Why we need to reveal the hidden connections at the heart of cities

By Fiona Marshall and Ritu Priya, STEPS Urbanisation theme Urban areas are intense meeting points of people and cultures, but they’re also places where more or less visible interactions happen:…

What would a sustainable city look like?

On Thursday, India announced the first 20 cities to receive funding to become ‘Smart Cities’. It’s a high profile mission to modernise and transform urban infrastructure, especially using digital technologies…

How the Water-Energy-Food ‘Nexus’ in Asia affects real lives

By Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University In Asia and globally, the water-energy-food nexus has received growing attention from policy makers, researchers, and practitioners….

Global land grabbing: new papers & special issues

This week 200 delegates assemble in Chiang Mai in Thailand for a major conference on land grabbing, conflict and agrarian-environment transformations in southeast Asia. It is co-organised by the Land…

Jeremy Allouche on BBC’s ‘Today’ Programme: Taiwan and global water reserves

STEPS member and IDS fellow Jeremy Allouche discussed global water reserves on this morning’s Today Programme on BBC Radio 4. The discussion comes in the context of Taiwan’s planned restrictions…

Stairways to the sky: sustainability & rice in the Philippines

The rice terraces of central Luzon’s Cordillera mountain range in the Philippines climb up the steep valley-sides like bleachers designed for an audience of giants. This remarkable human-made landscape was…

‘Innovation histories’: capturing legacy & learning from long-term programmes

By Annie Wilkinson, post doctorate researcher, Institute of Development Studies (This post is part of a series of reflections emerging from a workshop on complex adaptive systems research methods held in Baltimore in June 2014.)…

India’s risks: forging a new multidisciplinary debate

by Raphaelle Moor A prospective superpower, India is grappling with a host of risks that threaten to hamper its progress towards becoming a more economically successful, egalitarian, safe and harmonious…

Urban Futures: Case studies and comparator sites

This page is about case studies and locations in the project ‘Risks and Responses to Urban Futures’. For an overview, see the project homepage. The project is working in two…