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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20151210T123000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20151210T140000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20151204T085100Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T212837Z
UID:8114-1449750600-1449756000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS Lunchtime Seminar: ‘The Making and Unmaking of Agricultural Knowledge’
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for an upcoming STEPS lunchtime seminar on ‘The Making and Unmaking of Agricultural Knowledge’\, given by Professor Glenn Davis Stone\, Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL)\, on Thursday\, 10th December 2015\, from 12.30-2pm\, at the IDS Convening Space. \nIn this talk\, Glenn Stone will draw on long-term research on various technological regimes in agriculture to advance our theory of agricultural decision-making and to stake out a set of key issues for upcoming research. In particular I focus on how different introduced technologies change farmer attitudes\, decision-making\, and understandings of agricultural phenomena. The talk will draw on Glenn’s long career of research in Nigeria and India as well as ongoing research in Philippines\, looking at the technological regimes surrounding transgenic cotton and various types of rice – hybrid\, heirloom\, and transgenic Golden Rice. \nAll welcome!  \n\nGlenn Stone is Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He is known for his ethnographic work in Nigeria and India on small-scale farming and agricultural technology\, and particularly in recent years for his longitudinal studies on the impacts on farmers’ systems of seeds\, knowledge and learning (skilling) of transgenic Bt cotton in Andhra Pradesh (Telangana)\, India.\nYou can find more information about Glenn here:\nhttps://anthropology.artsci.wustl.edu/stone_glenn\nhttp://pages.wustl.edu/stone\nhttp://fieldquestions.com/ – this is Glenn’s entertaining and informative blog offering ‘the rest of the story on food\, farming and biotechnology’ \nGlenn is visiting Sussex on 10 & 11 December as a Visiting Fellow of the STEPS Centre\, hosted by Dr. Dominic Glover (d.glover@ids.ac.uk). If you wish to meet Glenn during his visit please contact Dominic to request an appointment.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-lunchtime-seminar-the-making-and-unmaking-of-agricultural-knowledge/
LOCATION:Convening Space\, IDS\, Library Road\, Falmer\,  Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160127T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160128T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160113T105944Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220411T105548Z
UID:8211-1453881600-1454000400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Workshop: Climate Change and Uncertainty from Above and Below
DESCRIPTION:27-28 January\nNew Delhi\, India \nFor more details\, see the workshop page.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/workshop-climate-change-and-uncertainty-from-above-and-below/
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Research methods
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20160128T180000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20160128T210000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160111T161327Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T212452Z
UID:8197-1454004000-1454014800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Launch: South Asia Sustainability Hub
DESCRIPTION:Inauguration: South Asia Sustainability Hub & Knowledge Network (SASH&KN) \nLaunch of ‘Friends of Sustainability’ \n28 January 2016 at 6pm – 9 pm\nNew Delhi\, India \nRSVP: trcssjnu@gmail.com\nby 20 January 2016 \n\nFind out more\nRead more about the launch event \nRead more about the South Asia Sustainability Hub
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/launch-south-asia-sustainability-hub/
CATEGORIES:Understanding sustainability
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160129T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160130T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160112T115503Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170428T084006Z
UID:8203-1454054400-1454173200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:International Conference: Pathways to Sustainable Urbanisation
DESCRIPTION:International Conference: Pathways to Sustainable Urbanisation \n29-30 January 2016\nJawaharlal Nehru University\, New Delhi\, India \n \nCities in India and other South Asian nations are in the midst of experiencing rapid urbanization. In this time of growth\, safeguarding environmental integrity and social justice will be decisive for the health and livelihoods of citizens. This conference\, organised by the South Asia Sustainability Hub & Knowledge Network\, focused on the possibilities for sustainable urban transformations. \nWhilst urbanisation brings the creation of new opportunities for some\, it can also pose enormous challenges for poor and marginalised citizens in cities and in peri-urban areas. \n\nConference proceedings\nAfter the event\, a Conference Proceedings document was published by the organisers. \nAs well as background and concept notes\, the Proceedings include summaries of the discussion in each session at the conference and full details of speakers and the programme. \nDownload: Conference Proceedings (pdf\, 830kb) \n\nAbout the conference\nThis conference was organised by the South Asia Sustainability Hub & Knowledge Network (SASH&KN)\, and was the hub’s first activity immediately after its launch in Delhi. It comprised a series of plenary sessions and working group discussions\, with invited speakers from around the globe. \nTopics: \n\nUrban sustainability: perspectives and approaches\nEnvironment\, health and sustainable cities: what next for the ‘nexus’?\nGrowth and urban sustainability\nSocial mobilization and sustainable urban transformation\nDeveloping future research agendas: what is to be done?\n\n\nRelated events\nWorkshop: Climate Change and Uncertainty from Below and Above\n27-28 January 2016\, Delhi \nLaunch: South Asia Sustainability Hub & Knowledge Network\, 28 January 2016 \nSTEPS-JNU symposium: Exploring pathways to Sustainability\, 2014 \n\nResources\nWaste not\, want not Digital story (Medium.com) \nThe Water Cookbook Graphic novel \nContested sustainabilities in the peri-urban interface Report \nBangalore: Living in a global city Film \nWater and justice: peri-urban pathways in Delhi Film \nResilience and the peri-urban: limitations and potential Briefing
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/international-conference-pathways-to-sustainable-urbanisation/
LOCATION:Jawaharlal Nehru University\, New Delhi\, India
CATEGORIES:Urbanisation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160208T160000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160208T173000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160203T102126Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T212309Z
UID:8256-1454947200-1454952600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Leverhulme Lecture: 'The Degrowth hypothesis'
DESCRIPTION:Leverhulme Lecture: ‘The Degrowth hypothesis’\nGiorgos Kallis\, ICREA professor at ICTA\, Autonomous University of Barcelona; visiting professor at SOAS \nMonday 8 February at 4-5.30pm\nConvening Space\, Institute of Development Studies\nBrighton\, UK \nIf we are to radically reduce carbon emissions and material use\, we have to abolish the pursuit of economic growth and develop institutions and structures that secure social sustainability under conditions of economic contraction. \nHosted by the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex and the STEPS Centre.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/leverhulme-lecture-the-degrowth-hypothesis/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Understanding sustainability
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160223T120000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160225T140000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20150205T121545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210404T163231Z
UID:6990-1456228800-1456408800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Contested Agronomy: whose agronomy counts?
DESCRIPTION:Contested Agronomy: whose agronomy counts? is a conference about the battlefields in agricultural research\, past and present. \n23-25 February 2016\nInstitute of Development Studies\nBrighton\, UK \nConference website \nDownload the programme\nDownload the conference programme (PDF\, 1MB) \nThe programme contains full details of presentations in the plenary and parallel sessions. It also has the full text of abstracts submitted by participants for posters and conference papers. \n\nConference themes\nContributions have been invited on any aspect of the politics of knowledge within the field of agronomy. \nCase studies of historical or present day significance to the developing world are of particular interest. These cases might focus on the history or nature of contestation; actors and coalitions; political and institutional drivers and dynamics; or the implications of contestation (e.g. for the field of agronomy\, for researchers and research institutions\, for journals\, for policy or for farmers). \nApplications to join this conference are now closed. \n\nOrganising Committee:\n\nJames Sumberg (Institute of Development Studies/STEPS Centre)\nJohn Thompson (Institute of Development Studies/STEPS Centre)\nKen Giller (Wageningen UR)\nJens Andersson (CIMMYT – International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center)\n\nThis event is supported by the STEPS Centre\, and co-hosted by the Institute of Development Studies\, Plant Production Systems Group\, Wageningen University\, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Future Agricultures Consortium.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/contested-agronomy-cases-dynamics-implications/
LOCATION:Room 100\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture,Research methods
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160226T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160226T143000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160203T110916Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211932Z
UID:8257-1456491600-1456497000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:How can the ecological impact of the richest 1% be reduced at a time of extreme inequality?
