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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 1105–1116 of 15397 results

Opinion

Better responses to our flawed food systems

As our recent Pathways to Equitable Food Systems report shows, our food systems are deeply flawed. High levels of food insecurity, including in so-called ‘advanced’ countries, low-quality diets linked to both micronutrient deficiencies and diet-related obesity and non-communicable diseases,...

4 July 2023

Brief

Key Considerations: Disability-Inclusive Humanitarian Action and Emergency Response in South and Southeast Asia and Beyond

In many settings, people with disabilities face multiple and complex layers of environmental, societal and structural barriers. These barriers can lead to them being disproportionately harmed, neglected and excluded during humanitarian and other emergency responses. This is especially evident in...

Obindra Chand & 2 others

4 July 2023

Past Event

Community engagement in epidemic and pandemic preparedness

This is a webinar aimed at social scientists and public health and humanitarian practitioners involved in public health emergencies. The objective is to get insights across different contexts on achieving a context-adapted community engagement for future epidemic and pandemic preparedness. This...

4 July 2023

Past Event

Shock proof and inclusive fiscal policies

Close collaborations with government’s responding to the Covid-19 pandemic produced a range of monetary and fiscal policy recommendations for longer term recovery and future resilience. As we continue to face multiple crises, what have learnt about the effectiveness of range of...

4 July 2023

Brief

Shockproof and Inclusive Fiscal Policies

Key Issues Guide

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the economies of most countries. What differed is the intensity of the impact, which ranged from mild economic contractions to devastating recessions and downturns.

3 July 2023

Brief

Equitable Support for Livelihoods and Food

Key Issues Guide

The Covid-19 pandemic and policy responses to contain its spread had severe impacts on people’s livelihoods and food security. It exposed weaknesses and inequities in social protection systems, food production and distribution, job security, and economic policies, with those already...

3 July 2023

Opinion

Pastoralism, uncertainty and development: a new open access book

Uncertainties of all sorts – environmental, market-based and political – are on the rise, as the world faces climate and environmental change, as well as market volatility and political turmoil. Learning lessons from pastoralists is therefore important for all of us, as well as ensuring that...

3 July 2023

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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