STEPS Working Paper 117 by Saurabh Arora, Ajit Menon, M. Vijaybaskar, Divya Sharma and V. Gajendran Social exclusion is considered critical for understanding poverty, livelihoods, inequality and political participation in…
Read moretélécharger le pdf Une version anglaise de ce document est aussi disponible. Ce document de travail vise à situer notre projet de recherche dans les débats sur la résilience. Le…
Read moreA French version of this paper is also available. This working paper aims to situate our research project within the various debates around resilience. It advocates a historical, cultural and…
Read moreIn this paper, a corpus of research is revisited to reinterpret how poverty in Northern Tamil Nadu was theorised and analysed, and to synthesise and compare the findings. The extensive scope of poverty concepts and processes studied over the decades constitutes the appendix.
Read moreThe enormous contributions livestock production makes to rural livelihood in communal areas are perhaps why it is deemed a vehicle that can reduce the high poverty and inequality levels through the injection of effective policies.
Read moreThis paper proposes that pastoralist systems are better treated, in aggregate, as a global critical infrastructure. The policy and management implications that follow are significant and differ importantly from current pastoralist policies and recommendations. A multi-typology framework is presented, identifying the conditions under which pastoralists can be considered real-time reliability professionals in systems with mandates preventing or otherwise avoiding key events from happening. The framework leads to a different policy-relevant counternarrative to pastoralism as understood today. Some features of the counternarrative are already known or have been researched. The paper’s aim is to provoke further work (including case research and interactions with decision-makers) on how robust the counternarrative is as a policy narrative for recasting today’s pastoralist policy and management interventions.
Read moreOver the last 30 years, Tanzania has taken different policy approaches towards the conservation of forests. Intriguingly, from the earlier integrated conservation and development approach to the ‘newer’ green economy,…
Read moreThis paper elucidates the extent to which the proposition for greening youth livelihoods is plausible by examining how young farmers navigate the land–water–environment nexus. The main question addressed here is ‘to what extent does the land–water–environment nexus influence (and, indeed, is influenced by) youth agricultural livelihoods?’
Read moreThis paper assesses the practices and strategies pastoral communties adopt in responding to the stresses and shocks generated by the uncertainties that surround them, with a view to understand and appreciate the underpinning inspiring principles.
Read moreLessons from pastoralists, we argue, may help others working in other domains to develop more effective responses to uncertain contexts. Following Prof. Scoones’ papers What is uncertainty and why does it matter?, this is one of two papers developed with a view to analyse and reflect on the interfaces and interrelationships between pastoral societies, the uncertainties that embed their livelihoods, and the related coping/adaptive principles, strategies, and practices.
Read moreThe 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.
Read moreFocussing 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.
Read moreDrawing 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.
Read moreThis 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.
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 106 by Louise Fitzgerald, Isabell Braunger and Hanna Brauers Download this paper In recent years, natural gas has seen increased support in the context of climate change…
Read moreSTEPS 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…
Read moreSPRU Working Paper series SWPS 2019-06 (February) Forthcoming as a chapter in Diane P. Michelfelder and Neelke Doorn (eds), Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Engineering, London: Routledge, 2019 This chapter…
Read moreThis paper examines a variety of theories bearing on ‘socio-material incumbency’ and explores methodological implications. The aim is to develop a systematic general approach, which builds on strengths and mitigates…
Read moreSTEPS 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…
Read moreWith the increasing waste production in urban areas, multiple technological solutions, models of waste governance and alternative practices of solid waste management have started acquiring momentum in Indian cities. Of…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 103 July 2018 This paper engages with key debates regarding the dynamics of class formation in the former Bantustans (or ‘homelands’) of South Africa. It is widely…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 102 March 2018 Using novel agricultural technologies to boost farm productivity in the face of climatic and demographic disruption remains a priority for African policy and research….
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 101 February 2018 The Sundarbans is a coastal delta and major climate hotspot located at the southern end of Bangladesh and in the state of West Bengal…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 94 November 2017 Rapid urbanisation in India has led to the development of large urban agglomerations. These urban agglomerations, with dense concentration of population and economic activity,…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper by Shilpi Srivastava and Lyla Mehta on mangrove conservation in Kutch, Gujarat. The paper explores power relations, conservation efforts, and the changes and threats to livelihoods of local pastoralists and fishers.
