Ian Scoones is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre at Sussex and joint convenor of the Future Agricultures Consortium.
He is an agricultural ecologist by original training whose interdisciplinary research links the natural and social sciences and focuses on the relationships between science and technology, local knowledge and livelihoods and the politics of policy processes in the context of international agricultural, environment and development issues.
A social and institutional perspective is at the centre of his work, which explores the linkages between local knowledges and practices and the processes of scientific enquiry, development policy-making and field-level implementation.
Academic Qualifications
1981 – 84 New College, Oxford University. Exhibitioner in Zoology; First Class Honours Degree; Gibbs Prize for top first across science subjects.
1985 – 89Centre for Environmental Technology, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London
– MSc in Ecological Management (Distinction). Thesis: Ecology and Environmental Impact Assessment (NERC funded)
– PhD student in Renewable Resources Assessment Group. Thesis: Livestock populations and the household economy: a case study from southern Zimbabwe. (SERC/ESRC grant, 1986-7 and IIED, 1988) (supervisors: Professor Gordon Conway and Professor John Beddington)
2002 Professorial title, University of Sussex
Employment history
1981 Volunteer, Hiranpur Hospital, Bihar, India.
1983 Study of Conservation status of Baly Bay, N.W. Madagascar (IUCN).
1985 – 89 Research Associate, Renewable Resources Assessment Group, Centre for Environmental Technology, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. Also, Associate Researcher, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Harare.
1985 Consultant to IUCN. Conservation status of tortoises in southern Africa.
1986 Consultant to IIED, Drylands Programme. Literature research for Sustainable Pastoralism: an annotated bibliography.
1986 – 87Fieldwork for PhD research; resident in Mazvihwa Communal Area, Zvishavane District, Zimbabwe.
1986 – 88ENDA-Zimbabwe Community management of indigenous woodland project and Zvishavane Water Resources Management Project (OXFAM).
1989 – 95 Research Associate, Drylands and Sustainable Agriculture Programmes, International Institute for Environment and Development, London.
1995 – Fellow in Environment and Development, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.
1999 – 2000 Co-Director ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme.
2002 -Professorial Fellow, IDS/University of Sussex
-Coordinator, Future Agricultures Consortium, 2004-14 (www.future-agricultures.org)
-Co-Director, STEPS Centre, 2006-22 (www.steps-centre.org )
– PI, PASTRES programme, 2017-23 (ERC Advanced Grant) (www.pastres.org)