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

Cover of Saverio Kratli's STEPS working paperTime 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 Approach briefing

STEPS Centre briefings: our first digested reads in the briefing section below

 

 

 

 

Briefing

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

vaccine anxietiesBy 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

Esha Shah book coverBy Ajit Menon, Praveen Singh, Esha Shah, Sharachachandra Lele, Suhas Paranjape and Kj Joy (2007)

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

approach paper coverPathways 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

STEPS Working Paper 1: Dynamics

Dynamics paper coverDynamic 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.

STEPS Working Paper 2: Governance

Governance paper coverUnderstanding 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.

 

STEPS Working Paper 3: Designs

Designs paper coverEmpowering 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.

STEPS Working Paper 4: Agriculture & Food

Agriculture paper coverAgri-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

STEPS Working Paper 5: Health

Health paper coverHealth 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.

 

STEPS Working Paper 6: Water

Water paper coverLiquid 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.

 

Set of seven STEPS Working Papers

working paper covers 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

cover of STEPS briefing 1: Dynamics

Ian Scoones
Download this briefing (pdf 320kb)

 

 


 

STEPS briefing 2: Governance and pathways to Sustainability
cover of Governance briefing

 

Melissa Leach
Download this briefing (pdf 345kb)


 


 

STEPS briefing 4: Agri-food System Dynamics for Sustainability
Agri-food system dynamics briefing cover

 

Sally Brooks
Download this briefing (pdf 273kb)



 

 

STEPS briefing 7: Pathways to Sustainability: the STEPS Centre approach

cover of STEPS briefing 7: Approach

Melissa Leach
Download this briefing (pdf 218kb)

 


BriefingPolicy 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

working paper covers 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.

Creative Commons LicenseCreative Commons Licence.


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Iridimi refugee camp, Chad

Iridimi refugee camp, Chad / Sven Torfinn / Panos

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