Our interdisciplinary research explores how pathways to sustainability, green transformations and equitable access to resources such as land, water and food can be achieved and help us meet the environmental as well as human development-related goals of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
Our work builds on a long tradition of critical social science engagement with environmental issues and resource politics in collaboration with partners globally. It explores how pathways to sustainability are shaped by political-economic and social processes, and understands how they are driven by technology, markets, states and citizens. Our research sheds new light on how we can achieve green transformations that move us from fossil fuel to renewable energy, from throw-away to circular economies. It addresses the politics of sustainability, and understands how transformations occur at local levels as well as global, in both rural and urban settings, and be led by citizens as well as national governments. In doing so, it shines a light on how sustainable resource use, consumption and production is shaped by issues such as gender, livelihoods and politics.
The ESRC STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) is an interdisciplinary global research and policy engagement centre.
We are thrilled to host the launch for the book Smugglers and States, with an introduction by its author Max Gallien, followed by a drinks reception.
Smuggling is typically thought of as furtive and hidden, taking place under the radar and beyond the reach of the state. But in many cases,...
Linking short-term relief and long-term sustainable development has long been an important policy ambition. Yet too often, humanitarian responses in the face of disasters become detached from building and strengthening livelihood systems. How can this disconnection be solved in...
The Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) is hosting an International Conference on Global Land Grabbing in Bogota, Colombia with partners including the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Cornell University, City University of New York, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The...
The political debates about the rights and wrongs of Zimbabwe’s land reform continue to occupy many. The tired, old obsession about how the land was taken and the associated focus on so-called ‘cronies’ persists, despite much evidence to suggest that the process was highly varied and...
For women in working-class poor settlements in Colombo, since Covid-19, it seems that crises have kept on coming with no respite. At the height of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis in 2022 when food inflation reached 90% the shocks were far from over. Electricity tariff rates were revised and...
This Policy Briefing asks whether cash-plus programming is fit-for-purpose in protracted crises settings, and offers recommendations for enhancing its effectiveness.
For over 10 months, Sudan has been going through a horrific conflict, causing more than 8 million people to be forcibly displaced. New research from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) explores how aid actors can improve their food and cash support, with a focus on how it can be more...
Sanitation remains one of the most off-track Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with 3.4 billion people, about 46% of the world’s population, still without access to safe sanitation facilities.
Approaches such as Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) have helped shift countries towards...
In 2011, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) hosted a major conference on land grabbing to take stock of the impacts across the world. The event was convened by the recently formed Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI), which involved IDS through the Future Agricultures Consortium and the...
Amid the relentless brutality unleashed upon the Palestinian collective in Israel’s ongoing genocide, Omar al-Khatib, a dear friend and IDS research partner, has been arrested by Israeli forces, and is now being held in ‘administrative detention’ – incarceration without charge or...
Within the context of International Women’s Day and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 68 event, the IDS MA in Gender and Development (MAGAD) 2023 – 2024 cohort has curated a list of informative and inspiring feminist resources.
The MAGAD students recognise the transformative...
This brief explores the relationship between social protection and resilience, aiming to clarify conceptual linkages and contribute to WFP’s effective positioning and contribution within this space.
This brief explores the complementary and interconnected roles that social protection and...
In an extraordinary time of challenge and change, we use more than 50 years of expertise to transform development approaches that create more equitable and sustainable futures. The work you do with us will help make progressive change towards universal development; to build and connect solidarities for collective action, locally and globally. The University of Sussex has been ranked 1st in the world for Development Studies for the past five years (QS World University Rankings by Subject).