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.
There is a strong belief that employment is a crucial avenue for the empowerment of young women, through income, greater autonomy, and bargaining power within the family. However, experiences of workplace sexual harassment undermine these potential gains.
Previous blogs in this series have highlighted how farmers’ responses to ‘drought’ are focused on adaptive adjustments to farming and livelihood practices that unfold as a ‘performance’. A drought is not a single event, but emerges over time, and responses are not singular or...
Palden Tsering has been working with pastoralists in Amdo Tibet for his doctoral research with the PASTRES programme. In this short video, he discusses his findings.
Despite the significant impact of the pandemic’s fourth wave, Vietnam’s overall strategy was seen as well planned with one of the lowest infection rates globally in 2020–2021. In June 2019, an estimated 540,000 Vietnamese migrant workers were recorded working legally in 40 countries and...
Every year, countless people become victims of human trafficking. The number is countless because the vast majority of those cases go unidentified and unreported. As a result, victims remain invisible, go unsupported, continue to suffer abuses, and continue to face stigma and trauma even after...
Questions of justice are relevant to all aspects of climate and environmental change, from how and where the impacts are felt the most, the allocation and prioritisation of funding, the type of responses that are considered to adapt to changes, to how negative impacts can arise from mitigation...
COVID-19 has refocused global attention on infectious diseases, and the role of the state in research and development (R&D) to solve societal problems – such as the under-supply of new antimicrobials. These have characteristics of a ‘public good’ that is socially important but...
Many sustainability problems are serious and require urgent attention, but what to do about them is not always clear. The ESRC STEPS Centre’s new Methods portal includes a wealth of examples, case studies and resources to help guide researchers and others in using methods for pathways to...
Despite progress in COVID-19 vaccination rates overall in Ealing, vaccine inequity persists as young people from minority communities are often less likely to be vaccinated. COVID-19 ‘vaccine hesitancy’ is not just an issue of misinformation or lack of information. ‘Vaccine hesitancy’...
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global strategic priority and sits within the UK Government’s National Risk Register. By 2050, AMR is predicted to cause 10 million deaths, more than cancer. In 2019 alone, there were an estimated 4.95 million deaths associated with bacterial AMR.
Although...
Digital financial services (DFS) have rapidly expanded across Africa and other low-income countries. At the same time, low-income countries face strong pressures to increase domestic resource mobilisation, and major challenges in taxing the digital economy. A growing number are therefore...
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).