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Science and Society

A lab technician conducts tests at the Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai, Indian. Credit: Atul Loke/Panos Pictures.The changing relationships between science and society in today's global context have become a pressing theme for development. Rapid advances in science and technology are creating both opportunities and threats. They offer promises of economic growth and solutions to problems of poverty, ill-health, hunger and environmental degradation. Yet as recent controversies show, science and technology can also generate risks and uncertainties and contribute to growing inequalities.

IDS research on science and society seeks to understand these trends as they play out in diverse and often highly dynamic local, national and global settings, and to influence them in ways that improve well-being and social justice for the poor.

Our work on science and society cuts across many issues and sectors, from health, agriculture, environment and climate change to industrial development, information and communication.

Key themes include:

  • Science and development: addressing diverse visions and perspectives
  • Governing science and technology: making technologies work for the poor
  • Science and policy processes: understanding knowledge and power relations
  • Citizenship and science: linking global and local voices, participation and mobilisation
  • Science, the economy and innovation: competing and surviving in the new global knowledge economy

News »»


Convenor of IDS's MA in Science, Society and Development welcomes the new summer school on pathways to sustainability

Published: 15 Dec 2011 teaching at IDS

Summer school to address issues such as the politics of sustainability, understanding uncertainty and risk, and the global governance of science and technology.


STEPS Centre Summer School on Pathways to Sustainability

Published: 5 Dec 2011 teaching at IDS

In Summer 2012 the STEPS Centre will hold a two-week international summer school on Pathways to Sustainability. Applications are invited from now until 31 January.


MA Science, Society and Development open for applications

Published: 23 Nov 2011 Mikkel Ostergaard / Panos. A worker testing sewage water for bacteria at a water treatment plant supported by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).

IDS is now accepting applications for our MA in Science, Society and Development commencing October 2012.




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Science and Society projects at IDS

  • Agricultural Biotechnology & Policy Processes in Developing Countries - (Ongoing)
  • ALINe - There is a new and widespread commitment within the development community to invest in agriculture as a way of reducing poverty and hunger. Three quarters of the one billion people surviving on less than $1 a day live and work in rural areas, and most rely on agriculture for their food and income. Investing in agriculture is key to lifting the world's poor out of hunger and poverty. (Ongoing)
  • Asbestos Diseases - (2005 - 2007)
  • Childhood Vaccination in West Africa - (2002 - 2006)
  • Childhood Vaccination: Science and Public Engagement - (2002 - 2004)
  • Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS) Centre - The STEPS Centre is an interdisciplinary global research and policy engagement hub, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. It aims to develop a new approach to understanding, action and communication on sustainability and development. (Ongoing)


    • Related Resources


    Partners

    Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability Centre