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 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 get in touch.
Latest resources
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 Centre briefings: our first digested reads in the briefing section below
Policy briefings: our first set of policy briefings, on the southern African livestock market, in the policy briefing section below
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
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 the set of 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 the set of 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 the set of 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 the set of 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 the set of 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 the set of 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 the set of 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 seven can be ordered from the bookshop for the special price of £20.
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 7: Pathways to Sustainability: the STEPS Centre approach
Melissa Leach
Download this briefing (pdf 218kb)
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
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
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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