Search examples, events, commentary and publications on methods that help explore pathways to sustainability. This archive draws from 15 years of the ESRC STEPS Centre’s research with collaborators around the world.
For an overview of our work on this theme, visit the Methods front page.
Edited by Adrian Ely Routledge, Pathways to Sustainability Series (2021) Open Access Read/Download this book About this book Transformations to sustainability are increasingly the focus of research and policy discussions…
This paper provides some of the conceptual and methodological underpinnings being developed in the ongoing TAPESTRY project which is part of the Transformations to Sustainability (T2S) Programme. We debate how the notion…
How should people address problems like climate change, environmental destruction, poverty and injustice? With many possible ways to respond, whose voices and ideas will shape the pathways that are chosen?…
T-Labs: A Practical Guide Using Transformation Labs (T-Labs) for innovation in social-ecological systems Pathways Network, September 2018 Between 2016 and 2018, the Pathways Network aimed to investigate new approaches for…
Realising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require transformative changes at micro, meso and macro levels and across diverse geographies. Collaborative, transdisciplinary research has a role to play in documenting,…
Laura Pereira, Niki Frantzeskaki, Aniek Hebinck, Lakshmi Charli-Joseph, Scott Drimie, Michelle Dyer, Hallie Eakin, Diego Galafassi, Timos Karpouzoglou, Fiona Marshall, Michele-Lee Moore, Per Olsson, J. Mario Siqueiros-García, Patrick van Zwanenberg…
This paper examines a variety of theories bearing on ‘socio-material incumbency’ and explores methodological implications. The aim is to develop a systematic general approach, which builds on strengths and mitigates…
The activities described in this guide are designed to support participatory research in the search for transformative pathways to social-ecological system sustainability. The guide offers activities with practical examples to…
Nightingale, A.J., Eriksen, S., Taylor, M., Forsyth, T., Pelling, M., Newsham, A., Boyd, E., Brown, K., Harvey, B., Jones, L., Kerr, R.B., Mehta, L., Naess, L.O., Ockwell, D., Scoones, I.,…
STEPS Working Paper 105 April 2019 Uncertainty defines our times. Whether it is in relation to climate change, disease outbreaks, financial volatility, natural disasters or political settlements, every media headline…
STEPS Working Paper 104 September 2018 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight how transformations to sustainable economies and societies are a major global challenge. This Working Paper offers a brief…
Experimental spaces for learning about and nurturing processes of social-ecological transformation are of increasing interest; a reflection, in part, of a more interventionist approach to sustainability research and funding. We…
In this paper, we discuss how transdisciplinary development research (TDR), if approached in particular ways, can produce new knowledge and also foster deeper systemic changes in the knowledge system itself….
Experiments to create spaces for social-ecological transformation are multiplying. These experiments aim at transcending traditional spaces for rational deliberation, planning, and participatory decision-making. We present a methodological approach for triggering…
Threats to climate, biodiversity, soils, air and water join long-standing issues of poverty and vulnerability in demanding urgent action. Radical transformations are required in global institutions and infrastructures for provision…
STEPS Working Paper 100 October 2017 In this paper, we use conceptual insights from two distinct traditions within the social studies of science and technology, namely actor-network theory (ANT) and…
Across the globe, conservation policies have often suppressed nonscientific forms of knowledge and ways of knowing nature, along with the social practices of the groups that are informed by such…
by I. Scoones, K. Jones, G. Lo Iacono, D. W. Redding, A. Wilkinson and J. L. N. Wood Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 372:20160164 June 2017 This paper argues for…
STEPS Working Paper by Saurabh Arora arguing for more caring forms of engagement between different knowledge practices, and against notions of control as embodied in the idea of the ‘Anthropocene’.
Final report of the Nexus Network, a network funded by the Economic and Social Research Council to support transdisciplinary research on Nexus and sustainability issues.