Read moreSTEPS 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…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 98 Experimentation with radically open and collaborative ways of producing knowledge and material artefacts can be found everywhere – from the free/libre and open-source software movement to…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 97 In this paper I perform a discourse analysis of the academic literature on the Green Revolution (GR) in East Africa, governed by two questions: what form…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 96 This paper explores the potential of a range of peri-urban environmentalisms to come together in support of sustainable urbanisation. The present-day ‘urban,’ along with the dominant…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 95 Market-based strategies are increasingly being framed by highlevel stakeholders as ideal means of responding to environmental problems on various scales. As a result, concepts and mechanisms…
Read moreInternational efforts to achieve goals such as universal energy access and climate change mitigation are expected to stimulate billions of dollars of private financial flows to developing countries for clean…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 92 Amid talk of the need for a low carbon ‘clean energy revolution’ to address the challenges of energy poverty and climate change, there is growing academic…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 93 In 2014, China announced an ambitious plan to help alleviate rural poverty through deploying distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in poor areas. The solar energy for…
Read moreIn India, peri-urban areas are too often neglected. Many people live in poverty and face increasing marginalisation and food insecurity. Yet peri-urban agriculture could be a major contributor to poverty…
Read moreSTEPS 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’.
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 89 In this working paper we introduce an area of activity that has flourished for decades in all corners of the globe, namely grassroots innovation for sustainable…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 88 This paper addresses the case of bioenergy development in Emilia Romagna, using and building on a ‘pathways to sustainability’ approach (Leach et al. 2010). It represents…
Read moreSTEPS Centre Working Paper 87 Download this paper (PDF 1 MB) Between the 1970s and 1980s appropriate technology (AT) become a worldwide grassroots innovation movement that sought to redefine technology as a…
Read moreSTEPS Centre Working Paper Series Download this paper here [PDF 918 KB] Given the environmental impacts of China’s current development trajectory and the country’s increasing economic and strategic focus on innovation, China’s progress…
Read moreSTEPS/Future Health Systems Working Paper 85 Download this paper (PDF 760kb) Since the beginning of reforms in the late 1970s, China has developed rapidly, transforming itself into a middle-income country,…
Read moreAs 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…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 84 Download the paper (PDF 898kb) There is growing international concern about the threat to public health of the emergence and spread of bacteria resistant to existing…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 79 Download (PDF) This paper is a study of climate change discourse in urban India. It suggests that the policies being articulated to deal with climate issues…
Read moreWhat drives differing responses to zoonotic diseases? Seven new working papers from the STEPS-led Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium consider understandings around ecosystems and health as they relate…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 82 Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic infection incompletely understood by scientists, pastoralists and policy makers. The irregular intervals at which outbreaks occur make it difficult…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 83 This paper explores the politics of knowledge and disease control for Lassa fever, a zoonotic viral haemorrhagic fever which is endemic in parts of West Africa….
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 81 ‘One Health’ has emerged over the last decade as a key concept guiding international research and policy in the field of emerging infectious diseases such as…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 78 by Andy Stirling Download this paper (PDF) Innovation is about more than technological invention. It involves change of many kinds: cultural, organisational and behavioural as well…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 80 Zoonotic disease has gained international attention since the identification of avian and swine influenza, with academic focus on the modelling of disease emergence, and policy centring…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 72 Adrian Ely, Sam Geall and Yiching Song Download (PDF) China provides a stark and globally significant illustration of how changing patterns of food production and consumption…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 71 David Tyfield, Dennis Zuev, Ping Li and John Urry Download (PDF) China represents a test-case of global significance regarding the challenges of urban mobility transition to…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 70 Frauke Urban and Sam Geall Download (PDF) China is not only the world’s largest energy consumer and greenhouse-gas emitter