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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 1741–1752 of 15404 results

News

New exhibition from the ‘sinking islands’

A unique art exhibition exploring the responses of those living with environmental uncertainty in the Sundarbans of India is being hosted at IDS this week (5 to 10 July). It features artwork co-created by academics and community groups from the Transformation as Praxis: Exploring Socially Just...

5 July 2022

Journal Article

Mainstreaming Disability Inclusive Employment in International Development

Journal of International Development 34.5

People with disabilities are under-represented in the global workforce, and this problem is often particularly acute in the ‘global south’. This special issue seeks to provide new perspectives on why this is the case and comprises seven papers focused on disability inclusive employment. We...

Mary Wickenden
Mary Wickenden & 3 others

5 July 2022

Opinion

Developing knowledge and learning in higher education – high level or grass roots?

Higher education is about knowledge and learning. Despite how simple this sounds, contestation remains within the university sector and beyond about what knowledge is valued by universities and how much space and freedom staff and students have to learn from it. Over 30 years ago, Sandra...

Joel Bambamba

4 July 2022

News

To ‘leave no one behind’ we must address religious inequalities

This week (5 and 6 July) the UK Government hosts a major International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB).  Aiming to “strengthen international efforts to ensure FoRB for all” the conference is convening events with international government ministers, faith...

4 July 2022

Opinion

News from PASTRES: July 2022

How well do policy frameworks in pastoral regions respond to issues of uncertainty? Four new papers (on Europe, West Asia and North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Sahel, and Asia) reflect on the issues in global regions, identifying some major problems and challenges.

1 July 2022

News

Between the Lines podcast – Sustainable futures: An agenda for action

In this episode of the IDS podcast Between the Lines, IDS Director Melissa Leach interviews leading development policy analyst and IDS Emeritus Fellow Raphael Kaplinsky, author of the book Sustainable Futures: An Agenda for Action. The book explores the determinants and character of the ongoing...

1 July 2022

News

Stories of change from the STEPS Centre

A set of 11 new ‘stories of change’ charts the journey of the ESRC STEPS (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre since 2006 through major debates and movements on sustainability. © Image: Marcus Mailov (cc by-nc-nd 2.0) Since being co-founded by...

29 June 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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