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.
Theatre can be used, as part of action research, to enable researchers and participants to explore, reflect and co-create understanding and knowledge on an issue. Participatory theatre can open up…
A ‘serious game’ is a game played for educational, exploratory or research purposes to explore the complexity of a particular issue. These are distinct from games that are played purely…
The Mānoa Mash-up method was developed by researchers at the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST) at the University of Stellenbosch to build positive and just visions of the…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Agency Network Analysis (ANA) maps a given actor’s arena of social action in the context of a problem space articulated by that actor. This mapping is…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background Evaluation H derives from the H-form/ ‘Rugby Post form’ Evaluation method developed by Andy Inglis in 1997 to assist local people in Somalia in monitoring…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background Life history as a method for appreciating the social and cultural dynamics of individual lives has been widely used in anthropology and psychology. Focusing on…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background The Rivers of Life method was devised originally as an ‘ice breaker’ exercise, for use in workshops where participants coming from diverse backgrounds need to…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background Technography can be quickly summed up as ‘the ethnography of technology-in-use’. The analogy is useful because technography draws on the ethnographer’s extensive toolkit of research…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background This is a method used within the STEPS Centre’s Responding to zoonotic and related diseases in intensifying livestock systems: diverse framings and pathways project. A system…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background: The idea of sociotechnical imaginaries is a theoretical concept. In this vignette, we’ll introduce you to some of the commonly used methods that will help…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background: “Sensitivity Analysis (SA) is the study of how the variation in the output of a model (numerical or otherwise) can be apportioned, qualitatively or quantitatively,…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background: Scientometric mapping is a set of visualisation techniques developed in the field of scientometrics for the study of measuring science, technology and innovation activity and outcomes. Given that science, technology and innovation are processes that take place…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background Q Method (also known as Q Methodology) is used to study subjective perspectives. It is useful when you wish to characterise how different groups of…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background Photovoice is a ground-breaking approach to participatory action research. The beauty of photovoice is its diversity; every photovoice project is different, and each project has…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES By Stephen Whitfield Background Participatory scenario workshops have been used and developed in research by Anthony Patt (Patt, Suarez et al. 2005) in Southern Africa, Kasper…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background PRA is described as a ‘family of approaches and methods’ by Chambers (1994) and an ‘eclectic situational style (the humble learning outsider)’ by IISD. It…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA) is a planning and monitoring & evaluation tool designed to help the people involved in a project, program or organization…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background Open Space Technology (OST) is a way to run a workshop or meeting for addressing a broad issue or theme in an open way. Essentially…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background Multicriteria Mapping (MCM) is an interactive hybrid qualitative/quantitative appraisal method for exploring contrasting perspectives on complex strategic and policy issues. Based around an easily-used, freely-available…
←BACK TO METHODS VIGNETTES Background The Innovation Histories method was developed by Boru Douthwaite and Jacqueline Ashby (2005) as a way of drawing on experience from past innovation processes. The…