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.
This report provides an illustrative overview of the Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) programme's work from October 2016 until May 2021 connected to climate change. Given the breadth of K4D reports that touch on climate change (or related issues), this report has taken a...
Digital solutions are strengthening delivery of healthcare with improved diagnostic capabilities and patient outcomes, and making healthcare more affordable and accessible. For digital health solutions to flourish, trust is imperative.
This will come from having robust laws and a reliable...
A global coalition of over 60 senior climate scientists and governance scholars have launched a global initiative calling for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering. They argue that deployment of solar geoengineering - speculative technologies that aim to lower global...
It is important to assume that the learning crisis caused by Covid-19 is not over. As highlighted by 2021 school closures in response to the Delta variant, lessons learned from school closures in 2020 are required and applicable.
There is therefore a need for reflection and a consolidation of...
2021 was a standout year for the Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development Programme (K4D). In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, cuts to Overseas Development Aid, and other challenges, K4D published its 1,000th Helpdesk Report, facilitated its 40th Learning Journey, received 237,600...
The past two years have seen Covid-19 reshape how we live and work, but also how we learn. While the level of interest in postgraduate studies remains high, the pandemic has changed how prospective students, including those in development studies, decide where to study. The latest Future Masters...
2021 was a challenging year, both for the international development sector and for the world as a whole. The second year of the Covid-19 pandemic brought new development challenges and increased complexity. Significant cuts in general global Official Development Assistance (ODA) means that...
In the new episode of the IDS podcast Between the Lines, IDS Research Fellow Lyla Mehta interviews Luisa Cortesi and K. J. Joy, editors of the book Split Waters: The Idea of Water Conflicts.
This book features a fascinating collection of essays that consider the idea of water conflict and how...
Solar geoengineering is gaining prominence in climate change debates as an issue worth studying; for some it is even a potential future policy option.
We argue here against this increasing normalization of solar geoengineering as a speculative part of the climate policy portfolio. We contend,...
Motivation:
Social assistance and humanitarian relief in disaster response increasingly overlap, especially where recurrent crises and persistent conflicts prevail. In such situations, distinctions between risk and uncertainty become especially important. Shifting the focus from risk assessment...
A virtual national symposium to share learnings from the three-year Trans4m-PH Project (Transformative Competency-Based Public Health Education for Professional Employability in Bangladesh’s Health Sector).
This event will discuss the systemic challenges to the local Public Health Curricula...
13 January 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).