STEPS at the Royal Geographical Society conference

Image of Andy Stirling speaking at a conference.

STEPS co-director Andy Stirling is the keynote speaker at the Royal Geographical Society annual conference this week. This year’s conference focuses on ‘nexus thinking’. His talk, Meeting Nexus Challenges: from policy connections to political transformations, is on Tuesday 30 August at 18.30.


Here’s the abstract:

The advent of ‘nexus thinking’ in current global change research and policy, has drawn welcome attention to many neglected connectivities. From familiar and trivial, to unfamiliar and profound, these span: between sectors; across scales; joining jurisdictions; mingling human, biological and physical; and linking framings of knowledge with directions for action. Perhaps the most important, are those between existing configurations of power, privilege and incumbency and ways in which understandings, imaginations and aspirations are shaped concerning what is reasonable or possible. Based on efforts in the ESRC’s Nexus Network, this talk will explore some deeper connotations – and practical implications for research and action.

Other speakers from STEPS include Saurabh Arora, who’s talking (with Ralitsa Hiteva) about Participation as engagement between practices at the urban nexus on the Wednesday at 16.50. The same day at 11.10, a session on low carbon transitions features a paper on ‘low carbon energy transformation as under the radar political struggle’ by David Ockwell, Rob Byrne, Adrian Ely, Sam Geall, Peter Newell, Wei Shen and Andy Stirling.


STEPS and the Nexus

The STEPS Centre is a lead partner in The Nexus Network, an ESRC-funded initiative which brings together researchers, policy makers, business leaders and civil society to improve decision making on food, energy, water and the environment.

Read a selection of our resources on the nexus

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *