The STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) was an interdisciplinary research centre hosted at the University of Sussex, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The Centre's research brought together development studies with science and technology studies. It was launched at Portcullis House in London on 25 June 2007[1] and closed in 2022.

The STEPS Centre described its aim as to "highlight, reveal and contribute to just and democratic pathways to sustainability that include the needs, knowledge and perspectives of poor and marginalised people". Based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, the centre worked with partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Professor Ian Scoones[2] and Professor Andy Stirling[3] were its co-directors. Professor Melissa Leach[4][5] stepped down as STEPS Director in 2014 to become the Director of the Institute of Development Studies.[6]

Areas of work

The STEPS Centre's research investigated the politics of sustainability in various domains, including climate change, food systems, urbanization, and technology.[7] It focused on the perspectives and needs of marginalized people, particularly in poor countries and settings, as well as methodologies for including these priorities in policy appraisal and decision-making. [8]

In the final four years of its research program, the STEPS Centre focused on a series of themes with implications for the politics of sustainability. These themes included transformations and social change, uncertainty and other forms of incertitude, multiple perspectives on nature and the environment, and methodologies for research and appraisal.

Pathways approach

The STEPS Centre's pathways approach[9] aims to understand the complex, non-linear interactions between social, technological and environmental systems. Some pathways may threaten poor peoples' livelihoods and health while others create opportunities for sustainability.

The pathways approach draws attention to the influence of power in determining which narratives and problem framings are dominant in areas such as climate policy, conservation, technological innovation or agriculture, which pathways are pursued or neglected, and the appropriateness of different methodologies to highlight uncertainties, plural perspectives and values, and alternative actions.

A paper published in 2007 entitled Pathways to Sustainability: an Overview of the STEPS Centre Approach[10] outlined the STEPS Centre approach to understanding dynamic systems and their governance. The paper laid 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. Promoting pathways to sustainability that meet the perspectives and priorities of poor and marginalised groups is the heart of the pathways approach.

Projects

Among the STEPS Centre's projects are:

•Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto (40 years on from the Sussex Manifesto)

• Crop, disease and innovation in Kenya - Maize and farming system dynamics in areas affected by climate change

• Urbanisation in Asia - urbanisation and sustainability on the expanding peri-urban fringe of Delhi, India

• Rethinking regulation - assumptions and realities of drug and seed regulation in China and Argentina

• Risk, uncertainty and technology - framing and responses to risks and uncertainties in areas of rapid scientific and technological advance

• Epidemics, livelihoods and politics - HIV-AIDS, SARS, 'avian flu, BSE - procedures for addressing epidemics that support rather than compromise poor people

Further reading

  • Dynamic Sustainabilities: Technology, Environment, Social Justice

By Leach. M, Scoones, I. and Stirling, A. (2010) ISBN 978-1-84971-093-0

  • Pathways to Sustainability: an overview of the STEPS Centre approach

By Leach. M., Scoones, I. and Stirling, A. (2007) ISBN 978-1-85864-656-5

  • Dynamics: Dynamic Systems and the Challenge of Sustainability

By Scoones, I., Leach, M., Smith, A., Stagl, S., Stirling, A. and Thompson, J. (2007) ISBN 978-1-85864-650-3

  • Understanding Governance: pathways to sustainability

By Leach, M., Bloom, G., Ely, A., Nightingale, P., Scoones, I., Shah, E. and Smith, A. (2007) – ISBN 978-1-85864-651-0

  • Empowering Designs: towards more progressive appraisal of sustainability

By Stirling, A., Leach, M., Mehta, L., Scoones, I., Smith, A., Stagl, S. and Thompson, J. (2007) ISBN 978-1-85864-652-7

  • Agri-food System Dynamics: pathways to sustainability in an era of uncertainty

By Thompson, J., Millstone, E., Scoones, I., Ely, A., Marshall, F., Shah, E.and Stagl, S. (2007) ISBN 978-1-85864-653-4

  • Health in a Dynamic World

By Bloom, G., Edström, J., Leach, M., Lucas, H., MacGregor, H., Standing, H. and Waldman, L. (2007) ISBN 978-1-85864-654-1

  • Liquid Dynamics: challenges for sustainability in water and sanitation

By Mehta, L., Marshall, F., Movik, S., Stirling, A., Shah, E., Smith, A. and Thompson, J. (2007) ISBN 978-1-85864-655-8

By Krätli, S. (2008) The ISBN printed in the document (978 1 85864 699 5) is invalid, causing a checksum error.

  • The Slow Race: Making technology work for the poor

By Melissa Leach, Ian Scoones (2006) Demos pamphlet ISBN 1-84180-162-3

References

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