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.
In May 2022, concern was growing in Geneva about the appearance in Europe of a known zoonotic disease considered endemic to West Africa, within networks of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM). A year later, on 11 May 2023, the Public Health Emergency of International...
There have been huge investments in ‘early warning’ facilities across East Africa, prompted by previous emergencies where livestock have perished and people’s lives have been threatened. The most recent of these was the drought that struck the Somali region in 2011-12, but affected parts...
This paper draws on a feminist poststructural perspective to examine gendered dimensions of sending and managing international migrant remittances in a patriarchal community in Ghana.
It relies on primary data collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and observation in...
This paper aims to identify the most famous Yazidi heritage industries in the town of Bashiqa, in Nineveh governorate. It explores the economic, social and cultural reality of three non-material industries (the manufacture of al-rashi, olive oil and soap) in the town of Bashiqa by comparing how...
The challenge of childhood obesity is defined as a ‘wicked’ problem, up there with the likes of climate change and biodiversity loss. What makes these issues so wicked? To start with there are many (often contested) ways of defining the issue and how it should be ‘solved’, there is no...
This brief provides an overview of the Marburg Virus Disease outbreaks in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania, as well as contextual factors to inform considerations for responses in both countries.
The UN 2023 Water Conference took place in New York on 22-24 March, 46 years after the last UN water conference in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The 1977 conference led directly to the UN water decade of the 1980s with an avowed aim of achieving 'water for all'. Perhaps overly ambitious, given the...
Compassion in World Farming is hosting a two-day international conference to share solutions on global food system transformation with partners including the Institute of Development Studies, IPES-Food, Birdlife International and others.
The Extinction or Regeneration conference, to be held...
This background report looks at tax implications for those providing and using digital financial services (DFS), and gives general observations as to whether DFS in Africa are taxed the same as traditional financial services (TFS). There is no categorical answer to this question. It varies...
Words have meaning beyond their definitions
The public sphere today is terminally fragmented. Gone are the days when the debate focused on what to do based on the facts of the day. Today we start the debate much earlier – on what the facts themselves are. Our media sources are diverse and...
Conflict and political instability are major drivers of deprivation and displacement across the Horn of Africa. This is exemplified by the unfolding situation in Sudan, where humanitarian need is escalating rapidly as competing factions struggle violently for power. In a region with such high...
IDS Director Professor Melissa Leach and IDS researcher Stephen Devereux will speak alongside experts from around the world tomorrow (11 May) at the landmark Extinction or Regeneration conference, convened to respond to the growing global climate and food crises.
Organised by Compassion in...
10 May 2023
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).