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

Lyla Mehta

Professorial Fellow

Ian Scoones

Professorial Fellow

Amber Huff

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead

Jeremy Allouche

Professorial Fellow

Lars Otto Naess

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead

Wei Shen

Research Fellow

Shilpi Srivastava

Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Recent work

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Showing 1381–1392 of 14678 results

Journal Article

An Introduction to the Labours of Repair and Maintenance in South Asia

As the cities in South Asia transform into global or “world-class” cities, the lives of those who construct, repair, and maintain these cities are changing. In this collection of articles on repair and maintenance in South Asia, we foreground how the repairers and maintainers of Kolkata,...

Malini Sur

10 February 2022

Journal Article

Heat and Covid-19 in the Off-grid City

Amidst almost unstoppable contagion, many have hung their hopes on heat and humidity as a potential defence against contracting Covid-19. In the early months of the pandemic studies of SARS-CoV-2 suggested that the virus is transmitted less efficiently in higher temperatures or at higher rates...

10 February 2022

Publication

Drivers, Barriers and Opportunities of E-waste Management in Africa

K4D Helpdesk Report

Population growth, increasing prosperity and changing consumer habits globally are increasing demand for consumer electronics. Further to this, rapid changes in technology, falling prices and consumer appetite for better products have exacerbated e-waste management challenges and seen millions...

10 February 2022

Brief

Capacity and Coordination Challenges for Social Assistance in Crisis Situations

BASIC Research Theme Brief

A better understanding of the evidence on capacity and coordination of social assistance during crises and of the main knowledge gaps is key to identifying solutions to overcome capacity and coordination deficits – solutions that are fit-for-purpose in situations of protracted crisis.

Rachel Slater & 2 others

7 February 2022

Brief

Displacement and Social Assistance

BASIC Research Theme Brief

Displaced people are disproportionately hosted in low- and middle-income countries, and the length of their displacement is increasing.

7 February 2022

Brief

Accountability in Crises: Connecting Evidence From Humanitarian and Social Protection Approaches to Social Assistance

BASIC Research Theme Brief

The increasing emphasis on reinforcing social protection in fragile contexts and the Grand Bargain ‘participation revolution’ workstream suggest the need for a fresh look at accountability frameworks and how they play out in practice for the people they aim to serve.

7 February 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).