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The STEPS Centre's Final Year: Reflections on a 15-year journey
By: George Meredith
Last updated: Tuesday, 19 January 2021
by Ian Scoones and Andy Stirling, STEPS co-directors
2021 is the final year of the ESRC STEPS Centre. Established in 2006, but with an even longer backstory, we have come a long way. This blog post reflects on the journey, and looks forward to the future. As the formal version of the Centre at Sussex comes to an end, the people, ideas and networks will of course continue, as many seeds have been sown, allowing for multiple new beginnings as the STEPS legacy is sustained in new ways.
The story of the STEPS Centre is complex and involves many people. We cannot reflect on everything, so this is a very personal set of reflections, ones generated from our positions as co-directors of the Centre over 15 years. On our website there are many reports to our funders, and listings of outputs, but this reflection takes a different tack. A timeline of key events accompanies this (rather long) blog post, but again this is far from comprehensive.