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.
Embedded within the COVID-19 pandemic is the spread of a new pandemic of information – some accurate, some not – that can challenge the public health response. This has been termed an ‘infodemic’ and infodemic management is now a major feature of the World Health Organization’s work on...
Les études sur la vulnérabilité visent à comprendre les conditions et les expressions d’exposition néfastes aux catastrophes naturelles et/ou aux autres crises (alimentaires, sanitaires, et cetera), dans le but de réduire leurs conséquences sur les populations, les régions ou les...
The centrality of energy in political and social life and what that tells us about state-society relations in the 21st century.
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The preceding two decades have been characterized by the emergence of considerable protest and contention around issues of energy access....
Amidst climate change, Covid-19 and rising global political instability, development practitioners are facing increasingly complex and uncertain challenges in our global environment. This Sussex Development Lecture asks: is the traditional method of teaching appropriately preparing students to...
Social media has become a key place for gender activists to share their voices, show solidarity and mobilise action, but it has also become a focus for backlash. Online abuse and disinformation can be faced daily by women and those championing gender justice.
https://youtu.be/v35C5i1a7WU
To...
On 3 March 2022, Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research held a launch seminar at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and online.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w1hKe9te9g
We discussed the plans for the next three years, during which the research team...
The digital space has become an essential medium for activists and individuals to reach global audiences with messages on human rights, gender justice, and other critical social issues through social media platforms like Facebook. While online activism for gender justice is growing, violence...
The Coronavirus Pandemic is having a major impact on livelihoods across the globe, with women and minority communities working in informal economies often the hardest hit. This is the focus of our latest Research for Policy and Practice Report, ‘Why Covid-19 Responses must be gender...
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).