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.
Jeremy and I were colleagues at IDS for 16 years from 1981-1997, though he was there before me, and after. He was exceptional in many ways.
Jeremy was adventurous, seasoned and experienced. There was something about him of Wilfred Thesiger, T. E. Lawrence or Gertrude Bell: a love of and...
Nigeria ranks third in Africa for the number of US dollar millionaires, but whether these high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are contributing their fair share to domestic revenue mobilization is open to question.
Although there have been various attempts to improve tax collection in recent...
Our research has shown how land reform has driven the growth in small towns, creating new economic linkages in a reconfigured economic geography of the country. No longer are the metropolitan centres and associated manufacturing industries driving growth, as these have declined as industries...
Workforce Nutrition Programmes (WNPs) can improve the health of workers, but with mixed results for a business case—which is crucial to their sustainability. This paper thus explores impact pathways and metrics used to assess the business benefits of WNPs, as well as the factors that influence...
Many students come to IDS with aspirations of a career in the UN system. A recent event at IDS gave both students and alumni the opportunity to learn about the realities of such a career and the chance to gain valuable insights from a distinguished panel with a wealth of experience working at...
Silvia Masiero’s new book Unfair-ID critically examines the claims that Digital-ID advances international development goals. Based on a decade of empirical research in India she uses a ‘data justice’ lens to analyse examples of digital exclusion as well as cases of ‘adverse...
This year it’s 35 years since the establishment of the Environment Group at IDS. To mark this milestone, a new IDS archive Bulletin – Environmental Change, Development Challenges – Revisited – has just been released, edited by Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones.
The archive Bulletin...
The establishment of the IDS Environment Group in 1990 created a line of research linked to policy that has remained central to the Institute ever since. In highlighting a series of IDS Bulletin issues, led by IDS researchers, this archive issue tracks the development of this work over the...
The talk will go though some of the pivotal moments in my book just released from Cambridge University Press. Through the India-China Border: Kalimpong in the Himalayas mobilizes rarely used documentary material from British, Chinese and Indian archives to shed new light on our understanding of...
When a massive Chinese factory complex attempts a high-stakes expansion in rural Ethiopia, three women in search of prosperity have their faith in industrialization tested to the limit.
Join us for a screening of award-winning documentary 'Made in Ethiopia', exploring the realities of...
5 February 2025
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).