techniques to examine small area variations in accessibility. Part of this work involved the computation of geographical accessibility scores for all lower super output areas (LSOA) in Wales. These scores were computed for nine services: public libraries; leisure centres; post offices; primary and secondary schools; petrol stations; general practice surgeries; pharmacies; and food shops. For the purposes of comparison, access scores have been generated using three alternative approaches to measuring geographical accessibility; (1) minimum distance to nearest provider, (2) local cumulative opportunity, and (3) enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) accessibility. More information about each of these metrics is available in the technical documentation accompanying this collection.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...