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.
This webinar focusing on systems is the first in a series of online discussions hosted by Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research in collaboration with SocialProtection.org.
Workers from the Syrian diaspora have maintained a presence in Lebanon for decades, building multimillion-dollar apartment complexes, toiling for backbreaking hours in grocery stores.
From the mid-2000s, liberalising reforms saw accelerating levels of poverty among workers, often paid as low as...
Last week it was reported by the world’s largest credit rating agencies that Sri Lanka had defaulted on its national debt. This follows weeks of mounting protests by citizens against the Government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the country and its population of almost 23 million...
In this new episode of the IDS podcast Between the Lines, BBC journalist Sana Safi interviews Max Gallien, Research Fellow, IDS and Florian Weigand, co-director at the Centre for the Study of Armed Groups at ODI and research associate at LSE about their book: The Routledge Handbook of...
This paper reviews the contours of global and national debates, and the concepts that are key to informing research on social assistance in contexts of protracted crises. It focuses on three fields: social protection, humanitarian assistance, and climate adaptation and responsiveness.
Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ) conducted a three round panel survey in order to draw empirical evidence from the marginalised community on their experiences with the Covid-19 pandemic. The household panel surveys focused on three pre-identified disadvantaged groups namely (i) ethnic and...
Historically, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have typically been associated with tobacco and alcohol use. However, in recent decades increased levels of overweightness and obesity, mostly caused by poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle, have increased diabetes, cancers, and...
International partnerships have played an important role in academic research about the African continent. While funding sources have diversified, a significant share of these partnerships are resourced through European and North American international aid and its renewed interest in...
For months India and Pakistan have been dealing with a brutal heatwave, with record-breaking highs of 49 degrees Celsius in April in Pakistan. As the effects of climate change become more severe in the region, we ask how preparedness needs to be reconfigured, accounting for the impact of...
This paper draws on a series of events under the Afghanistan Strategic Learning Initiative (ASLI). Between December 2021 and February 2022, ASLI convened four workshops led by each of the partner organisations in turn, which brought together senior leaders, decision-makers, experts, researchers...
This study examined the media portrayal of different actors involved in human trafficking from Nepal to understand the reported changes in international routes of human trafficking from Nepal after 2015.
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).