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 121–132 of 15276 results

Opinion

How do young people get land in post-land reform Zimbabwe?

Gaining access to land for the next generation is a struggle in Zimbabwe. There is huge demand as the last blog discussed, but there are very few simple options. Many young people have to cobble together different sources of land, perhaps waiting for a formal allocation or an inheritance. We...

3 March 2025

Opinion

Stephen D. Biggs: An appreciation of his professional life

Stephen D. Biggs, who has recently died, was at IDS from 1969 to 1973 and was part of a group who went on to make long-lasting and pioneering contributions to rural development and wider development policy and action. Below is an appreciation of his academic life from colleagues who knew him...

Simon Maxwell
Simon Maxwell & 9 others

28 February 2025

Publication

An Inclusive Lens on Aid for Trade

IDS Policy Briefing 218

In a rapidly evolving global trade and development landscape, addressing trade-related challenges through aid for trade (AfT) remains highly relevant. This Policy Briefing provides a framing for an inclusive lens on AfT to enable more inclusive policy and programming.

Amrita Saha
Amrita Saha & 2 others

27 February 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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