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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Working Paper

Export-Oriented Industrialization Through Primary Processing?

IDS Working Paper 19

This paper asks whether the chances of export-oriented industrialization in countries with low skill/land ratios seem better when the definition of manufactures is broadened to include processed primary products.

1 January 1995

Publication

Non-Governmental Organizations and Rural Poverty Alleviation

This book brings together the results of 16 evaluations in four countries (Bangladesh, India, Uganda and Zimbabwe), to provide a detailed assessment of the contribution that NGOs make to rural poverty alleviation.

1 January 1995

Brief

Can Aid Promote Good Government?

The promotion of 'good government' has become an explicit objective of most aid donors. This has raised suspicions in developing countries, particularly when the threat of withholding aid has been used to force multi-party elections.

1 January 1995

Brief

Confronting Famine in Africa

Famine poses a continuing threat to many of the poorest countries in Africa. There is much that can be done, however, to reduce the risk of famine, and limit the damage done. Speeding up the response to famine early warning signals is vital.

1 January 1995

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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