What can history teach us for the task of rapid transition in the face of climate change and corrosive inequality? Historian Molly Conisbee, a speaker at this week’s Transformations events…
Learning from the past about rapid transition
Report: Transforming global food systems from uniformity to diversity
A report published today written by food security and nutrition experts proposes that input-intensive crop monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots must be consigned to the past in order to put global…
From social networks to robot scarecrows: Agroecology meets Open Source technologies
Agroecology has been traditionally based on co-producing knowledge with farmers, scientists, indigenous communities and technicians. As such, it could be regarded as an “open and collaborative” practice. But does this…
Iran’s environmental crisis: why we should be mindful of depicting a dystopian future
In our age of computers and satellites, our sense of both urgency and fear has become central to the process of addressing environmental challenges. This sense of necessity for urgent…
Needs of the poorest must be central to tackling antibiotic resistance
by Gerry Bloom and Annie Wilkinson, IDS / STEPS Centre Launched this week is a major report on tackling the growing resistance to antibiotics, published by the UK Government and…
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:…
The Wicked Foundations of the Anthropocene
The Anthropocene describes how human society has now become the dominant force on Earth’s geology and ecosystems. The notion of the Anthropocene highlights a confounding contradiction: we have an unprecedented…
Making visible the hidden cogs of the urban nexus
On the steep hills on the outskirts of Lima, slums like San Juan de Lurigancho are ever expanding. As roads and shacks are built on steep slopes, residents face the…
Call for papers: Transformations 2017
A call for papers has been issued for the Transformations 2017 conference in Dundee, UK. Transformations 2017 is the third in a biennial series of international interdisciplinary conferences that focuses…
Next steps to strengthen global land governance
by Ruth Hall and Ian Scoones Four years ago voluntary guidelines on the governance of land and land tenure were agreed at the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation…