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 be a platform for researchers, funders, policymakers, and other stakeholders to debate topics of global significance and to determine future priorities for international social science.
Our activities
Our activities at the WSSF include:
Tuesday 25 September, 14:20 – 16:20
Engaging Power Relations in Transformations to Sustainability Research
Speakers include Adrian Ely (SPRU, UK), Ritu Priya (South Asia Hub), Lakshmi Charli-Joseph (North America Hub): A delicate dance: engaging with power in ‘transformation labs’, drawing on insights from the Pathways Network.
Wednesday 26 September, 16:30 – 18:30
The Belmont Forum—NORFACE Transformations to Sustainability programme: Re-structuring the field of sustainability research for sustainable and secure futures
STEPS co-founder Melissa Leach (Director, Institute of Development Studies, UK) will be on the panel for this cross-programme discussion. Lyla Mehta (IDS) will represent the new TAPESTRY project on uncertainty in marginal environments.
Thursday 27 September, 14:00 – 16:00
Development studies and knowledge production – which way? In search of a transdisciplinary and transformative (research) agenda on equality
Ritu Priya (South Asia Hub) will give a presentation entitled ‘Redrafting the Primary Healthcare Approach of Alma Ata 1978 for Sustainable Healthcare in the 21st Century: A view from India on the politics of knowledge’.
Thursday 27 September, 14:00 – 16:00
Aspects of security concept needed to manage historic transition for a sustainable world
This session is chaired by Andy Stirling (SPRU, UK) with Masayuki Horio (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan). Andy Stirling will give a talk entitled ‘Sustainability, Security & Transformation: emancipating care from fallacies of control’.
NEW PAPER: Transformations to Sustainability
Launched to coincide with the WSSF, a new paper from the STEPS Centre sets out a new threefold framework for achieving transformative change under the Sustainable Development Goals.
Transformations to Sustainability
by Ian Scoones, Andy Stirling, Dinesh Abrol, Joanes Atela, Lakshmi Charli-Joseph, Hallie Eakin, Adrian Ely, Per Olsson, Laura Pereira, Ritu Priya, Patrick van Zwanenberg and Lichao Yang
STEPS Working Paper 104
September 2018
For further details, read more about the paper.
Our theme for 2018: Transformations
Faced with a series of social and environmental stresses and shocks, there are urgent calls for radical, systemic change. But, as past and present experience show, this can take many forms. What does it take to make sustainability transformations emancipatory (caring), rather than repressive (controlling)?
Find out more about our theme for 2018 on our Transformations theme page.