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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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Showing 1657–1668 of 15404 results

Impact Story

Gleaning global lessons from the margins through participatory methods

Participatory research and inquiry is all about ‘putting the people who are experiencing the problems at the heart of finding the solutions’. As interest in participatory methods has surged, IDS this year produced a highly acclaimed and comprehensive handbook aimed at social science...

30 August 2022

Report

Impact of Climate Hazards on Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Practices in Burkina Faso

SLH Learning Brief;12

Despite climate change being a major concern for the sanitation sector, rural sanitation remains neglected in the wider discussions of climate impacts on WASH services. Also, the voices of vulnerable individuals, households, and communities who are experiencing the effects of climate change in...

30 August 2022

Working Paper

Evaluating Capacity-Strengthening Impact: A Funder Perspective

CDI Practice Paper 23

This CDI Practice paper by Peter Taylor describes the evolution of the Think Tank Initiative (TTI) evaluation approach as it engaged progressively with the complexity of the programme. It reflects critically on key lessons learned through process and outcomes. It also offers some takeaways for...

25 August 2022

Opinion

Between the cracks of the sanitation grid: a photo story of Nanded

Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation are intrinsically linked. Without a clean, safe source of water nearby it is nearly impossible for communities to have adequate sanitation facilities, and inadequate sanitation facilities often spill over and pollute drinking water sources....

Lyla Mehta
Lyla Mehta & 3 others

24 August 2022

Journal Article

Fintech and Tax in Sub-Saharan Africa: Taxation Versus Financial Inclusion

Journal of Cultural Economy 15.4

The rise of digital financial services has attracted growing attention from governments in Sub-Saharan Africa seeking to raise tax revenue. In the context of global concerns around how governments can tax the digital economy and fintech, we evaluate recent debates over mobile money taxation in...

Philip Mader
Philip Mader & 2 others

24 August 2022

Working Paper

A Study of Food and Drink Metaphors in Iraqi Syriac

CREID Working Paper 13

This study investigates the ways in which Syriac native speakers from Iraq conceptualise their understandings of various abstract domains, feelings, emotions, actions, customs, traditions and practices through their experiences of the concrete fields of food and drink metaphors.

23 August 2022

Working Paper

The Language of the People of Bashiqa: A Vehicle of their Intangible Cultural Heritage

CREID Working Paper 14

The current study is an attempt to provide a linguistic, a historical, as well as a sociocultural record of the language variety spoken in Bashiqa (Northern Iraq) by one of the communities which represents a religious minority in Iraq known as Yazidis.

23 August 2022

Impact Story

Making community engagement central to global health research

As health systems around the world grapple with providing care within the ‘new normal’ of Covid-19, IDS has stepped up collaboration with a major funder of global health research to make community engagement central to research on health inequities and complex health problems. The UK-based...

23 August 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).

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