Governance, Power and Participation

Our research on governance, power relations, participation and citizen engagement, informs change processes in pursuit of social justice and social change. With power and politics central to our analysis, we support the generation of new evidence that contributes to improved processes for good governance, citizen engagement, empowerment and accountability.

We pioneer new ways of working with governments, communities, activists and academics, to understand the complex relationships and processes that exist across states, markets, and citizens, and between formal and informal institutions, to tackle issues such as digital inequalities, women’s participation and empowerment, decentralisation and local governance, rapid urbanisation, migration, taxation and domestic resource mobilisation, food security and hunger and nutrition. These draw on our extensive expertise in complex approaches to how change happens.  Through our research and policy partnerships we are also bringing new insights on the role that rising powers and emerging economies such as China and Brazil have in relation to global governance and tackling development challenges such as sustainability and poverty.  Our world-renown participatory research has a particular emphasis on systematic social exclusion facing women, people living in extreme poverty, people with disabilities, slaves bonded labourers, indigenous peoples and others. We advance cutting edge methodological development in action research, participatory visual methods, participatory mapping, participatory statistics, participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) amongst others.

People

Danny Burns

Professorial Research Fellow

Anuradha Joshi

Research Fellow

Shandana Khan Mohmand

Cluster leader and Research Fellow

Miguel Loureiro

Research Fellow

Patta Scott-Villiers

Research Fellow

Mariz Tadros

Director (CREID)

Rosemary McGee

Power and Popular Politics Cluster Lead

Mick Moore

Professorial Fellow

Programmes and centres

Recent work

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Upcoming Event

Digital disinformation in Africa: Hashtag activism and state propaganda

In an era of hashtag campaigns and online organising, politicians and corporations are spending billions to disrupt dialogue and drown-out dissent online across Africa. Join this event to discuss these issues and more, explored in the new book Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics,...

30 April 2024

Opinion

Moving towards responsible gold mining in Geita, Tanzania

The Geita region in Tanzania is rich in gold deposits, which have attracted a lot of small-scale (and a few large) mining companies. In the past, the relationship between mining companies and local communities was negative due to allegations of irresponsible and unethical actions by these...

26 April 2024

News

African elections under rising threat from online disinformation

In an unprecedented year for elections in Africa, the increasing use of digital disinformation poses a rising threat to democracy across the continent, researchers warn today. New evidence shows that politicians have been undertaking increasingly sophisticated digital disinformation...

26 April 2024

Opinion

Empowering voters in India through data and knowledge

The year 2024 presents a global surge in democratic engagement and political participation as 76 countries hold presidential or national elections. This includes the largest democratic exercise of all in India, where almost one billion people are able to vote to elect Members of Parliament (MP)...

25 April 2024

Working Paper

The Great Green Wall as a Social-Technical Imaginary

IDS Working Papers 602 and 603

From a pan-African environmental movement to a mosaic of locally managed projects to its considerable funding from the international community, the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGWI) is now seen as a ‘megaproject’. While this megaproject has been primarily...

Élie Pédarros & 10 others

24 April 2024

Student Opinion

5 + 1 tips for applying for an IDS scholarship

Are you thinking of applying for an IDS Graduate Scholarship? IDS MA in Governance, Development and Public Policy alum Smriti RDN Neupane and winner of our 2021 IDS Graduate Scholarship Award shares her top tips for how to get started. If you have already received an offer letter for the...

Smriti RDN Neupane

23 April 2024

Why learn with us.

In an extraordinary time of challenge and change, we use more than 50 years of expertise to transform development approaches that create more equitable and sustainable futures. The work you do with us will help make progressive change towards universal development; to build and connect solidarities for collective action, locally and globally. The University of Sussex has been ranked 1st in the world for Development Studies for the past five years (QS World University Rankings by Subject).