Sustainability

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.

People

Melissa Leach

Emeritus Fellow

Lyla Mehta

Professorial Fellow

Ian Scoones

Professorial Fellow

Amber Huff

Research Fellow

Jeremy Allouche

Professorial Fellow

Lars Otto Naess

Research Fellow

Wei Shen

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead and Research Fellow

Shilpi Srivastava

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead and Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Recent work

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Showing 1–12 of 15343 results

Upcoming Event

Food Equity Centre

Power relationships and aquaculture livelihoods in Vietnam

Join us for this seminar that explores different kinds of power relationships that influence people’s access to resources, livelihood options and sustainability outcomes. This seminar looks at a case study of aquaculture production systems in northern Vietnam and the power relationships...

15 July 2025

Upcoming Event

Dignity in development: Evidence and gaps in respecting people worldwide

The development sector proclaims that it values dignity. Yet it often breaks this promise, with people leaving encounters with charities feeling bruised and unseen. In this seminar, Tom Wein examines dignity as a core value around the world, drawing on his in-progress research for the future...

19 June 2025

Upcoming Event

Taxing wealth in lower income countries

In the face of declining aid volumes and mounting debt and climate crises, lower income countries are under increasing pressure to raise more domestic revenue. With these countries already experiencing higher levels of wealth and income inequality than high-income nations, there is a compelling...

19 June 2025

Past Event

Financing social protection in protracted crises 

This event shares new research findings and brings together key voices to discuss current challenges, funding gaps, and what needs to change ahead of the upcoming Financing for Development conference. Watch now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bn5cHJ1m5A This launch event will explore...

12 June 2025

Student Opinion

Life after IDS: setting up a think tank in Sri Lanka

Yolani Fernando, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy, Class of 2022-23, is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Arutha, (Arutha on Instagram) a Colombo-based policy think tank focused on economic research and communication with a special interest in public debt and taxation. In this...

Yolani Fernando, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy Class of 2022-23

10 June 2025

Why learn with us.

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).

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