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.
Sri Lanka development slide from a 1970s basic needs success to external debt default in 2022 is merits attention. So too is its rapid IMF economic stabilisation and its trade/aid ties with India during global trade uncertainty. This public lecture analyses the causes of Sri Lanka’s crisis and...
Pathways to Development (Path2Dev) is a multidisciplinary conference that brings together empirical and historical research by economists, political scientists, sociologists, legal and constitutional scholars, and law and policy reform experts, within and outside Pakistan, to document and...
Join the Food Equity Centre 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...
This K4DD Rapid Evidence Review is the second of two literature reviews scoping issues of state fragility, climate change, peacebuilding and security. The review draws on a mix of academic and grey literature.
Where the first review (Rapid Evidence Review 229) explored definitions of...
A central question for our new research exploring changes in livelihoods 25 years after land reform is what are the trajectories of accumulation – or indeed the opposite? In other words, how well have those who got land following the land reform of 2000 fared? The farmers occupying the small-...
This paper examines the structural causes of the financial collapse, the subsequent impact on Lebanon’s social protection systems, and the limitations of shock-responsive social protection (SRSP) frameworks in such a context.
Hitomi Fujimoto, MA Poverty & Development, Class of 2014-15, currently works at the Global Survivors Fund as an Advocacy and Policy Officer for Asia. In this blog post, Hitomi talks about why she decided to study at IDS, how it has impacted on her career path, and advice for prospective students...
Hitomi Fujimoto, MA Poverty & Development, Class of 2014-15
A growing concern today is that the acceleration of the so-called ‘twin transition’ — green and digital — is dramatically increasing global demand for critical minerals (CMs). In response to this increasingly recognised challenge, several research agendas have emerged.
A central...
In May 2025, Keir Starmer held a press conference to launch an Immigration White Paper, stating that without stricter immigration rules, the UK risks becoming an ‘island of strangers’. This White Paper – aspects of which are already being implemented – proposes, among other things,...
Green transitions are not only technological but deeply political. They rely on resources – land, minerals, water – mostly located in low- and middle-income countries, where extraction is increasingly contested. Drawing on evidence from Argentina and Chile, this paper examines how...
The UK government’s 2025 Immigration White Paper titled ‘Restoring Control over the Immigration System’ proposes sweeping changes to the Skilled Worker (SW) visa route, raising salary thresholds (currently £38,700), removing discounts for shortage occupations, closing the social care visa...
Antea Gomes, MA Gender and Development, Class of 2022/23
Community engagement is a crucial part of preparedness and response to health emergencies. It can enable more effective and equitable approaches by listening and responding to people’s needs, aspirations and priorities as much as communicating information to people and seeking to guide their...
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).