DESCRIPTION:Seminar with Dario Kenner\n1.00-2.30 Friday 26 February 2016\, IDS room 221 \nRecent research by Oxfam and French economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel indicates that the richest 1% of people in many countries\, including the United Kingdom\, have huge per capita carbon footprints compared to the rest of the population. The fact that richer people have a larger ecological impact is not that surprising. The question is what to do about it. Dario Kenner\, who has recently published a working paper on the inequality of overconsumption\, will talk about the difficulty in getting the richest 1% to reduce their negative impact on the environment. \nAbout Dario Kenner\nDario Kenner is an independent researcher who launched whygreeneconomy.org in 2013 as a space to share ideas on the policies that should be adopted to address climate change and biodiversity loss. He has extensive experience of working on the environment and in international development\, including lobbying at UN climate change conferences and Rio+20. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. \nHosted by the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex and the STEPS Centre.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/how-can-the-ecological-impact-of-the-richest-1-be-reduced-at-a-time-of-extreme-inequality/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160229T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160229T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160216T134524Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211854Z
UID:8282-1456732800-1456765200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Resource Conflicts & Social Justice - Nexus Network workshop
DESCRIPTION:In recent years\, the notion of the nexus has gained traction in the domain of natural resource governance. It has become the defining vocabulary to understand the interlinkages between land\, water\, food and climate. Since the 2008 World Economic Forum pushed key players to be concerned about water\, food and energy security and their interlinkages\, the nexus has become a strong policy metaphor to address the ‘world in crises’. \nDate: Monday 29 February 2016.\nVenue: Institute of Development Studies\, Brighton\, UK \nEvent page (Nexus Network website)
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/resource-conflicts-social-justice-nexus-network-workshop/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture,Resource politics
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160317T090000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160318T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20151105T164832Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211704Z
UID:7969-1458205200-1458320400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:One Health for the Real World: zoonoses\, ecosystems and wellbeing
DESCRIPTION:This symposium\, being held 17-18 March 2016 at the Zoological Society of London\,  will bring together leading experts from different fields to discuss the topic ‘Healthy ecosystems\, healthy people’. Co-organised by the STEPS-led Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium and ZSL\, in partnership with the Royal Society\, it will: \n\nPresent new interdisciplinary frameworks for a real-world One Health approach.\nHighlight evidence from field-based settings in Africa and beyond.\nDebate implications for policy and practice.\n\nFind out more at bit.ly/OneHealth2016
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/one-health-for-the-real-world-zoonoses-ecosystems-and-wellbeing/
CATEGORIES:Health & disease
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160411T120000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160411T133000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160309T105801Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211615Z
UID:8370-1460376000-1460381400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Seminar: Helene Ahlborg on power and politics in energy transitions
DESCRIPTION:Towards a conceptualization of power and micro-level politics in energy transitions \nSTEPS Centre Seminar: Helene Ahlborg 12.00-1.30\, Monday 11 April 2016\nRoom C175 (Global Studies Resources Centre meeting room)\, Arts C\, University of Sussex \nHelene Ahlborg will share her research about rural mini-hydropower electrification in Tanzania  and societal transformation. She will explain why and how electrification processes simultaneously reinforce social inequality and enhance social mobility. \nAhlborg studies the co-development of technology and society and how the provision of electricity services\, based on small-scale renewable energy resources\, impacts on people’s lives and transforms rural communities. She also looks at how the local context and relations of power influence the electrification process and impact on the long–term viability of the energy system. \nHelene belongs to the interdisciplinary research group STEEP-RES (Socio-Technical-Ecological Evaluations of Potential Renewable Energy Systems) at Chalmers University of Technology\, Göteborg\, Sweden. Find out more about Helene Ahlborg. \nEveryone welcome!
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/seminar-helene-ahlborg-on-power-and-politics-politics-in-energy-transitions/
LOCATION:Global Studies Resource Centre\, Arts C175\, University of Sussex\, BN1 9SJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Seminars,Understanding sustainability
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160415T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160415T150000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160412T072133Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211556Z
UID:8452-1460725200-1460732400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Innovation governance for sustainable agri-food systems in China
DESCRIPTION:Adrian Ely and Sam Geall\, SPRU\nLecture Theatre 144\, Jubilee Building\nSPRU\, University of Sussex \nThe seminar will be chaired by Rob Byrne (SPRU). It is followed by a Roundtable on ‘Innovation governance and sustainability in China’.  Panellists: Jenny Lieu; Erik Millstone; Justin Pickard. \nAll welcome \n \nAbstract:  China is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter\, with per capita emissions now on a par with those in Europe. At the same time\, the growing capabilities within China’s dynamic innovation system have drawn significant interest from innovation scholars\, with many pointing to China’s increasing role in pioneering low carbon (or sustainability-oriented) innovation. Whilst these studies are informative\, they tend to downplay questions about the politics of socio-technical change in China and the importance of user perceptions and practices. Drawing from a recent ESRC-funded research study that involved six institutions from the UK and China\, this seminar begins to address these gaps. Focussing on two phenomena in the agrifood system (public resistance to GMOs and civil-society initiatives around sustainable food)\, it asks how these are influencing dominant pathways of change\, and whether these are indicative of wider shifts in the country’s approach to innovation governance. \nFor more information on the project\, see the Low Carbon Innovation in China page. \nAbout the speakers\n\nDr Adrian Ely is a senior lecturer at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex and Deputy Director/ Head of Impact and Engagement at the ESRC STEPS Centre. He is leading the efforts to establish a STEPS Centre hub in China. He is interested in innovation for sustainability\, but his research focuses in particular on international\, trans-disciplinary studies of the regulation and governance of emerging biotechnologies\, for example co-authoring the book ‘Regulating Technology: International harmonisation and local realities’ in 2010. Adrian is involved in ongoing research projects focussing on grassroots innovation for sustainability (Argentina\, India)\, low-carbon innovation (China) and collaborative research in the life sciences (Europe-Asia). \nDr Sam Geall is Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at University of Sussex\, Executive Editor of chinadialogue.net and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. His research focuses on environmental governance\, media and civil society in China. His writing on Chinese affairs has appeared in many publications\, including The Guardian\, The New Statesman\, Foreign Policy and Index on Censorship. He is on the board of the EU-China NGO Twinning Exchange and has worked as an International Coordinator for the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). He also edited the book China and the Environment: The Green Revolution (Zed Books\, 2013). \nOther events\nOther seminars in this series are on the SPRU Friday Seminars website.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/innovation-governance-for-sustainable-agri-food-systems-in-china/
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Technology & innovation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160427T160000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160427T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160412T092828Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211534Z
UID:8454-1461772800-1461776400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:How should we value nature in a human-dominated world?
