Publications Archives

Transformative innovations start with the social and political, not technology hardware and finance

Transformative innovations start with the social and political, not  technology hardware and finance: lessons from Lighting Africa and MECS MECS Briefing paper, September 2019 The international community has signed up…

From being rooted to uprooted, and from trapped to transformed: Voices of Xochimilco

This film (‘Del desarraigo al arraigo, y de las trampas a la transformación: Voces de Xochimilco’) is a visual introduction to the neighbourhood and wetland of Xochimilco in Mexico City, as told by local people who share a connection with it. They each give their perspectives on the transformations that are taking place in the region, including their concerns and hopes for the future.

The Transformation Laboratory of the Social-Ecological System of Xochimilco, Mexico City: Description of the Process and Methodological Guide

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…

Transforming Access to Clean Technology: Learning From Lighting Africa

The working paper analyses the case of Lighting Africa, which successfully transformed access to solar lighting in Kenya and, as far as we are aware, conceptualises and illustrates for the first time Lighting Africa’s approach. This builds on past STEPS research that focusses on building sociotechnical innovation systems.

Smart as Democratically Transformative? An Analysis of ‘Smart City’ Sociotechnical Imaginary in India

Focussing on the urban mobility aspects of one Smart City Challenge, submitted by New Town, Kolkata, we assess how democratically transformative was the collective process of imagining smart cities in India. Our results indicate that while considerable efforts were made to engage with citizens in the making of the imaginary, the process remained highly uneven and technology-centric, shaped by ‘globalised’ aspirations of urban smartness and by the upper and middle classes, leaving behind the voices and needs of poor and marginalised citizens of Kolkata.

Beyond Technical Fixes: climate solutions and the great derangement

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.,…

Crises in Variegated Capitalism, Co-produced, Hydro-Social Impacts

Drawing on fieldwork undertaken on Dutch aid in the Mozambican waterscape, this working paper asks how seemingly unrelated crises jointly reproduced politico-economic and hydro-social conditions in Mozambique. To this end, literature on the political ecology of crisis and austerity is mobilised and adapted to the needs of this paper through the notion of variegated capitalism. This relational approach helps to make sense of interdependencies between the two crises (and the responses they triggered) in a singular global, but spatially differentiated, capitalism. 

The Pathway toward a Net-Zero-Emissions Future

One Earth Volume 1, ISSUE 1, P18-20 The UK government recently committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Ian Scoones comments alongside other UK-based experts to reflect upon this…

‘Good Governance’ as Conflict Resolution? Locally Mediated Governance and Mining Law at the Côte d’Ivoire Ity Gold Mine

This paper examines the exploitation and management of gold mining in the western region of Côte d’Ivoire and the associated local social tensions and conflicts.