Today on the IDS website, Prof Melissa Leach, STEPS Centre Director, suggests new approaches to sustainable development, drawing on themes in Dynamic Sustainabilities, the new book in our Pathways to Sustainability series.

Taking Dynamics Seriously: Towards a New Politics of Sustainability

“On the one hand, there is wide recognition of growing complexity and dynamism, but on the other hand, there appears to be an ever-more urgent search for big, technically-driven managerial solutions. When these solutions falter in the face of local dynamics and uncertainties, the response is often to implement them with greater force, or to blame locals or critics – rather than to question the underlying assumptions.

The result can be a cycle that narrows options, excludes alternative and dissenting voices, and fails to learn from mistakes.”

Taking Dynamics Seriously: Towards a New Politics of Sustainability
Dynamic Sustainabilties: Buy from Earthscan