In our age of converging environmental, ecological, and health crises, decision-makers and commentators often state we need to “listen to the science”. But what structures lie beneath these assumptions of…
Podcast: Forest of Thought – Andy Stirling on ‘imaginations of control’
Our Common Future day 1: Climate science & climate politics in Paris
STEPS member Adrian Ely is at the Our Common Future conference in Paris, and has sent this blogpost looking back on Day 1. The conference runs until Friday. Read our…
Resilience 2014: Limits revisited? Planetary boundaries, justice and power
By Melissa Leach, IDS Director In 1972 Meadows et al’s Limits to Growth made scientific and policy waves, as its ‘World3’ model predicted the end of growth and prosperity as…
Resilience 2014: Planetary boundaries, politics and pathways
How can we build development pathways that enhance sustainability and resilience, integrating ecological integrity, social equality, human rights, well-being and security? That was the tough question at the centre of Professor Melissa Leach’s…
COP19: Cutting edge policy research
The ESRC STEPS Centre is seeking to address the many different impacts that climate change has on peoples’ lives and livelihoods in sustainable ways that work for people and planet, using…
IPCC climate report: research, resources and expertise
As the most comprehensive statement on climate science to date is published, we have gathered some of our key resources on the impact of climate change on poor and marginalised people in developing countries….
Democracy in the Anthropocene?
Planetary boundaries / Illustration from Global Change magazine STEPS Centre director Melissa Leach recently wrote in the Huffington Post: “When the cover of the Economist famously announced ‘Welcome to the…
Celestial (policy) navigation
by Jim Sumberg, STEPS Centre research fellow The proposition that public policy should be ‘evidence-based’ is now widely accepted (although there is still considerable contestation around the meaning, nature, types,…
Decorating the Christmas tree with perfect Sustainable Development Goals?
By Katharina Welle, STEPS Centre PhD student The 2013 STEPS Symposium on “credibility across cultures” examined questions surrounding ‘best available’ scientific advice in relation to global policy processes on sustainable…
STEPS Symposium 2013: Science and developing countries – whose expertise counts?
Dipak Gyawali at the symposium. Photo: Lance Bellers Guest blog by Rachael Taylor, PhD student, SPRU The second session of the STEPS Symposium on the global politics of scientific advice…