by volume, but also boasts the largest…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 69 by David Tyfield, Adrian Ely, Frauke Urban, Sam Geall, Dennis Zuev and John Urry Download (PDF) China’s potential transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient or ‘post-carbon’…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 77 by David Ockwell and Rob Byrne Download this paper National systems of innovation (NSIs) provide the context within which all processes of technology development, transfer and…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 76 by David Ockwell and Rob Byrne Download this paper National systems of innovation (NSIs) provide the context within which all processes of technology development, transfer and…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 75 by Shilpi Srivastava and Lyla Mehta Download this paper (PDF) In recent years, the notion of the nexus has gained immense traction in the domain of…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 74 The world is now facing the emergence of new pathogens and the return of old ones at an unprecedented speed. Among the wide range of emerging…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 73 This paper explores the framings of trypanosomiasis, a widespread and potentially fatal zoonotic disease transmitted by tsetse flies (Glossina species) affecting both humans and livestock. This…
Read moreThis paper introduces a new methodological and theoretical foundation for studying the reasons for successes and failures of community-based micro grids (CBMGs). Download this paper (pdf) While technical and financial…
Read moreDownload this paper (PDF) Created in 2004 with the arrival of the new center-left government of the Workers Party in Brazil, the Social Technology Network (STN) aimed at fostering a…
Read moreIn the context of rapid social, ecological and technological change,there is rising global demand from private, public and civic interests for trans-disciplinary sustainability research. This demand is fuelled by an…
Read moreOver the last several years, the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has emerged as an increasingly prominent global policy, governance and research agenda. Water, energy, and food security are often framed to…
Read moreCurrent global environmental policy reverberates with talk of a new “Anthropocene epoch” defined by “human domination”, in which a “perfect storm” of catastrophic threats is forcing “the great transition” towards…
Read moreUsing a combination of insights from innovation studies, socio-technical transitions theory and the STEPS pathways approach, this paper analyses the evolution of the Kenyan photovoltaics (PV) market. Considered by many…
Read moreThis paper undertakes an analysis of the discursive construction of the entrepreneurial identity within media on climate technology (CT) innovation in Kenya. Using the STEPS Centre Pathways Approach along side a post-structuralist…
Read moreThis paper focuses on finance for Solar Home Systems (SHSs) in Kenya and asks to what extent emerging new finance approaches are likely to address the shortcomings of past approaches. …
Read moreSTEPS Centre Working Paper 60 Download this paper (PDF) The ‘impact’ of research has seen a dramatic rise up the UK’s policy agenda in recent years. But what does ‘impact’…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 58 A history and analysis is provided of the movement for socially useful production, which flourished for a brief period in the UK in the 1970s and…
Read moreby Jon Moris STEPS Centre / IDS Working Paper (IDS WP435) This working paper (pdf) argues we need to reimagine development tactics to fashion Development 3.0, to match what business…
Read moreSTEPS Working Paper 57 African trypanosomiasis is a devastating disease, both for humans and animals. Over the last hundred years huge efforts have been made to control it. This paper…
Read moreThis paper analyses the policy context around the Ghana poultry sector with a particular focus on a number of ‘evidence issues’. We identify and probe where there appear to be…
Read moreEnglish Version can be found here: https://steps-centre.org/publication/fire-conflic/ STEPS Working Paper June 2013 A pesar del hecho de que hoy día existe una mayor aceptación del uso del fuego en ecosistemas de…
Read moreThis paper explores the governance and feasibility of globally-linked REDD+ projects in local African settings, focusing on the Kasigau project in Kenya, Africa’s first REDD+ project accredited under internationally accepted…
Read moreOriginal Spanish version can be accessed here: https://steps-centre.org/publication/re-significando-el-fuego-gobernabilidad-reflexiva-y-transformacion-de-conflictos-en-territorios-indigenas-culturalmente-fragiles/ Despite the fact that there is much more acceptance today to the use of fire by indigenous people in forests and savannas ecosystems…
Read moreThe term Livestock Revolution was coined by Delgado et al. (1999c) to highlight accelerated growth in demand for livestock products in parts of the developing world, tied to human population…
Read moreExamining the political economy of knowledge in responses to the 2009-10 influenza pandemic, To Pandemic or Not? Reconfiguring Global Responses to Influenza argues that globally, and in many individual nations, techno-scientific narratives…
Read moreAs REDD-type becomes an integral part of the international response to climate change, it is important to learn from existing forest carbon offset projects to ensure that REDD+ does not…
