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.
We worked closely this year with the employee-led Reward Review Working Group to establish fair and transparent pay and reward structures. An external consultancy (ECC) was commissioned to support IDS to develop clear structures, policy and processes around pay and progression, and that work is...
It is widely believed that the existence of ‘informal sector’ enterprises that visibly do not pay direct taxes reduces the willingness of owners of formal, tax-registered enterprises to pay their own taxes. We call this the adverse evasion spillover hypothesis. It is for several reasons hard...
The Sixth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes clear the urgent need for a fundamental transformation of our current fossil-fuel based energy system.
The fear of supply shortages of these critical minerals due to surging demand has created...
North American archives and special collections preserve and create access to cultural heritage materials often perpetuating a colonial and imperialist style of record keeping that can dehumanize underrepresented and marginalized individuals.
Today progressive librarians and archivists...
On Monday 17 July, we were delighted to celebrate the graduation of 50 students who had completed either their Master’s or their PhD.
Among the class of 2023 were Dilmurad Yusupov, whose thesis 'Disability and Citizenship in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan' explored the role of disabled people’s...
In the first of two blogs on knowledge translation (KT) in the global South, I will share learning from a newly published IDRC-funded research synthesis report. My second blog will explore implications for research agendas.
Entitled Knowledge Translation in the Global South: Bridging Different...
Everyone seems to be growing vegetables (and fruit) these days. It is big business and the horticulture sector is generating income, jobs and secondary businesses like never before. The ‘hidden middle’ in this value web is thriving.
In the past, the horticulture sector was divided between...
Learning is essential for delivering effectively in any field, especially in the fast-changing and complex arena of international development. In a world increasingly defined by uncertainty, vulnerability, and complexity, advances in development are constantly challenged by multiple crises, such...
During the last week of June, we played host to several prominent university leaders and academics from across Southeast Asia. Funded by the British Council and Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre Specialising in Higher Education and Development (SEAMEO RIHED),...
This Executive Summary summarises findings from the longer Synthesis Report produced as part of the Knowledge Translation (KT) in the Global South research project. The project explores the KT strategies, practices and theories researchers and research intermediaries use in the global South, and...
This paper maps the literature that focuses on knowledge translation (KT) in the global South. The trilingual systematised review helps discern where information about KT is missing, emerging, or well-established, and highlights information on what the KT strategies employed are, where, how, by...
This study explores knowledge translation (KT) in the global South and provides recommendations for funders to support more effective structures and strategies for the use of research for equitable development.
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).