DESCRIPTION:Lecture by Professor Dame Georgina Mace\, FRS\nUniversity College London \nThis lecture will be livestreamed on the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) website. \nfollowed by a drinks reception\nChichester 1 Lecture Theatre\nUniversity of Sussex\, Falmer Campus \nNature conservation has traditionally focussed on preservation and protection. But this approach is increasingly challenged as the impact of human activities on land and in the sea continues to spread and intensify. At the same time\, people depend on nature for material goods and services\, as well as for health\, recreation and inspiration. How has the focus of conservation shifted from preserving biodiversity components (primarily species & habitats) and their spatial patterns\, to maintaining form and function\, adaptability and resilience for the future? \nThis lecture is organised by the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme. \nRSVP to ssrp@sussex.ac.uk \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/how-should-we-value-nature-in-a-human-dominated-world/
CATEGORIES:Understanding sustainability
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160428T120000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160428T140000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160413T131424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211510Z
UID:8465-1461844800-1461852000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Seminar: Connor Cavanagh on responses to violent eviction
DESCRIPTION:Differentiated dispossession: ‘Hunter-gatherer’ responses to violent eviction from Embobut Forest Reserve\, western Kenya \nSeminar by Connor Joseph Cavanagh \nConvening Space\, Institute of Development Studies\nLibrary Road\, Falmer\, UK \n \nCritical scholarship on global land and ‘green’ grabbing has begun to examine the politics of variegation in diverse ‘responses from below’\, or the ways in which various particularities of place influence community reactions to land and resource acquisitions. These discussions are informed by a longstanding tradition of scholarship on the class dynamics of agrarian change\, or the ways in which processes of ‘dispossession from above’ via land acquisitions might intersect with processes of ‘dispossession from below’ in the form of gradual differentiation and rural class formation. In some cases\, however\, we argue that these analyses have not sufficiently historicized and disaggregated the concept of ‘community’ to reveal how variables such as gender\, land tenure\, and prevailing modes of production refract both the impacts of dispossession and the forms of resistance that emerge in its wake. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork on the case of the indigenous Sengwer community’s violent eviction from Embobut Forest Reserve in western Kenya\, we illuminate the ways in which \n\ni) dispossession for conservation entails novel consequences for communities that understand themselves as ‘hunters and gatherers’\, as opposed to agriculturalists or pastoralists\,\nii) how these consequences are themselves differentiated\, placing unique burdens on women\, youths\, and the elderly in particular. We conclude with a discussion of how such variegation in experiences of dispossession informs ongoing struggles for radically alternative modes of indigenous conservation in Embobut forest.\n\nAbout Connor Joseph Cavanagh\nConnor Joseph Cavanagh is currently a PhD Fellow in the Dept. of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences\, and a Research Fellow in Science Domain 5 – Ecosystem Services at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi. Broadly defined\, Connor’s research examines tensions and contradictions within processes of uneven conservation and development in eastern Africa\, with a specific interest on transformations in forest governance. Recent articles have appeared in Forum for Development Studies\, Antipode\, the Journal of Peasant Studies\, Forest Policy and Economics\, and Geoforum.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/seminar-connor-cavanagh-on-responses-to-violent-eviction/
LOCATION:Room 221\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Resource politics,Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160429T090000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160429T160000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160323T140357Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211440Z
UID:8401-1461920400-1461945600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Rapid Energy Transition
DESCRIPTION:Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT)\, Machynlleth\, Wales\nFriday 29th April – 9.00am to 4.00pm \nDownload event poster (PDF) \nThe world is not short of transitions in action. But policy and academic debates often come up against scepticism that such rapid change is achievable. \nDrawing on current and historical examples of radical change\, the conference aims to provide concrete ideas about how we can accelerate transitions to the more sustainable zero carbon future demanded by December’s UN COP21 summit in Paris. \n \nVideo: What gives you hope? \nDespair is often a barrier to action\, so Mike Erskine made a film with participants at the event about what gives them hope for more sustainable futures. \n \nZero Carbon Conversations: What gives you hope? from Mike Erskine on Vimeo. \nSpeakers \nSpeakers include: \n\nAndrew Simms – Catalysing Change\nCharlie Wilson – Lessons from history for technological transition\nGeoff Hammond – Realizing transitions pathways\nBrenda Boardman\, ECI Oxford – 20% people 80% energy demand reduction\nHoward Johns – Energy Revolution\nRuth Stevenson – Community Renewables\nChristopher Blake – Renew Wales\nPaul Allen – Zero Carbon: Making it Happen\n\nThe event is free of charge to attend. Lunch is not provided but can be bought from the CAT restaurant. \nThis conference is part of the Transformations event series. \n\nVenue\nCentre for Alternative Technology is in Machynlleth\, Powys. Visit the CAT website for address & contact details. \nAbout the Transformations series\n \nWhen in the past have societies made rapid transitions\, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times\, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence? \nThe Transformations series\, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre\, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions\, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition. \nSee the Transformations event series page for more details. \nFor more about the series\, contact Peter Newell: P.J.Newell@sussex.ac.uk \n 
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/rapid-energy-transition/
CATEGORIES:Understanding sustainability
ORGANIZER;CN="CAT/STEPS Centre":MAILTO:paulallencat [at] googlemail.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160512T090000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160513T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160414T134507Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211410Z
UID:8471-1463043600-1463158800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Nexuses of the Urban (Nexus Network workshop)
DESCRIPTION:Nexuses of the Urban: Interactions between water\, energy and food provision for sustainable cities \nUniversity of Sussex\, Brighton\, UK \nThis workshop is the latest in a series of events organised by the Nexus Network. It is fully booked\, but you can follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #UrbanNexus. \n \nBackground\nCities are dynamically connected with other urban and rural localities\, both distant and proximate. Most critically perhaps\, cities rely on an elsewhere to produce much of the food\, water and energy they consume. \nAnd as cities grow and extend their boundaries\, this reliance on elsewhere generally expands\, despite the emergence of activities such as peri-urban agriculture and community energy installations. \nThus we need to look beyond the boundaries of cities at processes of urbanisation to develop an understanding of social\, cultural\, environmental and economic dynamics of provisioning food\, water and energy for and by urban inhabitants. \nIn recent years\, interdependence between natural resources implicated in provisioning food\, water and energy provision has been framed as the ‘nexus’. The nexuses of the urban\, in addition\, point to the interdependence between the practices/infrastructures for provisioning of water\, food and energy with each other and with ecological processes. \nRecognition of the ‘urban nexuses’ points also to the need of inter- and trans-disciplinary perspectives that combine diverse insights/tools from beyond the social sciences\, humanities and the natural sciences. In part as a response to this need\, we see the emergence of new cross-disciplinary interventions such as the RCUK/Innovate UK Urban Living Partnerships and the ESRC’s Urban Transformations Network. \nWorkshop scope\nWorkshop participants will take stock of what kind of plural understandings of ‘urban nexuses’ are emerging\, produced by (partnerships between) activists\, communities\, think tanks\, corporations\, and multilateral organizations\, natural scientists\, humanities scholars and social scientists. \nWe will particularly reflect on the contribution that different social science perspectives might make in understanding urban nexuses\, and how social scientists might effectively participate in inter- and trans-disciplinary initiatives. \nWe will consider what kind of policy mechanisms and events might support the pursuit of the partnerships that may be required for developing new understandings. \nFormat\n40-50 people from academia\, civil society and business have been invited to take part in this event. We encourage you to take part across both days. \nDay one will involve presentations and discussions to stimulate the ‘urban nexus thinking’ debate\, which will be followed by a dinner for all participants. Day two will be for more in-depth participatory activities to build platforms and alliances for future work on ‘urban nexuses’. \nQuestions\nThe workshop will be structured around the following questions:\n1. What divergent framings and understandings of ‘urban nexuses’ are emerging and why are they important\, in what ways and to whom?\n2. What are the implications of these understandings and their foci for governance of nexus interactions by public\, private and hybrid arrangements?\n3. What implications do these understandings hold for political-economic action by\, and for alliances between\, civil society organizations\, businesses and social movements striving for sustainability and justice?\n4. What kind of relations (inter- and trans-disciplinary alliances\, engagements with the material world) underpin the making of the emerging understandings of ‘urban nexuses’?\n5. What new inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches (and concepts) do we need to further understand interactions at ‘urban nexuses’\, including the interdependent vulnerabilities associated with access to food\, water and energy in cities?