Read moreIn the context of major scientific and policy concern with the causes and implications of climate change, various actors are now keen to demonstrate how agricultural carbon finance can help…
Read moreChina is not only becoming a significant player in the production of high-tech products, but also an increasingly important contributor of ideas and influence in the global knowledge economy. This…
Read moreUsing the case study of the Kibera slums, this paper takes a medical anthropological approach to discuss and explain the untold and common practice among the urban poor in developing…
Read moreThe relationships between energy and development are complex, compounded by increasingly differentiated situations amongst developing countries and within them. Moreover, the manner in which energy services are realised has consequences…
Read moreThis paper is one of a series of working papers relating regional experiences to ideas proposed by the New Manifesto, following on round table discussions held in Venezuela, Argentina, and…
Read moreAbstracts go here
Read moreResilience is a term that is widely used by scholars from different disciplines who promote action research between science and policy. This paper is largely concerned with how resilience approaches…
Read moreCommunity-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) represents a radical alternative to conventional top-down approaches to sanitation and offers hope of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In contrast to state-led initiatives to improve…
Read moreThe 1970 ‘Sussex Manifesto’ was one of the earliest global policy reports to use statistical data about R&D that were starting to become available on an internationally comparable basis, though…
Read moreMost anti-colonial movements in the second half of the 20th Century promised to provide universal access to health services. The Alma Ata Declaration of 1978 presented a consensus view of…
Read moreThe original “Sussex Manifesto” called for radical change in international debate and action about harnessing science and technology to development. It challenged the commonly accepted global division of labour in…
Read moreIn the face of the pressing challenges posed by hunger, malnutrition and the vulnerability of our food system, it is imperative that radical reforms to the food system are articulated…
Read moreWhether generic ‘silver bullet’ solutions can address complex development problems has been debated for many years. The ‘grand challenge’ extends the idea of the silver bullet in ways that speak…
Read moreIn the 40 years since the original “Sussex Manifesto”, the global landscape of science, technology and innovation has altered radically. The emergence of new centres of innovation in many of…
Read morePerceptions of water as an increasingly scarce resource have gained global dominance, and caused many countries to reform their water legislations. South Africa has positioned itself in the vanguard of…
Read moreAs a country suffering from large-scale AI outbreaks and receiving considerable international support, Vietnam provides a crucial case not to be missed in any analysis of the global AI crisis….
Read moreThailand is centrally located relative to the Avian Influenza epidemic and her response to the disease has important implications for disease control efforts both regionally and globally. A middle income…
Read moreWhy is the response to H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) so challenged in Indonesia? Why did the virus spread so fast, and why has the disease persisted? Are there…
Read moreMany people and organisations have sought to promote genetically modified (GM, transgenic) crops as a ‘pro-poor’ technology. However, developing-country farmers’ experiences with GM crops have been mixed. Some farmers have…
Read moreThe concept of resilience is now capturing high interest across academic, policy and popular debate. In a world where threats – whether linked to climate change, epidemic disease, or fluctuating…
Read moreThe STEPS Rethinking Regulation project is examining the harmonising regulation of two widely available technologies – transgenic cotton seeds and antibiotics – in China and Argentina. We wish to explore…
Read moreOver the last decade, the avian influenza virus, H5N1, has spread across most of Asia and Europe and parts of Africa. In some countries – including Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh,…
Read moreTechnology contributes both positively and negatively to the resilience of ‘social-ecological systems’, but is not considered in depth in that literature. A technology-focused literature on sociotechnical transitions shares some of…
Read moreCutting-edge research on agri-food systems contends that mainstream agricultural science is ill-equipped to address issues of complexity, diversity and uncertainty. The paper tackles this issue looking at animal breeding, an…
Read moreThe challenges of understanding the governance of dynamic social, technological and environmental systems, and thier implications for sustainability and social justice, are addressed.
Read moreThis paper outlines the STEPS Centre approach to understanding dynamic systems and addressing their goverance so as to promote pathways to Sustainabilty that meet the perspectives and priorities of poor and marginalised groups. It lays out the ingredients of the STEPS Centre’s work, including linking diverse social and natural science perspectives, connecting theory, policy and practice and an engaged, interactive approach to communications.
Read moreSpanish (Latin American) translation of Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto.
