Agriculture as Assembly (or, what is the nature of the factory in ‘factory farming’?)

By Jim Sumberg and John Thompson When considering the nature and spatial distribution of economic activity, two fundamental contrasts take centre stage: ‘urban vs. rural’ and ‘industry vs. agriculture’. While…

Pastoralism: the hidden story of development in the Horn of Africa

Our new book Pastoralism and Development in Africa: Dynamic Change at the Margins explores the hidden story of pastoralism in the Horn of Africa. The latest volume in our Pathways…

Press release: Green grabs: the dark side of the green economy

Green’ market initiatives are increasing poverty. Local ecosystem stewardship must be nurtured instead. ‘Green grabbing’ –  the rapidly-growing appropriation of land and resources in the name of ‘green ’ biofuels,…

Land Grabbed or Not? By afromusing on Flickr

Colloquium on global land grabbing, 11 June

STEPS Centre researchers will be among the speakers at the Critical Agrarian Studies Colloquium No. 4, which takes place in The Hague on 11 June 2012. After a few years…

CHINA AND BRAZIL IN ZIMBABWE

Ian Scoones, STEPS Centre co-director, has written a blog post about Chinese and Brazilian projects in Zimbabwe, looking at the complex relations between donors and recipients of aid and investment…

Briefings on the Maize project

A set of 7 briefings was produced as part of our project on Environmental Change and Maize Innovations in Kenya. The briefings cover the ideas, methods and results from the…

Getting hotter: Regulating biotechnology in India

by Ian Scoones, STEPS Centre co-director Biotechnology offers many potentials but also dangers. Regulation is clearly essential. But how, over what and with what measures is less clear. The debate…

BIOTECH IN BANGALORE SEMINAR

Center for Public Policy (CPP), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and the STEPS Centre, are coming together with the Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE) to hold a half a…

NEW BOOK ON KENYAN MILLENNIUM VILLAGES

A new book has just been published on the Kenyan Millennium Villages by Awuor Ponge, entitled Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Crop Production: A Study of the Millennium Village Project in Bar-Sauri…