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/nexus-of-the-urban-nexus-network-workshop/
LOCATION:Sussex University campus\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Resource politics,Urbanisation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160512T100000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160512T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160419T192050Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211347Z
UID:8480-1463047200-1463072400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Bon appétit? A citizens’ jury on the future of food - in or out of Europe?
DESCRIPTION:The Duke of Cambridge\, 30 Saint Peter’s Street\nLondon N1 8JT \nRegister to attend this event on Eventbrite \nSpeakers include \nErik Millstone (STEPS Centre/SPRU\, University of Sussex)\nJoan Walley (former Labour MP)\nProf Tim Lang (City University)\nGuy Watson (founder of Riverford Organic) \nWhether it’s the straight banana Euromyth\, the high price of healthy food or rising suicide rates among farmers – the ‘in’ or ‘out’ debate touches on controversial issues relating to the future of food. We are hosting a public jury which will put the issues ‘on trial’ during a one day event that will also be webcast live\, bringing new voices to the referendum campaign. Eight expert witnesses including Joan Walley (ex-MP and former chair of the Environmental Audit Committee of the House of Commons)\, Prof. Tim Lang (City University) and Guy Watson (Riverford). \nAre you interested in putting your name forward to be a member of the citizen’s jury during this event? As a member of the jury you can hear the evidence\, question the witnesses\, and make a verdict. You can apply to be a member of the jury by completing the form here. \nAbout the organisers\n\nPeople’s Knowledge – Participatory\, Transdisciplinary and Transformative Approaches to Research\nA Cross-Theme Research Group at the Centre for Agroecology\, Water and Resilience (CAWR)\, Coventry University. \nFood Research Collabortation\nFacilitating joint working between academics and civil society organisation to improve the UK food system – City University London.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/bon-appetit-a-citizens-jury-on-the-future-of-food-in-or-out-of-europe/
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160516T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160516T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160405T091733Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T211313Z
UID:8422-1463419800-1463427000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Can we govern the climate?
DESCRIPTION:Public lecture by Harriet Bulkeley\, Professor of Geography\, Durham University \nFulton A Lecture Theatre\, University of Sussex\, Falmer\, Brighton \n \nThe recent conclusions of COP21 in Paris appear to offer another hopeful juncture on the long road to reaching a global agreement on how society should respond to climate change. Commitment has been renewed\, new goals articulated and\, perhaps most surprisingly\, a host of other actors have been brought into the multilateral domain to add momentum (and legitimacy) to the ongoing international effort. While the impacts and implications of the Paris agreement continue to be pored over\, what is clear is that the ideal of a multilateral agreement universally adopted and cascaded into implementation through the public arena has given way to a much more complex political imagination in which actors public and private\, local and global jostle for attention and the fate of one seems to be irrevocably bound up with the others. \n \nWithin the research community the emergence of this domain\, what is termed global environmental governance\, has been subject to debate for over a decade. A substantial body of work attests to the role of a range of actors\, from cities to corporations\, and the multitude of governing arrangements of which they are part in responding to climate change. While we have learnt a great deal about who is now engaging in climate governance\, their motivations\, interventions and the challenges this poses\, I want to suggest that this work remains limited in helping us understand where\, how and with what consequences climate governance takes place. Focusing on the actors and institutions involved\, we are left with only a partial understanding of the situations\, processes\, practices and socio-material configurations through which the governing of climate change is (and is not) taking place – in short\, we have a limited engagement with how climate governance is being accomplished. \nThis matters critically for our ability to answer a simple but central question: can we govern the climate? Drawing on research conducted in the UK over the past decade that has sought to examine the ways in which governing climate change is being accomplished in a range of arenas that cut across traditional divides between the state\, private sector and community\, I will make the argument that addressing this question means opening up our analyses of global environmental governance to new conceptual entry points. Understanding whether we can govern the climate means that we ask (again) how governing is configured in relation to climate change. Using examples from the banking\, retail\, and energy sectors as well as community initiatives and urban responses to climate change\, the paper explores the ways in which the governing of climate change is authorised\, ordered\, articulated and made to matter through distinct socio-material assemblages and diverse publics. Such an approach not only opens up what it might mean to govern climate change\, but also the range of sites and practices through which it can and is being accomplished. From this perspective\, governing the climate is not a single project\, but an unfolding and ongoing programme embedded in different economies and societies in multiple ways. Accomplishing climate governance requires not that we seek to harmonise and integrate all such responses\, but rather that we enable multiple socially and environmentally progressive transitions to be realised. \nAbout Harriet Bulkeley\nHarriet Bulkeley is a Professor of Geography\, Durham University. Her research focuses on the processes and politics of environmental governance. Her recent books include Governing the Climate: new approaches to rationality\, power and politics (Ed. CUP 2014) Transnational Climate Governance (CUP\, 2014)\, An Urban Politics of Climate Change (Routledge 2015)\, and Accomplishing Climate Governance (CUP\, 2016). She is currently involved in researching the politics and practice of smart grids in the UK\, Australia and Sweden and continuing work on urban responses to climate change through the JPI Urban and ESRC project Governing Urban Sustainability Transitions (GUST 2014 – 2017). Harriet has undertaken commissioned research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation\, Friends of the Earth\, UN-Habitat and the World Bank. In 2014\, she was awarded the King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Professorship in Environmental Science and a Visiting Professorship at Lund University\, Sweden. \n\nThis lecture is the only public part of the programme of the STEPS Centre’s 2016 Summer School on Pathways to Sustainability.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/can-we-govern-the-climate/
LOCATION:Fulton A Lecture Theatre\, University of Sussex\, Falmer\, Brighton\, BN1 9RH\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Governance & policy
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160518T180000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160518T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160419T195022Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20161110T225049Z
UID:8485-1463594400-1463599800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Future of food: burgers...or bugs?
