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 157–168 of 15277 results

Opinion

Jeremy Swift – an appreciation

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...

10 February 2025

Working Paper

Measuring the Business Case for Workforce Nutrition Programmes

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...

Evert-jan Quak
Evert-jan Quak & 4 others

10 February 2025

News

Three top tips for getting a job at the UN

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...

6 February 2025

Past Event

Digital-ID: exclusions and adverse inclusion

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...

6 February 2025

Journal

Environmental Change: Development Challenges Revisited

IDS Bulletin 56.1A

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...

5 February 2025

Working Paper

The Politics of Social Assistance in Lebanon: Social Protection, Sectarianism, and Lebanon’s Fragmented Social Contract

BASIC Research Working Paper 32

This working paper explores the contemporary politics of social assistance in Lebanon.

5 February 2025

Brief

The Politics of Social Assistance in Lebanon

BASIC Research Policy Briefing 5

This brief examines the politics of social protection amid ongoing financial crisis in Lebanon.

5 February 2025

Past Event

Screening and panel discussion of the documentary ‘Made in Ethiopia’

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).

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