Publications in the Research Methods category:

What is Uncertainty and Why Does it Matter?

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…

Transformations to Sustainability

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…

Transdisciplinary research as transformative space making for sustainability: enhancing propoor transformative agency in periurban contexts

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….

Promoting agency for social-ecological transformation: a transformation-lab in the Xochimilco social-ecological system

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…

STEPS pathways poster

A printable A4 poster with a simple summary of some key ideas based on the STEPS Centre’s pathways approach to sustainability. Download (PDF)

Power in Practice: Insights from Technography and Actor-Network Theory for Agricultural Sustainability

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…

Defying Control: Aspects of caring engagement between divergent knowledge practices

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’.

Co-design with aligned and non-aligned knowledge partners: implications for research and coproduction of sustainable food systems

An article by Anabel Marin, Adrian Ely & Patrick van Zwanenberg about the benefits and challenges involved in co-designing research projects on agriculture & food with partners who are ‘aligned’ or ‘non-aligned’ in their aims and values, published in the journal ‘Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability’.

Developing ‘Nexus Capabilities’: towards transdisciplinary methodologies

As invited by the ESRC to inform their Training and Skills Committee and doctoral training programme, the central aim of the Nexus Network is to inform development of enhanced methodologies…