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.
CREID Intersections Series; Religious Inequalities and Covid-19
The purpose of this study, conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic between November 2020 and March 2021 in India and Nigeria, is to explore the direct and indirect effects of Covid-19 on religiously marginalised groups experiencing intersecting vulnerabilities.
The findings provide recognition...
The Covid-19 pandemic has had direct and indirect effects on religiously marginalised groups, exacerbating existing inequities and undermining the ambitions of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reach (and include) those ‘furthest behind’.
Religious inequalities intersect with other...
The Covid-19 pandemic has had direct and indirect effects on religiously marginalised groups, exacerbating existing inequities and undermining ambitions for those ‘furthest behind’ to be reached and supported through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The intersection of religious...
Are international human rights treaties associated with better rights performance? The appetite for a conclusive answer has driven a number of large scale quantitative studies that have broadly shown little or no effect, and sometimes even a backsliding. However, the headline conclusions belie...
The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a range of economic shocks, food systems shocks, public health crises and political upheavals across the globe, prompting a rethink of associated global systems.
Prepandemic anticolonial movements that challenged hierarchies of race, space, gender and expert...
Recognising the importance of a robust procurement framework to attract private investment into the infrastructure sector, including energy, in 2017 the Government of Ethiopia introduced the Public–Private Partnerships policy. From 2018, several non-hydro renewable energy projects were...
International trade generates winners and losers – posing the more challenging question of what can be done about it. This seminar series engages with academic debates, policy and practice on international trade and development outcomes, critically exploring different dimensions of inclusion...
In a context were religious minorities and communities are at risk of violent and systematic targeting or climate change impact, the IDS-led Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID) programme is working with young people in the Middle East to document and archive their...
International maritime shipping is an essential part of global business. Since the establishment of the current international tax regime in the 1920s, there has been a consensus that profits generated by this business are taxable only in the residence state –the state where the shipowners are...
In contexts of protracted violent conflict, school environments play a key role in children’s psychological, social, and emotional wellbeing. Research by the REALISE education project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo provides a better understanding of how violent conflict penetrates...
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).