Members of the STEPS Centre, including the global consortium, will be presenting at and facilitating various sessions at Transformations 2019 in Santiago, Chile. The conference is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to gain insights from the experiences and findings of the Pathways project and to engage with the work of STEPS members. If you are…
STEPS at Transformations 2019
Local knowledge and ideas are key to action on climate disruption
Press release, 20 September 2019 Vulnerable coastal areas of South Asia face a ‘perfect storm’ of increasing climate uncertainties combined with threats to livelihoods from inequality, industrial development and marginalisation, according to an international team of researchers working with local partners in India and Bangladesh. But the region can adapt to climate change more effectively…
How do ‘transformative spaces’ open up possibilities for action?
A paper by Fiona Marshall (SPRU), Jonathan Dolley (SPRU) and Ritu Priya (South Asia Sustainability Hub) explores how ‘transformative space making’ can contribute to systemic change that supports pro-poor transformations to sustainability. The authors describe transformative spaces as follows: “The metaphor of transformative spaces is used here not to suggest a bounded location in space…
Uncertain Climate: new short film explores complex uncertainty in India
A new short film summarises key themes from the project Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation, which explored the myriad forms of uncertainty faced by the people at the forefront of climate change in three areas of India – dryland Kutch, the megacity of Mumbai and the island region of the Sundarbans. Amid striking images of…
New publication: T-Labs: A Practical Guide
The ESRC STEPS Centre and its partners have published a new guide to T-Labs (Transformation Labs). The 40-page guide draws on lessons from the Pathways Network, a project investigating new approaches for transformations to sustainability. Since 2016, the Pathways Network has convened T-Labs to respond to social-ecological problems in six countries (Argentina, Mexico, Kenya, China,…
STEPS at the World Social Science Forum (WSSF) on 25-28 September
The STEPS Centre and its partners from the Pathways to Sustainability Global Consortium will be at the World Social Science Forum (WSSF) next week. This year’s event is held in Fukuoka, Japan. The WSSF’s theme this year is ‘Security and Equality for Sustainable Futures’. Convened by the International Science Council (ISC), the WSSF aims to…
New ‘TAPESTRY’ project on transformations from below in uncertain environments
A new project involving STEPS is one of twelve awarded funding by the Belmont Forum and NORFACE joint programme Transformations to Sustainability (T2S). The project is entitled TAPESTRY: Transformation as Praxis – Exploring Socially Just and Transdisciplinary Pathways to Sustainability in Marginal Environments. It is organised in a transnational and transdisciplinary consortium across the UK,…
5 Challenges for least developed countries in the post-2015 era
2016 has been a big year for international agreements on development. New Sustainable Development Goals and targets were agreed. The Paris Agreement, the strongest statement for some time on climate change action, was signed. But if the aspirations in them are to be fulfilled, hard work is needed. This hard work should benefit the poorest…
South Asia Sustainability Hub launched in Delhi
The economist Nitin Desai, the environmentalist Sunita Narain and the writer P. Sainath spoke at the South Asia Sustainability Hub & Knowledge Network launch event on 28 January in Delhi. The new hub joins five other hubs around the world in the Pathways to Sustainability Global Consortium, which the STEPS Centre convened to link up…
Citizens’ voices need to be heard on climate and cities
Citizens’ voices need to be heard on climate and cities, say researchers at launch of South Asia Sustainability Hub More dialogue between citizens and politicians is needed to deal with the impacts of climate change and rapid urbanisation in India, according to researchers from India and the UK speaking at a new South Asia Sustainability…