publications
We are committed to making our work as accessible as possible, so all STEPS Centre publications are published under a Creative Commons licence and can be downloaded for free in pdf format.
Background paper / Emerging Technologies and Opportunities for International Science and Technology Foresight
By Patrick Van Zwanenberg, Adrian Ely, Andy Stirling
This background paper focuses on the potential role that international science and technology ‘foresight-type’ activities might play in informing decision-making processes about innovation, development and emerging technologies.
Background paper / Going with the Flow? Directions of Innovation in the Water
By Synne Movik and Lyla Mehta
Water and sanitation issues are looming large on the international agenda, not least due to the impetus created by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the world’s population who do not have access to clean water and adequate sanitation.
Background paper / Science and Technology for Health: Towards Universal Access in a Changing World
By Gerald Bloom
Most anti-colonial movements in the second half of the 20th Century promised to provide universal access to health services. The Alma Ata Declaration of 1978 presented a consensus view of how governments could deliver on this promise.
Background paper / Reforming the Global Food and Agriculture System: Towards a Questioning Agenda for the New Manifesto
By Erik Millstone, John Thompson, Sally Brooks
In the face of the pressing challenges posed by hunger, malnutrition and the vulnerability of our food system, it is imperative that radical reforms to the food system are articulated and implemented.
Background paper / Manifesting Utopia: History and Philosophy of UN Debates on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development
By Esha Shah
This paper revisits a series of key moments in the last 50 years of UN debates on science and technology for sustainable development. It reflects on the genealogy of tropes of development and the ways in which these have been equated with science, technology, and innovation.
Background paper / Silver Bullets, Grand Challenges and the New Philanthropy
By Sally Brooks, Melissa Leach, Henry Lucas, Erik Millstone
Whether generic ‘silver bullet’ solutions can address complex development problems has been debated for many years.
