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.
'Dalit Defenders' is a documentary by young German Filmmakers showing the issues of Dalits, the so-called untouchables, who are outside of the caste system. Dalit women are at the bottom of this hierarchy and in rural areas the widespread image of a Dalit woman is one of weakness. But there are...
The Covid-19 pandemic was responsible for high but also highly varied mortality and illness, both of which also had major wellbeing consequences for affected individuals, households and communities.
Policy responses to the pandemic also severely disrupted economies and social life and all...
The third chapter of the book focuses on the experiences of the Rabari of western India. Pastoralists of the region engage with uncertain futures by making real-time adjustments to their mobility in the here-and-now. Applying a temporal lens, the chapter emphasises the nomadic ‘present’ as...
Since the One Planet Summit in July 2021 and COP26 in October 2021, the Great Green Wall (GGW) is becoming the centre of media attention.
The GGW accelerator, the funding vehicle for which many donors have contributed - France, the United Nations, the World Bank, and certain...
The trio of ‘Farmer First’ books published originally between 1989 and 2009 have just been released as open access versions. You can download and share them for free. Together, they make the case that we must put farmers first if more equitable, sustainable and productive food and farming...
I have been to my fair share of evaluation conferences. Each has something to offer. I usually leave feeling pleased that at the least I’ve added a few potential new tools to my toolbox, but when they are really good, they leave me pondering new questions and with that buzz you get from...
In the last week of June 2023, IDS hosted university leaders from across the Greater Mekong Subregion and Timor-Leste. This high-profile visit was part of an ongoing British Council and Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation, Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development...
Future pandemic responses to restrict new infections need to be better balanced with allowing people to earn a living, say researchers, in a new report on the impacts of Covid-19. Published by the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN), based at the Institute of Development Studies, the report...
CPAN’s Chronic Poverty Report 2023: Pandemic Poverty produced by the IDS-hosted Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN), provides evidence and analysis on how policies and programmes shaped and were shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic. It aims to help decision-makers and multi-lateral agencies...
The second chapter of the book is an exploration of pastoralists’ understandings of uncertainty in China, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Sardinia and Tunisia through visual methods. Using documentary photography and participatory photovoice approaches, the teams in each of the countries explored how...
We know that Covid-19 caused a major impact on households’ production and access to quality, nutritious food, due to losses of income, combined with increasing food prices, and restrictions to movements of people, inputs and products. Research from the IDS-led CORE programme has...
As IDS launches its Food Equity campaign, we caught up with Lidia Cabral, co-convenor of MA Food & Development, to find out what makes this course unique and so relevant in today’s climate.
Food is one of the most pressing development issues of our times, because 690 million people worldwide...
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).