DESCRIPTION:SILO Restaurant\, 39 Upper Gardner Street\nBrighton\, UK \nHow and what we eat\, the journey it’s been through and how much is left is over has a huge impact on the world’s resources. With population growth\, climate change\, diet-related diseases and huge inequality in the food system\, do we need to take a fresh look at what’s on our plate? \nFrom eating edible insects\, to algae or lab-cultured meat\, to developing local\, small-scale farming and tackling waste reduction\, how can we adapt and what will be the future of food? Come discuss and taste some bugs! At Brighton’s zero-waste restaurant\, SILO. The event includes contributions from STEPS members Dominic Glover and Erik Millstone. \nChair\n\nTom Clarke\, Science Editor\, Channel 4 News\n\nSpeakers\n\nDominic Glover\, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)\nProfessor Erik Millstone\, University of Sussex\, Science Policy and Research Unit (SPRU)\nVera Zakharov\, Love Food Hate Waste Coordinator\nDouglas McMaster\, SILO Restaurant\n\nEach of the discussants will the address the question ‘What could the future of food look like?’  \nThe discussion will be opened up for wider audience participation and Q&A session. The event will finish with food tasting\, including edible bugs! \nThis Brighton Fringe event is jointly organised by IDS and SPRU. \n\n \nPowered by Eventbrite
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/future-of-food-burgers-or-bugs/
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160524T190000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160524T210000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160518T193234Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163448Z
UID:8541-1464116400-1464123600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Havin Guneser on Abdullah Öcalan’s Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization
DESCRIPTION:Brighthelm Church and Community Centre\, North Road\, Brighton\, BN1 1YD\, UK \nOrganised by the STEPS Centre and Sussex Kurdish Community. \nHavin Guneser is a Kurdish writer\, journalist\, a women’s rights activist\, and a spokesperson for the International Initiative Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan-Peace in Kurdistan. She is also a translator and publisher of the works of Abdullah Öcalan\, a leading figure of the Kurdish liberation struggle\, who has been imprisoned by the Turkish state on Imrali Island since 1999. \nRegister online (Eventbrite) \n \n\nDuring his incarceration Öcalan has reflected on his own life and the struggle of the Kurds for democracy and rights\, has examined lessons from history and has brought together insights from across a range of academic disciplines to produce a radical critique of the foundations of modern society. \nIn Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization\, Öcalan describes\, ‘the historical struggle\, that can be traced back to at least five thousand years’\, as ‘essentially one between state-civilization and democratic civilization.’ Öcalan identifies the patriarchal structures and environmental destruction that have been the hallmarks of what has been presented as social ‘progress’; ‘The only way that cities can become fit for human dwelling\,’ he writes\, ‘is to transform them into ecological villages’.  \nThe Frankfurt School and Foucault\, Nietzsche and Max Weber\, Immanuel Wallerstein and Murray Bookchin are deployed to dismantle the claims of a Positivist approach to understanding society which turns science into an ideology. The Soviet attempt to form an alternative to capitalist modernity foundered on the rocks of ‘economic reductionism.’ What lessons can be learned? \n“In this book Abdullah Ocalan destils 35 years of revolutionary theory and praxis and 10 years of solitary confinement in Turkish prisons. These reflections represent the essence of his ideas on society\, knowledge\, and power”.  \nThese are the ideas that are inspiring resistance in Rojava in Syria and across the border in Turkey\, where a new autonomous democracy\, with women in the forefront\, is being created at great sacrifice.  \n\nManifesto for a Democratic Civilization: The Age of Masked Gods and Disguised Kings (2015)\, translated by Havin Guneser\, with a preface by David Graeber\, is published by New Compass Press. Read a review by Dr Felix Padel. \nAll are welcome at this event and there is no entry fee. Register online (Eventbrite)
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/havin-guneser-on-abdullah-ocalans-manifesto-for-a-democratic-civilization/
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160524T190000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160524T210000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160518T193234Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20160518T193234Z
UID:11198-1464116400-1464123600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Havin Guneser on Abdullah Öcalan’s Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization
DESCRIPTION:Brighthelm Church and Community Centre\, North Road\, Brighton\, BN1 1YD\, UK \nOrganised by the STEPS Centre and Sussex Kurdish Community. \nHavin Guneser is a Kurdish writer\, journalist\, a women’s rights activist\, and a spokesperson for the International Initiative Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan-Peace in Kurdistan. She is also a translator and publisher of the works of Abdullah Öcalan\, a leading figure of the Kurdish liberation struggle\, who has been imprisoned by the Turkish state on Imrali Island since 1999. \nRegister online (Eventbrite) \n \n\nDuring his incarceration Öcalan has reflected on his own life and the struggle of the Kurds for democracy and rights\, has examined lessons from history and has brought together insights from across a range of academic disciplines to produce a radical critique of the foundations of modern society. \nIn Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization\, Öcalan describes\, ‘the historical struggle\, that can be traced back to at least five thousand years’\, as ‘essentially one between state-civilization and democratic civilization.’ Öcalan identifies the patriarchal structures and environmental destruction that have been the hallmarks of what has been presented as social ‘progress’; ‘The only way that cities can become fit for human dwelling\,’ he writes\, ‘is to transform them into ecological villages’.  \nThe Frankfurt School and Foucault\, Nietzsche and Max Weber\, Immanuel Wallerstein and Murray Bookchin are deployed to dismantle the claims of a Positivist approach to understanding society which turns science into an ideology. The Soviet attempt to form an alternative to capitalist modernity foundered on the rocks of ‘economic reductionism.’ What lessons can be learned? \n“In this book Abdullah Ocalan destils 35 years of revolutionary theory and praxis and 10 years of solitary confinement in Turkish prisons. These reflections represent the essence of his ideas on society\, knowledge\, and power”.  \nThese are the ideas that are inspiring resistance in Rojava in Syria and across the border in Turkey\, where a new autonomous democracy\, with women in the forefront\, is being created at great sacrifice.  \n\nManifesto for a Democratic Civilization: The Age of Masked Gods and Disguised Kings (2015)\, translated by Havin Guneser\, with a preface by David Graeber\, is published by New Compass Press. Read a review by Dr Felix Padel. \nAll are welcome at this event and there is no entry fee. Register online (Eventbrite)
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/havin-guneser-on-abdullah-ocalans-manifesto-for-a-democratic-civilization-2/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160531T203000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160602T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160523T124111Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163423Z
UID:8599-1464726600-1464904800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:'Transformations' events at the Hay Festival
DESCRIPTION:At the Hay Festival in Wales\, three discussion events in our ‘Transformations’ series will investigate how change happens in different arenas\, and how rapid and just transitions can be achieved to create more sustainable futures. Tickets can be purchased online in advance from the Hay Festival website. \nHow Quickly Can We Change…Culture? \n31 May 2016 at 8.30pm\nwith Clare Brass\, Molly Conisbee and David Boyle \nHow Quickly Can We Change… Economics? \n1 June 2016 at 8.30pm\nAndrew Simms\, Victoria Chick and Richard Murphy \nHow Quickly can we Change… the Built Environment? \n2 June 2016 at 8.30pm\nHoward Johns\, Lindsay Mackie\, John Barrett\, Andrew Simms \nMore info \nFind out more about the ‘Transformations’ series of events.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/transformations-events-at-the-hay-festival/
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Understanding sustainability
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160608T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160608T143000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160519T142927Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20160519T142927Z
UID:8553-1465390800-1465396200@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:CANCELLED: Towards a class-based approach to global energy transition
DESCRIPTION:Sorry – this seminar has been cancelled. We will try to reschedule it for later in the year. \nSTEPS Centre Seminar\, IDS Convening Space \nTerms such as “energy democracy” and “climate justice” have gained increasingly widespread usage and acceptance over the last five years. In order to give weight to these slogans\, it is necessary to understand the class relations behind the global energy sector\, and the sector’s worldwide division of labour. As a key means of production and consumption in the world-division of labour\, the energy sector as a whole\, both in the short term and in the long term\, are determined (and determinant of) class relations. The energy sector is already an important site of struggle throughout much of the world. These struggles are likely to intensify in the years ahead. The question of “energy transition” is a central axis of class struggle in the world-economy in the years ahead. Like all class struggle\, its outcome is highly uncertain and unpredictable. \nKolya Abramsky is a freelance researcher\, educator and consultant on the global energy sector. Over 15 years\, he has focused on the social relations in the sector\, including land\, work\, ownership and choice of technology. Formerly\, he was the International Energy Officer for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa; coordinator of the World Wind Energy Institute (Denmark); Visiting International Scholar/winner of Manfred-Heindler Award for Energy and Climate Change Research at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Science\, Technology and Society\, at the Interuniversity Research Centre for Technology\, Work and Culture in Austria. He has edited two books: Sparking a Worldwide Energy Revolution: Social Struggles in the Transition to a Post-petrol World\, and Restructuring and Resistance: Diverse Voices of Struggle in Western Europe. He has advised policy makers and addressed universities in five continents. He initiated and built\, jointly with Focus on the Global South\, the website Understanding China’s Energy Landscape. He has a Sociology MA from State University of New York\, Binghamton.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/towards-a-class-based-approach-to-global-energy-transition-shifting-energy-demand-expanding-the-renewable-energy-sector-and-phasing-out-fossil-fuel/
LOCATION:Convening Space\, IDS\, Library Road\, Falmer\,  Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Seminars
ORGANIZER;CN="ESRC STEPS Centre":MAILTO:b.ayre@ids.ac.uk
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20160613
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20160614
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160520T142852Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163404Z
UID:8574-1465776000-1465862399@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Reimagining development in Least Developed Countries: what role for the SDGs?
