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.
A new series of the Sussex Development Lectures launches this month with engaging guest speakers exploring declining multilateralism and the need to develop alternative, more effective global solidarities.
Globally, international cooperation and multilateral institutions have been under...
It is increasingly common for international development actors to work in difficult and fragile settings, yet much of our understanding of accountability through social and political action comes from more stable settings. As an increasing percentage of the world's population live in places...
Simplistic and generalised narratives paint the production of livestock – particularly red meat and milk – as a major focus for climate mitigation efforts. But such narratives raise many questions, particularly for livestock systems in the Global South.
This paper reviews the literature and documented evidence on capacity and coordination issues in crisis situations, where social protection and humanitarian assistance intersect.
This opinion blog is also available in English: Learning from the past to improve nutrition in Latin America.
Los objetivos de la ONU en materia de nutrición no se están cumpliendo, lo que hace dudar de que se alcance el Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible de acabar con el hambre y todas las...
UN nutrition targets are not being met, raising doubts that the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 will be achieved. Recent global nutrition data indicates that many lower- and middle-income countries, including the Latin American nations where we...
We examine how popular dissent affects the likelihood that political leaders lose power, distinguishing between types of dissent in terms of nonviolent/violent primary tactics as well as the level of individual participation.
We posit that protests threaten leaders both directly through the...
There has been a secret treasure trove lurking in the basement of the Institute of Development Studies building, adjoining the University of Sussex Library – until now. We are delighted to be launching publicly the British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) Legacy Collection, a...
‘Community resilience’ is one of those policy buzzwords that has emerged through the pandemic. With the clear limitations of many public health measures, particularly in settings where health systems are weak, relying on community capacities to respond to pandemic shocks and ‘build back...
Can progress on poverty eradication be rescued? The World Bank has recently called for course correction but their fiscal recovery-focused blueprint is only part of the solution given the scale of the challenge. Instead, we need to forge a more ambitious transformative pathway to zero poverty...
In recent years livestock production has been criticised for contributing to the climate crisis. Several groups, including corporate lobbies and environmentalists alike, have called for a reduction in meat and milk consumption and a shift towards more plant-based diets. But these simplistic and...
This CDI Practice Paper makes the case for ‘bricolage’ in complexity-aware and qualitative evaluation methods. It provides a framework based on a review of 33 methods to support evaluators to be more intentional about bricolage and to combine the component parts of relevant methods more...
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).