Publications
In this section of the site you can access all of our published work from books and reports to booklets, briefings and journal articles.
We are committed to making our work as accessible as possible, so STEPS Centre publications are published under a Creative Commons licence and many can be downloaded for free in pdf format.
You can also order publications via the IDS bookshop, by email or by phone (+ 44 (0)1273 678269). If you can’t find what you want, please email steps-centre@ids.ac.uk.
Latest resources
See STEPS Centre Working Papers section below for full details and to download or order the publications.
A series of new Working Papers 22-34 ,written as background papers for Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto
Latest Working Paper: Maize
Environmental Change and Maize Innovation in Kenya:
Exploring Pathways In and Out of Maize (pdf 817kb)
STEPS Centre briefings
Each Working Paper is accompanied by a short and easy-to-read companion, in the briefing section below
Policy briefings
Our first set of policy briefings, on the southern African livestock market, are in the policy briefing section below.
STEPS Centre Working Papers
STEPS Centre Approach Paper
Pathways to Sustainability: an overview of the STEPS Centre approach (pdf 694kb)
By Melissa Leach, Ian Scoones and Andy Stirling
This 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
- Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop, cost £5.00 per paper or order set of the first seven STEPS titles for £20.00
- Read a summary of this paper
- Read the briefing of this paper (pdf 218kb)
STEPS Working Paper 1: Dynamics
Dynamic Systems and the Challenge of Sustainability (pdf 861kb)
Ian Scoones, Melissa Leach, Adrian Smith, Sigrid Stagl, Andy Stirling, John Thompson
Dynamism, 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 that encompasses an understanding of complex system dynamics and provides a useable guide to action.
- Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop, cost £5.00 per paper or order set of the first seven STEPS titles for £20.00
- Read a summary of this paper
- Read the briefing for this paper (pdf 320kb)
STEPS Working Paper 2: Governance
Understanding Governance: pathways to sustainability(pdf 519kb)
Melisa Leach, Gerald Bloom, Adrian Ely, Paul Nightingale, Ian Scoones, Esha Shah,
Adrian Smith
The challenges of understanding the governance of dynamic social, technological and environmental systems, and thier implications for sustainability and social justice, are addressed.
- Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop, cost £5.00 per paper or order set of the first seven STEPS titles for £20.00
- Read a summary of this paper
- Read the briefing of this paper (pdf245kb)
STEPS Working Paper 3: Designs
Empowering Designs: steps towards more progressive social appraisal of sustainability
(pdf 2,311kb)
Andy Stirling, Melissa Leach, Lyla Mehta, Ian Scoones, Adrian Smith, Sigrid Stagl,
John Thompson
The challenges of designing new frameworks for social appraisal aimed at sustainability and social justice are reviewed by this paper.
- Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop, cost £5.00 per paper or order set of the first seven STEPS titles for £20.00
- Read a summary of this paper
STEPS Working Paper 4: Agriculture & Food
Agri-Food System Dynamics: pathways to sustainability in an era of uncertainty (pdf 759kb)
By John Thompson, Erik Millstone, Ian Scoones, Adrian Ely, Fiona Marshall, Esha Shah, Sigrid Stagl
The '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
- Appendix to Working Paper 4 (pdf 51kb)
- Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop, cost £5.00 per paper or order set of the first seven STEPS titles for £20.00
- Read a summary of this paper
STEPS Working Paper 5: Health
Health in a Dynamic World (pdf 334kb)
By Gerald Bloom, Jerker Edstrom, Melissa Leach, Henry Lucas, Hayley MacGregor, Hilary Standing, Linda Waldman
The 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.
- Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop, cost £5.00 per paper or order set of the first seven STEPS titles for £20.00
- Read a summary of this paper
STEPS Working Paper 6: Water
Liquid Dynamics: challenges for sustainability in water and sanitation (pdf 566kb)
Lyla Mehta, Fiona Marshall, Synne Movik, Andy Stirling, Esha Shah, Adrian Smith,
John Thompson
Floods, 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 there is a big disconnect between global rhetoric and the everyday realities of poor and marginalised people.
- Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop, cost £5.00 per paper or order set of the first seven STEPS titles for £20.00
- Read a summary of this paper
Set of seven STEPS Working Papers
Setting out the STEPS approach to our three domains and three themes, the series has an accompanying overview booklet by Melissa Leach, Ian Scoones and Andy Stirling. The set of the first seven STEPS Working Papers can be ordered from the bookshop for the special price of £20.
