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Inclusive Economies

Our work explores what characterises inclusive economies and how these can be achieved, particularly in a world where new technologies, rural to urban migration, and growing youth populations are disrupting and putting new pressures on people’s lives and livelihoods.

Our research looks at the impacts of business and markets on development and inequality and explores the potential for novel market-based solutions to work for the poorest and most marginalised based on gender, ethnicity and disability.  It explores alternatives that enable workers, consumers and communities to have a real voice.

It continues to revitalise debates on agriculture as a key pathway out of poverty and towards inclusion, particularly for young people. Our work is focused on identifying what opportunities exist in a period of agricultural commercialisation and rural transformation and how far different groups are able to access them.  It also understands how new technologies such as drones or blockchains pose risks, but can also be harnessed to improve the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people.  In a rapidly urbanising world where cities have become focal points for economic growth, jobs and innovation but also for poverty, inequality, vulnerability and conflict, our work explores what this means for both urban and rural people, and the opportunities and challenges they face in living safe and fulfilling lives.

People

Jodie Thorpe

Research Fellow

Philip Mader

Research Fellow

Richard Jolly

Emeritus Fellow and Research Associate

Ana Pueyo

Research Fellow

Carlos Fortin

Emeritus Fellow and Research Associate

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler

Research Fellow

Keetie Roelen

IDS Honorary Associate

Giel Ton

Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Projects

Recent work

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Upcoming Event

Pathways to development conference

Pathways to Development (Path2Dev) is a multidisciplinary conference that brings together empirical and historical research by economists, political scientists, sociologists, legal and constitutional scholars, and law and policy reform experts, within and outside Pakistan, to document and...

From 11 September 2025 until 13 September 2025

Upcoming Event

Investing in local social protection workers in protracted crises

This event will explore the opportunities for smarter investment in frontline capacities for social protection in deepening crises, sharing experiences and evidence from aid practitioners and researchers working across the humanitarian-development-peacebuilding nexus in Yemen, Syria and...

21 July 2025

Upcoming Event

Food Equity Centre

Power relationships and aquaculture livelihoods in Vietnam

Join the Food Equity Centre for this seminar that explores different kinds of power relationships that influence people’s access to resources, livelihood options and sustainability outcomes. This seminar looks at a case study of aquaculture production systems in northern Vietnam and the...

15 July 2025

Journal Article

Co-production and Transformative Change: Lessons and Challenges

This article takes the case of the TAPESTRY project to look at how transformative change can be co-produced between local communities, researchers, community-based organisations and other actors. We lay out the process, challenges and tensions of doing co-produced research with marginalised...

Lyla Mehta
Lyla Mehta & 7 others

14 July 2025

Opinion

Validating research with communities and why it matters

In community-based research, the process does not end with data collection and analysis. A vital but often overlooked step is validation, where findings are shared with participants for feedback. This helps check researcher interpretation, supports relationship building and empowers communities...

Janine Shaw
Janine Shaw & 3 others

14 July 2025

News

Communities to test public restaurants

Two state-subsidised ‘public restaurants’ will be piloted in the UK as part of new research into whether they can help improve public health by providing an affordable alternative to unhealthy convenience food. The pilot restaurants will open in Dundee and Nottingham offering locally...

9 July 2025

Working Paper

Humanitarian and Social Protection Approaches to Inclusion

BASIC Research Working Paper 16

This paper explores how and how far considerations of inclusion are found in the policy and programming space described as the ‘humanitarian-social protection nexus’.

9 July 2025

Opinion

Public restaurants can help address dietary health inequalities

It isn’t charity, it isn’t a treat, it’s universal. A public infrastructure, much like public libraries and public transport, ‘public restaurants’ are state-subsidised eateries which offer universal access to nutritious, appetising and sustainably produced foods. They have enormous...

Anna Chworow, Deputy Director, Nourish Scotland

8 July 2025

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).

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