Read moreThis report explores the role that ‘new models’ of technology assessment can play in improving the lives of poor and vulnerable populations in the developing world. The ‘new models’ addressed…
Read moreThroughout Sub-Saharan Africa, the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic is having devastating and tragic social, economic, and political impacts. HIV/AIDS is both a health issue and a development…
Read more‘Biochar’ is currently the focus of extraordinary levels of both technological optimism and debate. As a substance, biochar refers quite simply to the carbon-rich product that results when biomass –…
Read moreWater and sanitation issues are looming large on the international agenda, not least due to the impetus created by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to halve, by 2015, the proportion…
Read moreChinese (Mandarin) translation of Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto.
Read moreBrazilian Portuguese translation of Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto.
Read moreArabic translation of Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto.
Read moreOur Manifesto project publication is available in print, on CD or to view online. Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto recommends new ways of linking science and innovation to development…
Read moreThis paper summarises the findings of the STEPS Environmental Change and Maize Innovation in Kenya project. Maize is an important staple crop in Kenya, socially, politically and economically. This project…
Read moreThis report summarises the proceedings of the two-day Liquid Dynamics symposium held at the STEPS Centre in Brighton in November 2009. The Water and Sanitation domain of the STEPS Centre…
Read moreThe central challenge in the original Sussex Manifesto centred on massively increasing the developing countries’ scientific and technological capabilities for creating new knowledge and shaping the technologies they used. It…
Read moreNotions of ‘progress’ pervade the modern world. Yet, ‘north’ and ‘south’ alike, policymaking for progress in innovation, sustainability and development tends to be ambiguous. Politicians speak of “the way forward”,…
Read moreThe term “development” is synonymous with economic growth. Theory and empirical evidence suggests decoupling energy use from economic growth is unlikely, implying an urgent need to decarbonise energy use and…
Read moreThis background paper focuses on the potential role that international science and technology ‘foresight-type’ activities might play in informing decision-making processes about innovation, development and emerging technologies. Two, predominantly national-level,…
Read moreThis paper revisits a series of key moments in the last 50 years of UN debates on science and technology for sustainable development. It reflects on the genealogy of tropes…
Read moreThis paper explores what ‘mainstream’ Centres of Excellence might mean for developing countries and poor people. It examines how development is constructed as economic growth with industry and enterprise –…
Read moreThis paper examines some of the many ways in which the peri-urban has been theorised, considering, in particular, the implications for a normative research agenda towards improved environmental and social…
Read moreFloods, droughts, 6,000 babies dying daily due to waterbounre diseases and growing sanitation problems in booming peri-urban and urban centres. No act of terrorism generates devastation on the scale of the crisis in water and sanitation. This paper demonstrates the big disconnect between global rhetoric and the everyday realities of poor and marginalised people.
Read moreCambodia’s experience with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) since the disease was discovered on a farm outside Phnom Penh in January 2004 reveals important aspects of how a developing country…
Read moreWhat does it take to develop a vaccine? This paper explores the technical and institutional conditions that allow reliable knowledge to build up in a series of structured stages from…
Read moreCurrent global health policy is dominated by a preoccupation with infectious diseases and in particular with emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases that threaten to ‘break out’ of established patterns of…
Read moreCurrent global health policy is dominated by a preoccupation with infectious diseases and in particular with emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases that threaten to ‘break out’ of established patterns of…
Read moreHaemorrhagic fevers have, par excellence, captured popular and media imagination as deadly diseases to come ‘out of Africa’. Associated with wildlife vectors in forested environments, viral haemorrhagic fevers such as…
Read moreThis working paper by Dominic Glover is about the social construction and social shaping of agricultural biotechnology in relation to international development. Genetically modified (GM, transgenic) crops have come to…
Read moreFrench translation of Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto.
Read moreDynamism, uncertainty and complexity dominate today’s world. Yet many policy interventions ignore this, and so often fail. What is missing is a rigorous and systematic approach to addressing dynamics, one…
Read moreThe world has faced a number of health major health challenges over the past few decades – HIV, pollution, chronic illness, SARS. We need national and global health systems that take into account complex interactions between ecology, technology and social organisation.
Read moreThe ‘modernist’ project that has come to dominate food and agricultural policy has failed to provide sustainable outcomes for many poor people in developing countries. Countering orthodox notions, this paper makes a case for a deeper understanding of diverse ‘rural worlds’ in an era of short-terms shocks and long-terms stresses like climate change.
Read moreThe challenges of designing new frameworks for social appraisal aimed at sustainability and social justice are reviewed by this paper.
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