Welcome to the STEPS centre website

Who benefits from GM crops? Will we have enough water to last this century? What are the implications of the HIV/Aids pandemic?

In an era of unprecedented social, environmental and technological change STEPS (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) is linking environmental sustainability and technology with poverty reduction and social justice.

We are a global research and policy engagement centre, funded by the ESRC, bringing together development studies with science and technology studies.

 

New on the site

New! Biotechnology Research Archive

Our Biotechnology Research Archive spanning 10 years of research and a new paper on Bt Cotton by Dominic Glover are launched at a 'Dangerous Ideas in Development' event in London on June 10.
Biotechnology Research Archive
Working Paper: Undying Promise: Agricultural Biotechnology's Pro-Poor Narrative, Ten Years On
Briefing: Transgenic cotton; a 'pro-poor' success?
Ian Scoones' backgrounder, GM Crops: 10 Years On
Dominic Glover on the Undying Promise
id21 Viewpoints: GM Crops
Eldis Biotechnology Key Issues Guide
Podcast: GM Crops and the Global Food Crisis event, June 10
Photos from GM Crops event in Parliament

Swine Flu: Governing global health in an age of epidemics

Will an ‘active, aggressive, and coordinated response’ to swine flu work? Ian Scoones, STEPS Co-director, writes in The Guardian on the emerging infectious disease.
Ian Scoones on Swine Flu's emerging lessons
Our blogs on swine flu
Our Epidemics project
Melissa Leach on disease dynamics in Sierra Leone
Epidemics for all? Our project featured in Health reporter
Working papers on Epidemics, Ebola and Avian Flu
Slideshare: Erik Millstone on Obesity and Jerker Edstrom on AIDS

Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto

The STEPS Centre and its partners are launching a new project on innovation for development, 40 years after the Sussex Manifesto helped shape modern thinking on science and technology for development.
New! Roundtable event in Kathmandu, Nepal
Arie Rip's Manifesto Seminar presentation, video and audio
Watch Geoff Oldham's Sussex Manifesto seminar

 

On the blog: From the forests of Sierra Leone

Melissa Leach blogs on ecology and infectious disease dynamics during an emotional return visit to Sierra Leone. Plus the World Water Forum, avian flu and making health markets work for poor people.

Avian 'flu in SE Asia - new publications

Four new papers on the political economy of avian flu in Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and Viet Nam have just been published as part of a STEPS-affiliated project, supported by the FAO.
New SE Asia publications
Avian Flu Working Paper and briefing
Epidemics project: pathways of disease and response

Environmental change and maize in Kenya

Maize is an important staple crop in Kenya, socially, politically and economically. Our project uses maize to explore responses to climate change, market uncertainties and land use changes over time.
Photos from our maize fieldwork

Farmer First Revisited book and event

Farmers are in the front line of climate change, globalization and food security. This new book - launched in Nairobi by UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner - calls for a major rethinking of agricultural R&D focussing on farmer-led innovations.
22 April - London book launch and Dangerous Ideas seminar
Photos from Nairobi book launch
Multimedia & wiki-timeline, podcasts, papers, radio & photos from Farmer First Revisited workshop

Just published

Among the latest STEPS Working Papers to be published are four SE Asian country studies of avian flu, Regulation, GM Crops, Resilience, Ebola, Epidemics and Transitions.
Bite-sized briefings are available as companions to our Papers

Water and sanitation

The STEPS water team has been busy - participating in the World Water Forum, following on from the CLTS conference on the mobilisationof communities to eliminate open defecation.
Blog from World Water Forum in Istanbul
CLTS conference
Photos from the CLTS conference

Today's landfills, tomorrow's housing estates

A growing proportion of the world's poor and marginalised citizens live on the rapidly expanding fringes of larges cities. Our new project explores sustainability challenges in peri-urban Delhi.
Fiona Marshall blog: What does peri-urban sustainability mean in the context of Delhi?

Care to share?

Our Slideshare page makes it even easier to download and share presentations from our seminar series and more, including Andy Stirling on the governance of technological vulnerability.
New! Jo Chataway on Below the Radar Innovation

Reframing Resilience

The STEPS Centre has been engaging with resilience thinking and exploring practical implications for policy in agriculture, water, peri-urban dynamics, epidemics and regulation
New! Resilience working paper and briefing
Resilience resources for the STEPS Symposium

STEPS Seminar Series: Spring 2009

Francis Johnson, Fred Steward and Fabian Scholtes have kicked off our 2008-09 seminar series. Podcasts, presentations, photos and blogs from our seminars are available on the STEPS seminar page.
Material from previous STEPS seminars
Upcoming events

Hitting the headlines

Reuters, BBC World Service, International Herald Tribune, New Era, the Guardian, New Scientist, New Agriculturist, The Lancet and AllAfrica.com are among the media outlets who have covered our work recently.
Ian Scoones talks to Veterinary Times on livestock revolution
Melissa Leach talks to The Lancet about STEPS' work
Sign up for our daily Media Briefing

Kofi Annan backs our work on a 'Green Revolution in Africa'

Kofi Annan chaired a new vision for agricultural development in Africa conference, hosted by STEPS affiliate the Future Agricultures Consortium and the Salzburg Global Seminar.
Newsletters, media, photos, blog and more from this event
UN World Food Summit: news and views on our blog

STEPS video channel: bringing our work to life

Watch people involved different aspects of the STEPS Centre's work explain thier views on our YouTube channel.
Our video

Rethinking regulation in China and Argentina

One of our five flagship projects is comparing the regulation of two technologies - transgenic cotton seeds and antibiotics - with the way those technologies are experienced amongst poorer communities in rural Argentina and rural China.
Reconsideración de la normativa: las semillas y las drogas en China y Argentina

Bamako 2008: Health pathways for the poor

The 2008 Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health is the culmination of 20 years of global efforts to focus research towards improving the health of poor people. Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones have contributed to a new book launched at Bamako
New! Eldis resource guide on future primary health care
STEPS health work
How we work with our health affiliates
Gerry Bloom on health challenges in rural China

Update: Livestock revolution

A new workshop report and a presentation by William Wolmer on trends, challenge and opportunities for rural devlopment and livestock in Botswana. Part of our project on policy options for trade, veterinary and food safety standards, disease control and management in southern Africa.
William Wolmer - Rural development and Livestock
Policy briefings / Briefings Politique
Pretoria workshop
Video interview

 

More news

• STEPS news page
• Debating the Future: Ian Scoones on the IAASTD
• Sanitation Scandal: World Water Week
• The Knowledge Society Debates The STEPS Centre held a series of events across India in January 2009 asking what ‘knowledge society’ means and whose knowledge counts in building science and technology futures?
• Call for papers: The Publics of Public Health. On politics, ethos and economy of 21st century African bioscience. Kilifi, Kenya, 7-11 Dec 2009 (pdf 138kb)
• Find out about our affiliate partners
• Sanitation Scandal - the priorities for World Water Week 2008
• Avian 'flu: the politics and policy processes of a global response - a new STEPS affiliate project with FAO and DFID
• Building pathways to a more secure future Melissa Leach writes for the ESRC's The Edge magazine on securing a safer, sustainable and more equitable world
• Accommodating dissent Melissa Leach argues in Nature magazine and on the Nature podcast
• What's the Beef? Ian Scoones talks to Developments Magazine
• Beefing up for a Revolution IRIN, Africa, cover our work
• Focus on water, sanitation and hygiene To mark UN Sanitation and Hygiene Week, our researchers and partners have written about the challenges ahead
• Journal articles by STEPS members
  
  

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