Reflecting on Karl Polanyi at the Resilience 2014 Conference By John Thompson, STEPS Centre Food and Agriculture Convenor In June 2013, I served on the Scientific Steering Committee of the international conference on Transformation in a Changing Climate, which was held at the University of Oslo. One of my duties for that event was to…
Learning from Great Transformations Past and Present
Living on the edge: Rethinking aid amidst complexity
By Melissa Leach, STEPS Centre director These days, a remarkably short and convenient flight takes one from Sussex UK – where among other STEPS Centre activities this week I’ve been contributing to the post-2015 global sustainable development goals process and the international Future Earth Science Committee – and Sierra Leone. Here, I’m on my way…
STEVE WADDELL ON DYNAMIC SUSTAINABILITIES
Steve Waddell, founding Executive Director of Global Action Network Net (GAN-Net) and Leadership for Change (among his many other activities) has written on his blog about the STEPS Centre’s recent flagship book, Dynamic Sustainabilities; Technology, Environment, Social Justice. His piece, entitled Sustainability Networks for Stability, Durability, Resilience and Robustness, takes a critical look at the…
REVOLUTIONISING DEVELOPMENT: WHOSE FUTURE COUNTS?
By Melissa Leach, STEPS Centre director I first worked with Robert Chambers as a research assistant when I was little more than an undergraduate myself. In the book ‘Revolutionising Development’, launched last Friday, I write about the specific piece of research we did together, and its legacies. However, over twenty years as a colleague at…
TALKING TOILETS
Community-Led Total Sanitation is a rapidly-spreading way of getting local people involved in planning toilets and other facilities. CLTS taps into people’s feelings of disgust to encourage action. Photo: Kalangaba Village Open Defecation Free Sign, from the CLTS Flickr photostream Our new working paper (with a short briefing on the side) looks at how this…
ECOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE DYNAMICS – FROM THE FORESTS OF SIERRA LEONE
By MELISSA LEACH, STEPS Centre director Last week I visited Sierra Leone catching up on happenings in its eastern rainforests following a long absence and a decade of civil war, and exploring collaboration possibilities for the STEPS Centre’s work on epidemics and the ecology of infectious disease. It was fantastic to be back there, and…