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.
Responding effectively to the Covid-19 crisis and in ways that address systemic inequalities in the longer term raises many challenges – and opportunities – for researchers and commissioners of research.
Launched in October 2020, the Covid Collective brought together the expertise...
Diverse approaches to promoting disability inclusive employment aim to transform workplaces into truly inclusive environments, usually with intervention strategies targeting two main groups: employers and jobseekers with disabilities. However, they do not always consider other relevant...
The Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP) is launching the first French phase of its Fellowship Programme to begin in October 2022. SSHAP is looking for future leaders in social science to be able apply their knowledge to humanitarian emergencies in a locally relevant way....
Recent global events underscore the urgency of inclusive and sustainable global trade. The combination of climate change, Covid-19, and now military conflict, have disrupted supply chains, left supply short of demand, created an ominous food crisis, and demonstrated anew the importance of open...
International trade and trade policy play a key role in contributing to improved livelihoods across the world. Yet it is well-established that trade generates winners and losers. Research has shown that despite the overall benefits from trade, trade can lead to increasing poverty or have...
In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, IDS Fellow Amrita Saha interviews James Bacchus about his book: Trade Links: New Rules for a New World. James is a Distinguished University Professor of Global Affairs and Director of the Center for Global Economic and Environmental...
It’s almost been a year since the Taliban swiftly regained power in Afghanistan, which led to a new exodus of refugees, many of whom sought refuge in neighbouring Pakistan. In this blog, Jennifer P. Eggert, Maryam Kanwer and Jaffer A. Mirza share insights and recommendations from their new...
This Working Paper discusses inequalities caused or exacerbated by religious diversity in displacement and how humanitarian action can be aware of and responsive to this. It is based on interviews with Shi’a Hazara refugees from Afghanistan and local, national and international providers of...
There are many unseen elements to any spectrum, and autism is no different. Navigating this world and society is a means of study for many within the autistic community. Why are things the way they are? What are the rules and governance structures that we must learn from the ground up? How do we...
How best to help the world’s poorest people escape from poverty is being reappraised thanks to findings from the widest-ever review of evidence on the impact of financial services conducted by IDS and the University of East Anglia (UEA).
Microfinance and microenterprise interventions...
In early July, six hundred delegates from over 100 countries attended the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion Belief, hosted for the first time this year by the UK. The IDS-led Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID) convened over twenty of its...
Over the last four weeks, the blog has explored the changing face of urban agriculture across our sites in Chikombedzi, Triangle/Hippo Valley, Maphisa, Masvingo, Chatsworth and Mvurwi. We have explored the growth of urban agriculture and its different forms (backyard, open space and titled) and...
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).