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.
In response to acute crises and complex, long-term systemic challenges, structural violence, austerity and neglect, people around the world are coming together in commons. Communities of ‘commoners’ are reconfiguring relationships between society, technology and the non-human environment,...
CREID Intersections Series; Violence and Discrimination Against Women
This volume is part of the Intersections series which explores how the intertwining of gender, religious marginality, socioeconomic exclusion and other factors shape the realities of women and men in contexts where religious inequalities are acute, and freedom of religion or belief is...
Activists around the world have been marking 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence – an annual international campaign to raise awareness of the issue of gender-based violence (GBV) and to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. In solidarity...
The world is losing its biodiversity. An estimated 41,000 animal species are now threatened with extinction. World leaders will convene at the UN COP15 biodiversity conference in Montreal this month to discuss ways of reversing this decline.
Participants are expected to adopt a global...
Join the IDS-led Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID), Fiona Bruce, UK Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief , Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP and the APPG on FoRB to discuss and debate recommendations for the future of the UK’s pro-FoRB and pro-poor policy and...
Despite deep division in the country and close allies of the defeated president Jair Bolsonaro being elected to Congress, Lula’s return to power will see a shake-up of Brazil’s approach to development, leading experts said at a recent IDS event.
This event featured a diverse range of...
Religion and politics have always had a close relationship. The early European missionaries provided a platform for the establishment of the colonial state and a modernising vision, while today the Pentecostal denominations along with the prophets from indigenous African churches are influential...
Land loss for livestock production is increasingly seen as a major contributor to climate change and nature loss. While cutting down rich forests to grow livestock feed for industrial livestock is certainly harmful, misunderstandings about rangelands and pastoral interactions with their...
Disability inclusive employment is gaining increased attention from funders, policymakers, scholars, and practitioners, as well as from employers and prospective employees with disabilities. But what actually works, how, who for, and why?
These questions were explored and analysed in a new...
L’art a été utilisé pour communiquer les préoccupations environnementales dans les pays sahéliens. Néanmoins, le dialogue dirigé par les arts entre les acteurs politiques et les citoyens est cependant rare, bien qu’il ait le potentiel de trouver des solutions aux problèmes...
L’art a été utilisé pour communiquer les préoccupations environnementales dans les pays sahéliens. Néanmoins, le dialogue dirigé par les arts entre les acteurs politiques et les citoyens est cependant rare, bien qu’il ait le potentiel de trouver des solutions aux problèmes...
The sixth Rejuvenate dialogue was held on 15th September 2022. Six panellists working across contexts and themes joined the Rejuvenate team on a discussion on uncertainty and it’s intersection with child and youth rights and participation.
From past research, we know that young people do not...
1 December 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).