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

Lyla Mehta

Professorial Fellow

Ian Scoones

Professorial Fellow

Amber Huff

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead

Jeremy Allouche

Professorial Fellow

Lars Otto Naess

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead

Wei Shen

Research Fellow

Shilpi Srivastava

Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Recent work

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Student Opinion

Support for first-generation learners

Rachna Vyas came to IDS in September 2023 to study MA Governance, Development & Public Policy. She shares how she was supported to set up a space for other first-generation learners (students whose parents did not attend university), and the difference this has made to her time at IDS. Before...

Rachna Vyas, IDS student, MA Governance, Development & Public Policy

27 March 2024

News

Development capacity reduced since FCDO merger, says report

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has ‘made substantial progress with the merger that created it’ but its ‘development capacity has reduced’ and improvements are still required in areas such as culture change, finds a new National Audit Office (NAO) report...

25 March 2024

Past Event

Book launch: Smugglers and States

We are thrilled to host the launch for the book Smugglers and States, with an introduction by its author Max Gallien, followed by a drinks reception. Watch now https://youtu.be/0FWfe5rBxhw?si=2lOkA3QZMkb_xGrs&t=86 Smuggling is typically thought of as furtive and hidden, taking place under...

21 March 2024

Working Paper

Engendering Taxation: a Research and Policy Agenda

ICTD Working Paper 186

This paper reviews the existing literature and related debates on gender and tax in lower income countries. It identifies knowledge gaps, and maps broader issues that are relevant for understanding the gendered impact of taxation.

Anuradha Joshi
Anuradha Joshi & 2 others

20 March 2024

Past Event

International Conference on Global Land Grabbing

The Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) is hosting an International Conference on Global Land Grabbing in Bogota, Colombia with partners including the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Cornell University, City University of New York,  International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The...

From 19 March 2024 until 21 March 2024

Opinion

The politics of Zimbabwe’s land reform: winners and losers

The political debates about the rights and wrongs of Zimbabwe’s land reform continue to occupy many. The tired, old obsession about how the land was taken and the associated focus on so-called ‘cronies’ persists, despite much evidence to suggest that the process was highly varied and...

18 March 2024

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).