STEPS Working Paper 7: Herders
Time to outbreed animal science? A cattle-breeding system exploiting structural unpredictability: the WoDaaBe herders in Niger (pdf 244kb)
Saverio Krätli
Cutting-edge research on agri-food systems contends that modern agricultural science is ill-equipped to address issues of complexity, diversity and uncertainty. Krätli's paper tackles this issue, arguing that the breeding/production systems run by the WoDaaBe (exploiting unpredictability as a resource, selecting extended inheritance and oriented towards high reliability) embeds a form of intensified animal production that is only marginally and incompletely represented by the current scientifc model of animal breeding. Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop cost £5.00
STEPS Working Paper 8: Transitions
Social-ecological resilience and socio-technical transitions: critical issues for sustainability governance,
(pdf 763kb)
Adrian Smith and Andy Stirling
Technology 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 the complex adaptive systems sensibilities of social-ecological systems research. It is considered
by others to provide a bridging opportunity to share lessons
concerning the governance of both. We contend that lessons must
not be restricted to advocacy of flexible, learning-oriented
approaches, but must also be open to the critical challenges that
confront these approaches.
Only available online, free to download.
Need help with downloading? See our help page
STEPS Working Paper 9: Epidemics
Epidemics for all? Governing Health in a Global Age (pdf 513kb)
By Sarah Dry
Current 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 prevalence or virulence into new areas and new victims. This paper seeks to link a set of dominant narratives about epidemics and infectious disease with what is often called the architecture, or organizational landscape, of global health policy.
Only available online, free to download.
Need help with downloading? See our help page
Read a briefing of this paper
STEPS Working Paper 10: Avian Flu
The International Response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Science, Policy and Politics (pdf 2MB)
By Ian Scoones and Paul Forster
Over the last decade, the avian influenza virus, H5N1, has spread across most of Asia and Europe and parts of Africa. There has, as yet, been no human pandemic, although 245 deaths have been reported since 2003. A major international response has been launched, backed by over $2 billion of public money. Huge numbers of poultry have been culled, vaccination campaigns have been implemented and markets have been restructured. These efforts have affected the livelihoods and businesses of millions. This paper asks: what lessons can we learn from this experience, and what does this mean for future efforts to respond to emerging infectious diseases under the One World, One Health initiative?
Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop, cost £5.00
Read a briefing of this paper
STEPS Working Paper 11: GM Crops
Made by Monsanto: the Corporate Shaping of GM Crops as a Technology for the Poor (pdf 447kb)
By Dominic Glover
This working paper is about the social construction and social shaping of agricultural
biotechnology in relation to international development. Genetically modified (GM,
transgenic) crops have come to occupy a prominent place in contemporary debates on agricultural development, in relation to a diverse range of issues including productivity and economic growth, food security and nutrition, sustainability and climate change. Yet the types of GM crops and traits currently on the market are
widely acknowledged to have been designed to meet the needs of farmers in industrialised countries and to offer little to small-scale farmers in the developing world.
Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop cost £5.00
STEPS Working Paper 12: Regulation
Rethinking regulation: International Harmonisation and Local Realities (pdf 607kb)
By Patrick van Zwanenberg, Adrian Ely and Adrian Smith
The 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 how regulation - in terms of property/access and quality/risk - overlaps, compares and contrasts with the way poorer user experience these properties. As the initial step in this project, this working paper provideas an overview of the project's objectives and a discussion of two relevant bodies of literature.
Order a copy of paper from the IDS bookshop cost £5.00
STEPS Working Paper 13: Resilience
Re-framing Resilience: Trans-disciplinarity, Reflexivity and Progressive Sustainability – a Symposium Report (pdf 496kb)
Edited by Melissa Leach
How does resilience intersect with development and debates about it? What insights does resilience thinking bring to understanding
and action concerned with reducing poverty, vulnerability and marginalisation? What are some of the frontier challenges, tensions and gaps as resilience thinking engages with perspectives and debates from other angles and disciplines? The STEPS Centre Symposium, held at Sussex University from 24-25 September 2008, set out to explore these questions, and to consider their implications for practical policy challenges in fields such as climate change adaptation, agricultural innovation,
pharmaceutical and seed regulation, dealing with disease
epidemics, water management and peri-urban transitions.
Only available online, free to download.
Need help with downloading? See our help page
STEPS Working Paper 14: Ebola
Haemorrhagic Fevers in Africa: Narratives, Politics and Pathways of Disease and
Response (pdf 480kb)
By Melissa Leach
Haemorrhagic fevers have 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 Ebola, Marburg and lassa fever figure high in current concern about so-called ‘emerging infectious diseases’, their hotspots of origin and threat of global spread. Outbreak narratives have justified rapid and sometimes draconian international policy responses and control measures. Yet there is a variety of other ways of framing haemorrhagic fevers. This paper contrasts global
outbreak narratives with three others which consider haemorrhagic
fevers as deadly local disease events, in terms of culture and context, and in terms of long-term social and environmental dynamics. It considers the pathways of disease response associated with each, and how they might be better integrated to deal with haemorrhagic fevers in more effective, Sustainable and socially just ways.