DESCRIPTION:The challenges and opportunities that the Sustainable Development Goals create for least developed countries will be discussed at an event in London next month. \n \nThe Least Developed Countries Independent Expert Group\, the International Institute for Environment and Development and the ESRC STEPS Centre will host a dialogue on Monday\, 13 June to discuss the challenges and opportunities that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) create for LDCs and seek ways forward above and beyond the current implementation debate. \nThe one-day event in London\, Reimagining Development in LDCs: what role for the SDGs? will include sessions on inclusive urbanisation and sustainable energy transitions for low carbon futures\, as well as a round table debate on the politics of the transformations at the heart of the SDG agenda. \n \nA new global agenda and opportunity for LDCs\nAcross the LDCs there are real opportunities for radical shifts in development pathways. The LDCs are not yet locked into unsustainable systems of production and patterns of consumption and rapid transformation towards sustainable models of development is possible. \nThe SDGs can provide an important political opportunity for mobilising ideas\, plans and funds for alternative pathways to development\, framed by the SDG ideals. \nThe Istanbul Programme of Action sets out a comprehensive agenda for LDCs: a review will be carried out in late May resulting in a declaration that is expected to reconfirm and strengthen the commitment of stakeholders in the light of last year’s global agreements on the SDGs and climate change\, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (PDF). \nThe SDGs could provide a real opportunity for radical transformation in LDCs. But national SDG implementation processes could all too easily get bogged down in endless debates over bureaucratic procedures of target-setting\, delivery and monitoring\, and fail to achieve change. \nThe dialogue will bring together experts from across the globe to discuss how to ensure the implementation debates focus on the politics of transformation for which the SDGs have created space. \nContact\nThis event is by invitation only. To find out more\, email tessa.jennett@iied.org. \n\nRelated publications\nThe Paris Agreement and the LDCs\, Achala Abeysinghe\, Brianna Craft\, Janna Tenzing (20-16\, IIED Briefing \nA whole-landscape approach to green development in Africa\, Mariteuw Chimère Diaw (2015)\, IIED Briefing \nFinancing inclusive low-carbon resilient development in the least developed countries\, Dave Steinbach\, Nanki Kaur\, Neha Rai (2015)\, IIED Report \nImpact of climate change on Least Developed Countries: are the SDGs possible?\, Helena Wright\, Saleemul Huq\, Jonathan Reeves (2015)\, IIED Briefing \nTransforming global development: An LDC perspective on the post-2015 agenda\, Least Developed Countries Independent Expert Group (2014)\, IIED Report \nOther resources \n\nNews: What does the Paris Agreement mean for LDCs?\nBlog: What’s happening to aid to the Least Developed Countries?\, by Andrew Norton\nBlog: Will the Sustainable Development Goals make a difference?\, by Ian Scoones\nFeature: Unheard voices: what do the Least Developed Countries want from COP21? Nine interviews with leaders\, experts\, and civil society representatives from the LDCs on the reality that they face\, the actions being taken\, and the role for climate finance.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/reimagining-development-in-least-developed-countries-what-role-for-the-sdgs/
LOCATION:Central London
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Urbanisation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160615T103000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160615T143000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160609T145032Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163309Z
UID:8653-1465986600-1466001000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Rapid transition in finance and economics: recent and historical perspectives
DESCRIPTION:Monsoon Room\nLady Margaret Hall\, Oxford\, UK \nSee event page (Lady Margaret Hall website) \nThis event is part of a series of Transformations events\, organised by the New Weather Institute\, the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex\, and the ESRC STEPS Centre. \nCharge: Free\, but please register in advance by email to Lindsay.Mackie@lmh.ox.ac.uk \n\nDetails: Creeping climatic upheaval and corrosive global inequality are like two threads pulling apart civilisation’s fabric. Internationally coordinated action is further threatened by doubts over Europe’s future due to the referendum on UK membership.  To survive and thrive we face an unprecedented challenge of rapid transition. But the way we live is locked-in by multiple factors including an economic system\, dominated by finance that fails the poorest\, is obsessed with environmentally destructive growth and resists change however broken. This seminar\, part of a series organised by the New Weather Institute with the University of Sussex and the STEPS Centre explores the circumstances in which rapid\, progressive economic change might happen. \n\nProgramme\n10.30 – 12.00\nIntroduction: Alan Rusbridger\, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall \n1. Rapid transition: new perspectives \nProf Danny Dorling\, University of Oxford\nProf Mary Mellor\, Northumbria University\nProf Peter Newell\, University of Sussex\nChair: Lindsay Mackie\, New Weather Institute \n12.00 – 12.30 Break \n12.30 – 2.00\n2. Economic transition: historical perspectives \nProf Victoria Chick\, University College London\nDr Geoff Tily\, Senior Economist\, TUC\nMaurice Glasman\, London Metropolitan University (Oxford University & Queen Mary’s College London\, Visiting Lecturer)\nChair: Andrew Simms\, New Weather Institute \n2.00-2.30 Plenary & conclusion: insights for rapid transition \n\nAbout the Transformations series\n \nWhen in the past have societies made rapid transitions\, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times\, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence? \nThe Transformations series\, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre\, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions\, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition. \nSee the Transformations event series page for more details.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/rapid-transition-in-finance-and-economics-recent-and-historical-perspectives/
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160615T103000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160615T143000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160609T145032Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20160609T145032Z
UID:11201-1465986600-1466001000@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Rapid transition in finance and economics: recent and historical perspectives
DESCRIPTION:Monsoon Room\nLady Margaret Hall\, Oxford\, UK \nSee event page (Lady Margaret Hall website) \nThis event is part of a series of Transformations events\, organised by the New Weather Institute\, the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex\, and the ESRC STEPS Centre. \nCharge: Free\, but please register in advance by email to Lindsay.Mackie@lmh.ox.ac.uk \n\nDetails: Creeping climatic upheaval and corrosive global inequality are like two threads pulling apart civilisation’s fabric. Internationally coordinated action is further threatened by doubts over Europe’s future due to the referendum on UK membership.  To survive and thrive we face an unprecedented challenge of rapid transition. But the way we live is locked-in by multiple factors including an economic system\, dominated by finance that fails the poorest\, is obsessed with environmentally destructive growth and resists change however broken. This seminar\, part of a series organised by the New Weather Institute with the University of Sussex and the STEPS Centre explores the circumstances in which rapid\, progressive economic change might happen. \n\nProgramme\n10.30 – 12.00\nIntroduction: Alan Rusbridger\, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall \n1. Rapid transition: new perspectives \nProf Danny Dorling\, University of Oxford\nProf Mary Mellor\, Northumbria University\nProf Peter Newell\, University of Sussex\nChair: Lindsay Mackie\, New Weather Institute \n12.00 – 12.30 Break \n12.30 – 2.00\n2. Economic transition: historical perspectives \nProf Victoria Chick\, University College London\nDr Geoff Tily\, Senior Economist\, TUC\nMaurice Glasman\, London Metropolitan University (Oxford University & Queen Mary’s College London\, Visiting Lecturer)\nChair: Andrew Simms\, New Weather Institute \n2.00-2.30 Plenary & conclusion: insights for rapid transition \n\nAbout the Transformations series\n \nWhen in the past have societies made rapid transitions\, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times\, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence? \nThe Transformations series\, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre\, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions\, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition. \nSee the Transformations event series page for more details.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/rapid-transition-in-finance-and-economics-recent-and-historical-perspectives-2/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Halifax:20160622T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Halifax:20160622T120000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160621T133858Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163254Z
