Over the last five years, the ESRC STEPS Centre has explored the management of resources in peri-urban areas, and how sustainability can be defined and sought in this context. We have aimed to unpack the politics of sustainability in peri-urban areas and to highlight alternative visions of sustainability.

Our work has focused on how water is managed and used, using case studies in Delhi and the neighbouring city of Ghaziabad, India. People in peri-urban areas often have limited access to water. Their ways of responding range from informal coping strategies to collective mobilisation and political action. Our work has examined the problems and opportunities associated with the authorities and institutional arrangements designed to help them, and what this means for sustainability in theory and practice.