Water Alternatives will publish a special issue on Critical Thinking On the ‘New Security Convergence’ in Energy, Food, Climate and Water, with financial support from the STEPS Centre. The editors invite abstracts…
Call for papers: Is the Nexus Secure … and for Whom?
Responses to frequently asked questions on genetically-modified crops and development
GM Rice / BASF / Flickr Creative Commons By Andy Stirling, co-director of the STEPS Centre Questions are never far from the headlines about how the world can farm more fairly,…
GM crops and biotechnology
GM crops, Golden Rice and other related technologies polarise opinion: they are the solution to the global food crisis; or they are ‘frankenfoods’ causing irreversible environmental harm. Concerns about poverty,…
How was a ‘policy space’ created for pastoralism in Kenya?
Pastoralism in Kenya has long been neglected and understood. Pastoralists have been seen by some as vulnerable, a source of conflict and a drain on the country’s resources. But recent…
Against ‘monocultures’ in agriculture and knowledge
Faced with the undeniable fact of hunger in developing countries, ‘sustainable intensification’ has been claimed as a science-led solution to food security. In an article for SciDev.Net, Prof Brian Wynne…
Climate change: where stereotypes go to die
What do you mean when you call someone a climate sceptic? I went to a panel discussion last Thursday evening, “Tackling scepticism: How can we most effectively communicate climate change?”…
David Dickson 1947-2013
The STEPS Centre’s directors, members and partners are sad to have learnt of the sudden death of David Dickson (1947-2013), the founding director of SciDev.Net. David played an important part in the…
Responsibility at the Science-Publics-Policy Interface: What I learnt at the 2013 Science in Public Conference
The village of Onna, after the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake. Photo: Darkroom_Daze (Flickr) by Stephen WhitfieldDPhil Student, Institute of Development Studies This year’s ‘Science in Public’ conference hosted by Nottingham University…
IDS Bulletin: China and Brazil in African Agriculture
New research published by the Institute of Development Studies, and jointly edited by STEPS co-director Ian Scoones, reveals the realities of how the BRICS and Africa are engaging in agricultural…
Getting the facts right on land grabs: 5 new (free) articles
As part of its series on land grabs, The Journal of Peasant Studies has released a collection of 5 new articles on the problem of recording accurate and reliable information…