UID:8694-1466593200-1466596800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Webinar: African Farmer game
DESCRIPTION:The African Farmer game will be presented at a webinar organised by CORE Group’s Social and Behavior Change Working Group. \nRegister online to attend this webinar. It will be held from 11am – 12pm Eastern Time. \nPresenters \nJohn Thompson\, Senior Research Fellow\, Rural Futures Cluster; Institute of Development Studies\nJames Jackson\, Designer/Developer; African Farmer Project \nAbout the seminar\nThe African Farmer Game (www.africanfarmergame.org) is a computer-based simulation designed to give players the experience of living as a small farmer in Sub-Saharan Africa\, where they must make complex decisions about their domestic and agricultural practices\, household nutrition\, and marketing and related livelihood activities in an uncertain and risk-prone environment. \nIn this webinar\, we will present the latest release of the single-player version of African Farmer. We will start by briefly reviewing some key characteristics of simulation games and give an account of earlier simulations from the 1980s and 90s which inspired and informed the design of the current game. We will then describe the main learning objectives behind African Farmer and the different strategies that players may pursue to achieve various goals to improve their farm’s productivity and their household’s well-being. \nIn walking through the key elements of the new single-player version – including its nutritional components – we will demonstrate how the design of African Farmer has been shaped by the specified learning objectives. We will discuss the importance of thorough debriefing in order to promote critical reflection and enhance learning among players at the end of the game. \nWe will also offer some thoughts on how the African Farmer game design might be modified to shift the emphasis to food and nutrition and how related technologies might play a useful role within a broader strategy of training and awareness-raising to promote social and behaviour change for improved health. \nWe will conclude with our reflections on how the game has been received thus far and outline our plans for the future. Webinar participants are invited to download and try out the latest version of the single-player game at www.africanfarmergame.org/coregroup.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/webinar-african-farmer-game/
CATEGORIES:Food & agriculture
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160627T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160627T143000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160621T115021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163237Z
UID:8691-1467032400-1467037800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:STEPS: to a systemic ecology of mind - seminar with Ray Ison
DESCRIPTION:Convening Space\, Institute of Development Studies\nLibrary Road\, Falmer\, UK \nThis seminar will cover a broad sweep of issues under the general rubric of building systemic governing capability in the context of the Anthropocene. Prof Ison’s starting point will be to lay down a challenge as to whether those present have a systemic ecology of mind. \nHe will then unpack what he considers to be significant limitations in much contemporary scholarship because of failures to understand: the ‘feral concept’ of system; praxis\, or more specifically systems praxis; complexity\, or complex adaptive system; transformation and governance\, or governing. He will ground the seminar in examples from recent research projects that employ\, or are concerned with\, social learning and systemic inquiry. \nRegardless of framing choice\,  governing in the circumstances of ‘the Anthropocene’ requires major innovations in governance and institutional designs such as social learning and systemic co-inquiry.  Water/river governance research undertaken within the ASTiP (Appied Systems Thinking in Practice) Group at the Open University will be used to exemplify governance innovation. Recent research in Victoria\, Australia will be used to exemplify how  systemic co-inquiry can be harnessed for more effective NRM. \nIn the discussion we can explore implications for the STEPS programme. \n \nAbout Ray Ison\nRay Ison has an international reputation in\, and has been a major contributor to\, ‘cybersystemics’. What is this field you may well ask? Ray’s rationale for using this term was explained in the presentation last year at ISSS2016 in Berlin of his Presidential Address for the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS)\, and also in a special ‘systemic inquiry’ at Herrenhausen Palace\, Hanover. \nAmongst other matters raised at these events was the significant institutional complexity in the cybersystemic field and the lack of intellectual and political influence for investment in and the furtherance of cybersystemic scholarship – particularly in key policy and research funding fora associated with the UN\, Brussels\, Washington and the like. This is despite the growing awareness that the issues of our time\, the Anthropocene\, if you will\, are systemic in nature and thus require systemic responses\, i.e.\, transformations. \nRay has been Professor of Systems at The Open University (OU)\, UK since 1994.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/steps-to-a-systemic-ecology-of-mind-seminar-with-ray-ison/
LOCATION:Convening Space\, IDS\, Library Road\, Falmer\,  Brighton\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Climate change & energy,Governance & policy,Seminars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160705T100000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160705T123000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160704T101035Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220411T105445Z
UID:8758-1467712800-1467721800@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Andy Stirling on Nexus Methods (7th ESRC Methods Festival)
DESCRIPTION:ESRC Methods Festival\, Room 3.16\nUniversity of Bath\, UK \nSTEPS co-director Andy Stirling (SPRU) is speaking on Nexus Methods as part of the 7th ESRC Methods Festival. \nThe presentation is split into two parts: \n\nThe depth\, scope and diversity of ‘nexus’ challenges to methodology\nAn illustrative practical response: the STEPS pathways approach and multicriteria mapping\n\nAbstract: Confused notions of ‘the Nexus’ are a burgeoning instrumentalising fashion. Yet imperatives are growing\, to address complex global interactions between natures\, technologies and societies – and consequent harms\, opportunities and injustices. Resulting challenges span expedient distinctions between ‘systems’\, ‘sectors’ and ‘settings’. They transcend reified notions of ‘place’\, contrived divisions between ‘levels’ and ‘scales’\, ‘science’ and ‘society’ and cherished boundaries between ‘quantitative’\, ‘qualitative’ and ‘hybrid’. With biases\, drivers and power relations in research also part of the focus – ‘method’ and ‘action’ are inseparable. Aims are not just to inform policy\, but invigorate democratic struggle. This session will explore practical implications for methodology. \nThis event is only open to registered participants at the ESRC Methods Festival. \n\nFind out more\nThe Nexus Network \nDiscussion paper: Transdisciplinary Nexus Methods by Andy Stirling (2015) \nSTEPS Centre: Methods and Methodologies portal
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/andy-stirling-on-nexus-methods-7th-esrc-methods-festival/
CATEGORIES:Research methods
