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 1393–1404 of 14674 results

Brief

Social Assistance Systems in Crisis Situations: Resilient, Responsive and Sensitive?

BASIC Research Theme Brief

Evidence on what enables social assistance systems to deliver routinely, effectively and efficiently is limited in crisis situations.

7 February 2022

News

New research calls for focus on social assistance in protracted crises

Globally, the number of crises lasting five years or more – has proliferated in recent decades. Yet, responses to these crises continue to be dominated by humanitarian assistance in response to short-term shocks. The Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research programme is launching a series...

7 February 2022

Brief

The Politics of Social Assistance in Crises

BASIC Research Theme Brief

This brief summarises the state of what is known and what gaps there are in the evidence regarding how politics shape social assistance policy and implementation.

7 February 2022

News

New IDS Bulletin: Theory-based evaluation of inclusive business programmes

Increasingly, development funding is directed to programmes aiming to make market systems more favourable for smallholders and low-income consumers of food. The development outcomes of these programmes are not self-evident. Programmes operate in dynamic markets full of uncertainties and...

7 February 2022

Journal

Theory-Based Evaluation of Inclusive Business Programmes

IDS Bulletin 53.1

Increasingly, development funding is directed to programmes aiming to make market systems more favourable for smallholders and low-income consumers of food. The development outcomes of these programmes are not self-evident. Programmes operate in dynamic markets full of uncertainties and...

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).