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.
The brutal war that broke out in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, has just entered its twentieth month. It has reportedly killed over 500,000 people and led to the systematic destruction and looting of the region’s vital social and economic infrastructures. The conflict has all but destroyed the...
New research from partners within the Food Equity Centre reveals the surprisingly positive effect Covid-19 had on the UK food aid sector – a development now proving critical as many more face food insecurity in today’s cost-of-living crisis.
When we set out researching food insecurity...
Humanitarian crises have come thick and fast in recent times – notably Ukraine, Afghanistan and situations worsened by Covid-19. While each creates urgent humanitarian needs, each also carries the risk of becoming protracted or recurrent like so many other existing global crises.
The reflex...
The IDS Summer graduation took place in Brighton on the 15 July and included 617 graduates from 42 different countries – and due to the disruptions of Covid-19 this included cohorts from 2020 and 2021 – making it our biggest graduation ceremony ever.
Graduating can be one of life’s most...
The Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated the food insecurity situation of people living in Latin American cities. In Peru, the most vulnerable are facing great difficulties in accessing food, while food market vendors are also struggling to keep their businesses afloat.
Covid-19 Responses for...
An independent evaluation of the UN’s unprecedented humanitarian response in Yemen from 2015 to 2021 says the operation has saved lives, improved food security and reduced malnutrition, but overall it is critical of aid that was of “unacceptably poor quality”.
Since war broke out in Yemen...
Civil society can be broadly defined as the area outside the family, market and state. As such, civil society encompasses a spectrum of actors with a wide range of purposes, constituencies, structures, degrees of organisation, functions, size, resource levels, cultural contexts, ideologies,...
Join the Rejuvenate project for a dialogue on gender and child/youth rights, where we will be asking:
How does gender intersect with child/youth rights and participation?
What kind of gender equality work is being done by/with children and young people?
What are the challenges and...
The fifth Rejuvenate dialogue was held on 19th July 2022. Five panellists working across contexts and themes joined the Rejuvenate team on a discussion on gender in child and youth rights.
We asked speakers and participants to consider the following four questions:
How does gender...
A team of researchers at IDS have edited a special issue of Anthropology in Action, bringing together a global team of anthropologists to reflect on and analyse the role of social science in epidemic response.
‘Operationalising Social Science for Epidemic Response’ builds on IDS’s...
This is the 28th monthly Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) Programme Humanitarian Evidence Summary to signpost to the latest relevant evidence and discourse on humanitarian action to inform and support their response.
It is the result of 1 day of work per month and is not...
15 July 2022
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).