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20160705T113000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20160705T130000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160623T123247Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163207Z
UID:8722-1467718200-1467723600@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:IDS 50: Sustainability transformations: the intersecting roles of state\, market and society
DESCRIPTION:Part of the Institute of Development Studies 50th Anniversary Conference: States\, Markets and Society\, this panel session will examine the politics of sustainability transformations through different cases\, drawing on the work of the STEPS Centre and the emerging STEPS Global Pathways to Sustainability Consortium. \nThe panel will open with an overview of the different ways ‘transformations’ are understood\, and how sustainability transformations require a focus on coalition building across diverse actors. This will be followed by three case study presentations from three different regional settings and on three different sustainability challenges (waste and water\, low-carbon energy\, and agri-food) examining how\, over time\, state\, market and society have interacted in the construction of pathways – promoting some and sidelining others – and how a wider political economy analysis has helped to illuminate which combination of factors are important in facilitating transformations to sustainability. \nChair: Ian Scoones\, IDS and Director of the ESRC STEPS Centre \nPanellists \nRitu Priya\nCentre of Social Medicine and Community Health\, Jawaharlal Nehru University\, New Delhi\, India \nCosmas Ochieng\nAfrican Centre for Technology Studies\, Kenya \nAnabel Marin\nCONICET\, CENIT\, Argentina \nAttendance\nThis event is only open to participants with tickets to the IDS 50 Conference. Registration information is here. \n\nAbstracts\nRitu Priya: Water and waste: Developmental conflicts\, contestations and dialogue towards urban sustainability transformations in India \nState-led development of urban water and waste disposal systems\, uncritically adopting Euro-American technological systems\, resulted in chronic urban water shortages and limited waste disposal capacities. Since the 1990s\, both problems have compounded to crisis point due to escalating urbanisation and consumption patterns. Consequently\, a plurality of citizen/civil society-led initiatives emerged: rights-based policy and legal contestations\, culturally attuned techno-social innovations\, ‘green technology’ promotion\, social innovations in decision-making\, and adaptive community innovations. However\, conventional techno-social systems continue to be dominant\, perpetuated through public–private partnerships. This presentation shares learning and questions from grass-roots initiatives on the politics of sustainable transformations. \nCosmas Ochieng: Innovation and transformation histories in the Kenyan solar sector: Lessons for low-carbon development pathways in Kenya \nAccess to modern energy services remains a significant challenge in Kenya\, with only 30 per cent of households having access to electricity. The Kenyan government has tried to address this problem through a range of policies focused on accelerating access to ‘green and inclusive’ sources of energy\, especially geothermal\, wind\, hydro and solar power. Arguably\, the adoption and use of these technologies has been most successful in the solar sector. This presentation examines the ‘innovation history’ of the Kenyan solar market over the last three decades with a view to shedding light on how the tri-partite relationship between the state\, markets and society impacts low-carbon development pathways in Kenya. \nAnabel Marin: The politics of access to seed in Argentinian agriculture \nArgentina is currently in the middle of contentious and currently stalled debates about the reform of intellectual property (IPR) law for seeds. IPR regimes govern transformation pathways in important ways because strict property rights can undermine the scope to support more diverse\, sustainable agricultural futures. This paper will discuss important opportunities for a different system of property rights for seeds that emerges from the particularities of the country. These opportunities are related to the presence of a strong domestic seed industry using a distinctive business model that is different to that of large MNCs. Alliances between domestic business interests and activists are forming with shared interests in creating more sustainable agricultural futures\, with an alternative IPR regime shaping pathways. \n  \n\n\nMore about transformations\nBook: The Politics of Green Transformations\nMultiple ‘green transformations’ are required if humanity is to live sustainably on planet Earth. Recalling past transformations\, this book examines what makes the current challenge different\, and especially urgent. \nContributing authors \nErik Millstone\, Andy Stirling\, Matthew Lockwood\, Adrian Smith\, Adrian Ely\, Mariana Mazzucato\, Stephen Spratt\, Hubert Schmitz\, Ian Scoones\, Melissa Leach and Peter Newell. \nOrder the book from Routledge \n\nTransformations event series\nWhen in the past have societies made rapid transitions\, and what were the circumstances that drove them? What can we learn from these times\, positively and negatively to enable the transition we need to make today in the face of climatic upheaval and fossil fuel dependence? \nThe Transformations series\, co-organised by the New Weather Institute and the STEPS Centre\, aim to change the conversation about transition in the UK. Through informed public discussion and engagement we will gather opinions\, capture outcomes and stimulate debate about how to facilitate the speed and scale of the transition. \nSee the Transformations event series page for more details.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/sustainability-transformations-the-intersecting-roles-of-state-market-and-society/
LOCATION:Room 100\, Institute of Development Studies\, Library Road\, Falmer\, BN1 9RE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Governance & policy,Understanding sustainability
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20160705T150000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20160705T160000
DTSTAMP:20260404T045211
CREATED:20160628T080415Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170209T163153Z
UID:8744-1467730800-1467734400@steps-centre.org
SUMMARY:Webinar: Transformative Knowledge Networks – solutions-oriented research in practice
DESCRIPTION:Tuesday\, 5 July 2016 \n16:00 – 17:00 CEST (14:00 – 15:00 UTC) \nResearch on global change and sustainability increasingly goes hand in hand with calls for profound change and social transformation – but what do we know about these processes in different\, concrete contexts of application? What can social science-led research contribute to generating solutions and transformative change towards sustainability and social justice? \nJoin researchers from the Transformations to Sustainability programme for a webinar discussion on solutions-oriented research in practice. Find out more about how the networks intend to contribute to transformative change towards sustainability and social justice\, ask questions and share ideas on solutions-oriented research involving co-design and co-production. \n \nThe webinar includes contributions from STEPS member Adrian Ely\, involved in the Transformative Pathways to Sustainability project with the STEPS Global Consortium. \nRegister to join the discussion \nSpeakers include: \n\nMathieu Denis\, Executive Director\, International Social Science Council (ISSC).\nAdrian Ely\, Transformative pathways to sustainability: learning across disciplines\, contexts and cultures (PATHWAYS) network; STEPS Centre (Social\, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability)\, United Kingdom.\nAshish Kothari\, Academic-Activist Co-Produced Knowledge for Environmental Justice (ACKnowl-EJ) network; Kalpavriksh Environment Action group\, India\nHeila Lotz-Sisitka\, Transgressive Social Learning for Social-Ecological Sustainability in times of Climate Change (T-LEARNING); Rhodes University\, South Africa\n\nThe discussion will be moderated by Susi Moser\, Senior Advisor to the Transformations to Sustainability programme. \nThe Transformations to Sustainability (T2S) programme supports research to help advance transformations to more sustainable and equitable societies around the globe. \nA full programme and biographies of all speakers will be available soon.
URL:https://steps-centre.org/event/webinar-transformative-knowledge-networks-solutions-oriented-research-in-practice/
CATEGORIES:Understanding sustainability
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