Study title

The Fast Food Shutdown project was developed as a response to a forthcoming day of action organised by the Independent Workers of the World union on the 10th October 2018. We collected all tweets containing hashtags relating to the various groups of employees taking part in the action: McDonald's (#McStrike), UberEats (#UberEatsStrike), Wetherspoons (#Spoonstrike) and TGI Fridays (#AllEyesonTGIs), as well as the hashtag for the event #FFS410, which was designed to reflect the core demand for £10 per hour minimum wages as well as the date of the action. Tweets were collected over a period of 15 days before, during and after the event.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...