Melissa Leach

Andy Stirling

View the PDF Flyer

Today’s environmentally anxious age is dependent upon the roles of science, technology, and innovation. These are not only complex and uncertain role dynamics, but they also circulate deeply contrasting narratives about whether or not they matter and to whom, and what to do about them.

This talk will share how researchers at the Social, Technological, and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability Centre (STEPS) are thinking globally about sustainability challenges in ways that incorporate concern for equity, social justice, and the well-being of marginalized groups. Melissa Leach and Andy Stirling will illustrate a multiple, flexible pathways approach showing how people produce particular narratives that frame these roles in diverse ways, promote particular goals and values, and justify particular responses.

Melissa Leach directs the STEPS Centre, an interdisciplinary research and policy center focusing on using science and technology to reduce poverty and improve social justice. Professor Andy Stirling co-directs STEPS with Leach and serves on multiple collaboration-based advisory boards emphasizing democracy, sustainability, and equity.