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

Research Associate

Ana Pueyo

Research Fellow

Carlos Fortin

Research Associate

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler

Rural Futures Cluster Lead

Keetie Roelen

IDS Honorary Associate

Giel Ton

Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Projects

Recent work

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Upcoming Event

Book launch: Poverty, Gender & Health in the Slums of Bangladesh

Join us for a launch event for Prof Sabina Faiz Rashid’s book Poverty, Gender and Health in the Slums of Bangladesh: Children of Crows, published by Routledge UK. Author Prof Sabina Faiz Rashid will read excerpts from her book, which is a compelling ethnographic exploration of the daily...

4 June 2024

Book Chapter

The Role of European Investment Bank (EIB) and National and Regional Development Banks in the Green Transformation

Climate Change in Regional Perspective

This chapter examines the important role that can be played by national and regional development banks in the green transformation. Our focus is on the European Investment Bank (EIB), but we argue that EIB’s effective mechanisms to fund the initiatives of the European Green Deal can be...

14 May 2024

Opinion

Can a new global wave of land redistribution emerge?

At the International Global Land Grabbing conference held recently in Bogota, Colombia, we held a ‘dialogue session’ with about 50 academics and activists, asking whether land redistribution had a future. I co-facilitated the session with Morgan Ody, the General Coordinator of La Via...

13 May 2024

News

Weaponising gendered disinformation across Africa 

Gendered disinformation is being used across Africa as a tactic to silence critics and exclude women from online civic discourses, new research shows. A new book ‘Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda’ explores this further. It is written by Nkem...

10 May 2024

News

The global land grab is still taking place, landmark conference finds

Major land sales organised by states and businesses continue to cause problems for rural communities and indigenous groups, a landmark conference in Colombia has found. Over the past 20 years, more than 30 million hectares of agricultural land has been sold off around the world according...

10 May 2024

Opinion

Our collective path: the Inclusive Rigour Co-Lab story

In 2021, as the world was facing COVID lockdowns, anxieties and isolation, a group of us from varied learning and evaluation backgrounds—academics, practitioners, peacebuilders—connected with each other. Our lives and work spanned different corners of the globe: Mali, South Sudan, Colombia,...

Marina Apgar
Marina Apgar & 10 others

7 May 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).