You can now watch video of the launch event of the book ‘India’s Risks: Democratizing the Management of Threats to Environment, Health and Values’. The video features contributions from Professor M V Rajeev Gowda, Honorable Member of Parliament and Prof Ian Scoones, STEPS Centre Director. The launch event was held at the British Council in…
Watch video: ‘India’s Risks’ book launch
Market-based environmentalism under fire
Last week I was lucky enough to attend the fantastic Financialisation of Nature conference, co-hosted by the STEPS Centre, along with the Sussex Centre for Global Political Economy and Sussex Doctoral School. Organised by and run for PhD students and early career researchers, I was invited as a discussant on one of the sessions and…
“Are you Reg?” The strange and mythical reality of ‘carbon’
Last night’s “Nature As Commodity” debate in Brighton discussed what happens when we treat ecosystems as commodities and ‘carbon’ as something to be traded and offset, among other things. I won’t try to summarise the debate (of which an audio recording will shortly be released), but here are some partial and subjective thoughts that emerged…
Seed Laws… Government Advocacy and Grassroots Action
By Adrian Ely, Anabel Marin and Sam Geall Research at the STEPS Centre addresses sustainable development challenges that are felt both globally and locally. Over the last two months three events have reinforced the international linkages within our work, illustrating the interconnectedness and similarity of diverse efforts of researchers and civil society groups across the…
Financialisation of Nature: why we need politics and theory
Guest post by Andrea Brock and Mareike Beck, School of Global Studies, Sussex University In recent years, a broad range of new instruments have been promoted and celebrated to tackle climate change and environmental degradation. One well-known mechanism, hailed by its proponents as the key to saving the climate while also helping to eradicate poverty,…
Why we should argue about agronomy
“The real problem is that too many people are playing politics with agriculture, and poor people are suffering – agronomists should stick to the facts!” Organic agriculture, agroecology, Conservation Agriculture, the System of Rice Intensification, Holistic Management (Savory System), integrated pest management, Green Revolution style intensification, genetically modified crops – what do all of these…
Mind your (innovation) language
by Adrian Smith and Saurabh Arora, SPRU At the STEPS Centre, we recently organised a couple of workshops looking at the topic of alternative innovation and its proliferation of innovation prefixes, such as social, inclusive, frugal, and sustainable. Our workshops were prompted by the observation that a variety of interacting cultural, social, economic, and technological…
Grub’s up: great infographic on the future of eating insects
A handy infographic (see below) by Alexandra Sexton outlines some of the case for insects as part of human and animal diets – as well as the key uncertainties and questions for the future. Advocates of more insect-eating have sold it as a more eco-friendly and low-carbon option – but questions over commercialisation, production methods…
How to redefine innovation & development: an African perspective
This guest post is by Gillian M. Marcelle, STI policy and management scholar, writing in a personal capacity. Too often public policy debates on global issues get framed and defined in the global North, and the rest of the world is expected to fall in line and follow suit. In July 2014, the African Union…
Join us for Resource Politics 2015
The ESRC STEPS Centre’s annual conference, Resource Politics: transforming pathways to sustainability will be held at the Institute of Development Studies on 7-9 September 2015. Registration is now closed. Among the plenary speakers are: Rohan D’Souza, Betsy Hartmann, Melissa Leach, Johan Rockström and Michael Watts with those among the panel speakers including Tor Benjaminsen, Esteve…