Only available online, free to download
Need help with downloading? See our help page
STEPS Working Paper 15 - Bt Cotton
Undying Promise: Agricultural Biotechnology's Pro-poor Narrative, Ten Years On (pdf 904kb)
by Dominic Glover
STEPS Working Paper 16 - Cambodia
Cambodia’s Victim Zero: Global and National Responses to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (pdf 2MB)
By
Sophal Ear
STEPS Working Paper 17 - Indonesia
The Political Economy of Avian Influenza in Indonesia by Paul Forster (pdf 1MB)
by Paul Forster
STEPS Working Paper 18 - Thailand
The Political Economy of Avian Influenza in Thailand (pdf 834kb)
by Rachel M. Safman
STEPS Working Paper 19 - Vietnam
The Political Economy of Avian Influenza Response and Control in Vietnam (pdf 775kb)
by Tuong Vu
STEPS Working Paper 20 - Vaccines
Knowledge Accumulation and the Development of Poliomyelitis Vaccines (pdf 515kb)
by Ohid Yaqub
ISBN: 978 1 85864 766 5
STEPS Working Paper 21 - Reform
The Dynamics and Discourses of Water Allocation Reform in South Africa (pdf 1,867kb)
by Synne Movik
ISBN: 978 15684 775 5
Read a briefing of this paper
Working Papers 22-34 (below) were written as background papers for Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto. This set of papers are available online only and are free to download
Need help with downloading? See our help page
STEPS Working Paper 22 - Redistribution
The Global Redistribution of Innovation: Lessons from China and India
by Adrian Ely and Ian Scoones
ISBN: 978 1 85864 779 7
STEPS Working Paper 23 - Capacity
Centres of Excellence? Questions of Capacity for Innovation, Sustainability, Development
By Melissa Leach and Linda Waldman
ISBN: 978 1 85864 780 0
STEPS Working Paper 24 - Philanthropy
Silver Bullets, Grand Challenges and the New Philanthropy
Sally Brooks, Melissa Leach, Henry Lucas and Erik Millstone
ISBN: 978 1 85864 781 9
STEPS Working Paper 25 - UN debates
Manifesting Utopia: History and Philosophy of UN Debates on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development
by Esha Shah
ISBN: 978 1 85864 782 7
STEPS Working Paper 26 - Agriculture
Reforming the Global Food and Agriculture System: Towards a Questioning Agenda for the New Manifesto
by Erik MIllstone, John Thompson and Sally Brooks
ISBN: 978 1 85864 783 5
STEPS Working Paper 27 - Retrospective
The Original ‘Sussex Manifesto’: Its Past and Future Relevance
by Adrian Ely and Martin Bell
ISBN: 978 1 85864 786 X
STEPS Working Paper 28 - Health
Science and Technology for Health: Towards Universal Access in a Changing World
by Gerald Bloom
ISBN: 978 1 85864 787 8
STEPS Working Paper 29 - Water
Going with the Flow? Directions of Innovation in the Water and Sanitation Domain
by Synne Movik and Lyla Mehta
ISBN: 978 1 85864 788 6
STEPS Working Paper 30 - Foresight
Emerging Technologies and Opportunities for International Science and Technology Foresight
by Patirck Van Zwanenberg, Adrian Ely, and Andy Stirling
ISBN: 978 1 85864 789 4
STEPS Working Paper 31- Energy
Low Carbon Development: The Role of Local Innovative Capabilitiesby David Ockwell, Adrian Ely, Alexandra Mallett, Oliver Johnson and Jim Watson
ISBN: 978 1 85864 790 8
STEPS Working Paper 32 - 3Ds
Direction, Distribution and Diversity! Pluralising Progress in Innovation, Sustainability and Development
by Andy Stirling
ISBN: 978 1 85864 791 6
STEPS Working Paper 33 - Capabilities
Innovation Capabilities and Directions of Development
by Martin Bell
ISBN: 978 1 85864 792 4
COMING SOON - STEPS Working Paper 34 - Policy tools
Innovation Statistics and Innovation System Models: Policy Tools and Policy-making in Developing Countries
by Martin Bell
978 1 85864 793 2
STEPS Working Paper 35 - Peri-Urban
On the Edge of Sustainability: Perspectives on Peri-urban
Dynamics (pdf 640kb)
by Fiona Marshall, Linda Waldman, Hayley MacGregor, Lyla Mehta and Pritpal Randhawa
ISBN: 978 1 85864 794 0
Printed copies of this paper can be ordered from the IDS bookshop cost £5.00
STEPS Working Paper 36 - Maize
Environmental Change and Maize Innovation in Kenya:
Exploring Pathways In and Out of Maize (pdf 817kb)
by Sally Brooks, John Thompson, Hannington Odame, Betty Kibaara, Serah Nderitu, Francis Karin and Erik Millstone
ISBN: 978 1 85864 903 X
STEPS Centre briefings
STEPS briefing 1: Dynamic systems and development challenges
Ian Scoones
Download this briefing (pdf 320kb)
STEPS briefing 2: Governance and pathways to Sustainability
Melissa Leach
Download this briefing (pdf 345kb)
STEPS briefing 4: Agri-food System Dynamics for Sustainability
Sally Brooks
Download this briefing (pdf 273kb)
STEPS briefing 5: Health in a Dynamic World
Gerry Bloom
Download this briefing (pdf 210kb)
STEPS briefing 6: Liquid Dynamics: Challenges for Sustainability in water and sanitation
Lyla Mehta
Download this briefing (pdf 243kb)
STEPS briefing 7: Pathways to Sustainability: the STEPS Centre approach
Melissa Leach
Download this briefing (pdf 218kb)
STEPS briefing 9: Epidemics for all? Governing health in a global age
Sarah Dry
Download this briefing (pdf 222kb)
STEPS briefing 10: One World, One Health? Learning from the International Response to Avian Influenza
Ian Scoones and Paul Forster
Download this briefing (pdf 214kb)
STEPS briefing 11: GM Crops - a 'pro-poor' technology?
