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

Melissa Leach

Emeritus Fellow

Lyla Mehta

Professorial Fellow

Ian Scoones

Professorial Fellow

Amber Huff

Research Fellow

Jeremy Allouche

Professorial Fellow

Lars Otto Naess

Research Fellow

Wei Shen

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead and Research Fellow

Shilpi Srivastava

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead and Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Recent work

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Showing 97–108 of 15276 results

Opinion

Design and Development: A Dialogue part 2

Are designers doing development? Do development professionals practise design? Designers and development practitioners have in common that they try to (re)shape the future. They make financial, material, practical, processual, and institutional interventions to change lives and improve outcomes,...

Dominic Glover
Dominic Glover & 4 others

18 March 2025

Opinion

Design and Development: A Dialogue part 1

Are designers doing development? Do development professionals practise design? Designers and development practitioners have in common that they try to (re)shape the future. They make financial, material, practical, processual, and institutional interventions to change lives and improve outcomes,...

Dominic Glover
Dominic Glover & 4 others

18 March 2025

Past Event

Clean energy transition in fragile contexts

Progressing clean energy transitions in fragile contexts—marked by conflict, political instability, economic crises, and climate related uncertainty —poses significant challenges. Watch now https://youtu.be/GrNiHLAn9Tw How can ambitious climate action and inclusive, just energy...

18 March 2025

Working Paper

Towards Transformative Change: Grass-roots Innovations for Food Security During Crises in Brighton & Hove, UK

IDS Working Paper 617

This Working Paper analyses the emergence and evolution of three community-led initiatives focused on food insecurity, with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the ensuing cost-of-living crisis as the backdrop.

13 March 2025

Past Event

Achieving equitable wellbeing for all – introducing the NOURISH initiative

Watch now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgw2B1ErNwk Understanding how we achieve equitable wellbeing for all can be daunting in a world of rapidly shifting geopolitics, democratic systems failures, and gaping wealth inequalities. In this event we introduce the NOURISH initiative which...

13 March 2025

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).

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