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.
Across the social protection landscape, there is a lot of discussion about improving capacity to design and deliver social protection or emergency assistance in protracted crises. However, there is limited analysis unpacking what this actually means. By introducing the ‘capacity cube’, this...
This briefing applies BASIC Research's new tool – the Capacity Cube – to better understand how to sustain capacity to deliver existing social programmes and systems in situations of climate and/or conflict crisis in Nigeria, Iraq, and Syria.
This research briefing introduces the Capacity Cube framework – a new tool for thinking about how capacity to deliver national social protection programmes and systems might be sustained in times of crisis.
There is no turning away from the harrowing images and videos coming out of Palestine each day. In one such video, not explicitly ‘brutal’ like the rest of them, an Israeli soldier shows a pair of high heels belonging to a Palestinian woman. He records himself saying how pretty they are, and...
An International Women’s Day film screening of 'This Stained Dawn', a documentary film about the build up to the 2020 Aurat March (women’s march) in Pakistan. The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the globally acclaimed film director and producer Anam...
For the continent of Africa, seed's are integral to life. From deserts, river systems and forests, and for those growing a range of grains and vegetables, seed provides the mainstay for the continent’s 500 million small-scale farmers and is at the heart of rich and varied...
This is the third in a short blog series on Zimbabwe research published recently. The theme of belonging and identity in the post-land reform setting has attracted a lot of research attention recently. As a whole suite of papers published in 2022 showed, negotiating belonging in a complex,...
El estancamiento económico y las limitaciones para sostener un proceso de desarrollo sostenido en América Latina en las últimas décadas demandan un replanteo profundo y audaz de las políticas de desarrollo productivo y tecnológico.
Este replanteo requiere, en primer lugar,...
The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) has published a review of UK aid’s international climate finance commitments today. The aid watchdog warns that as resources are stretched, the UK’s £11.6 billion commitment is at risk of not being met.
The rapid review finds that the...
For the continent of Africa, seed’s are integral to life. From deserts, river systems and forests, and for those growing a range of grains and vegetables, seed provides the mainstay for the continent’s 500 million small-scale farmers and is at the heart of rich and varied cultures.
But...
Recent studies of the Covid-19 pandemic have found that millions in Bangladesh fell into poverty during this time, and they were unable to recover to their pre-pandemic economic position. This study draws on qualitative panel data collected from 39 new-poor households in Khulna, coping with...
The struggles for international development are often blamed on the economic and social excesses of neoliberalism and the ways these produce, sustain and deepen inequalities globally. Gender is internationally recognised as a key dimension of these inequalities.
Watch...
28 February 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).