Dominic Glover
Download this briefing (pdf 230kb)
STEPS briefing 13: Reframing Resilience
Melissa Leach
Download this briefing (pdf 206kb)
STEPS briefing 15: Transgenic cotton: a 'pro-poor' success
Dominic Glover
Download this briefing (pdf 246kb)
STEPS briefing 21: Reforming water rights: dynamics, discourses and risks
Synne Movik
Download this briefing (pdf 240kb)
Policy briefings / Briefings Politique
SADC region
Challenges for the beef industry in southern Africa (pdf 786kb)
BRIEFING POLITIQUE: Les défis de l’industrie bovine en Afrique australe (pdf 803kb)
The full set of policy briefings from this project, Veterinary Science, Transboundary Animal Disease and Market Access
Books
Vaccine Anxieties: Global Science, Child Health and Society
By Melissa Leach and James Fairhead (2007)
Vaccine Anxieties explores how parents understand and engage with childhood vaccination in contrasting global contexts. This rapidly advancing and universal technology has sparked dramatic controversy, whether over MMR in the UK or oral polio vaccines in Nigeria.
Buy online at the special 10% off price of £17.99
Community-based Natural Resource Management in South Asia
NGOs today, as part of civil society, have come to play a prominent role in South Asia in the context of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). This book examines the theory and practice of NGO-driven CBNRM within the framework of emerging critiques of dominant discourses of development, the micro-politics of decentralisation and the projection of community development.Co-authored by STEPS member Esha Shah. Buy online £18.99
Journal articles by STEPS members
Biosecurity, bioterrorism and the governance of science:
The increasing convergence of science and security policy
Caitrıona McLeish and Paul Nightingale (pdf 344kb) October 2007
Sustainability Ian Scoones Development In Practice August 2007
Grassroots innovations for sustainable development: Towards a new research and policy agenda. Adrian Smith and Gill Seyfang
Environmental Politics 01 August 2007
Translating Sustainabilities between Green Niches and
Socio-Technical Regimes. Adrian Smith
Technology Analysis & Strategic Management. 01 July 2007
Managing complex adaptive systems - A co-evolutionary
perspective on natural resource management Christian Rammel, Sigrid Stagl, Harald Wilfing
Ecological Economics, 63 (2007) 9-2, April 2007
Theoretical foundations of learning processes for sustainable development Sigrid Stagl
International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 14 (2007) 1–11, February 2007
The governance of sustainable socio-technical transitions.(pdf 318kb) Adrian Smith, Andy Stirling and Frans Berkhout
Research Policy Volume 34, Issue 10, December 2005
The Alternative Technology Movement: An Analysis of its
Framing and Negotiation of Technology Development (pdf 164kb)
Adrian Smith. Human Ecology Review, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2005
Publications by topic
Go to our publications by topic page
Key resources
STEPS Centre Working Papers
Setting out the STEPS approach to our three domains and three themes, the series has an accompanying overview booklet by Melissa Leach, Ian Scoones and Andy Stirling. The set of seven can be ordered from the bookshop for £2 (or £5 each)
The IDS bookshop
The IDS Bookshop gives access to all STEPS Centre publications and all other IDS work.
You can search the IDS online catalogue publications from IDS by author, title, keyword, theme or series and check out new publications and the bestsellers list.
Or you can ring the IDS order hotline number on:
+ 44 (0)1273 678269 or e-mail: bookshop@ids.ac.uk for any information about our publications, books or subscriptions.
Creative Commons licence
STEPS Centre publications are published under a Creative Commons Licence. To find out more click on the link below.
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Iridimi refugee camp, Chad / Sven Torfinn / Panos |
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