In July 2010, a special issue of Gender & Development was published which analysed the impact of the economic crisis on women. At the time, there was very little evidence about the long term effect of the crisis. So where are we now, two years later?   Some things related to the crisis and women's lives are clear. The studies published two years ago demonstrated that in some countries and some sectors, women were facing... Read more

The discussion paper just launched by Oxfam, A Safe and Just Space for Humanity, has many positive aspects that can be shared with organisations and movements in the Global South. It also contains elements that are in line with Oxfam's commitment to eradicating poverty and protecting the environment.  The document proposes a doughnut, which adds a pastry to the mix of sustainable development recipes, and we should review... Read more

The doughnut 'compass' is a powerful idea. The original 'planetary boundaries' concept focused on biophysical factors: there was some internal logic to this - it aimed to identify the conditions under which we couldn't expect the planet to continue supporting us, regardless of how we care to organise ourselves as a human race.  But of course, as soon as you ask practical questions about how we might manage our interaction... Read more

What's going on in the diagram above? Start with the outer ring. In 2009, a group of leading Earth-system scientists (Rockström et al) proposed a set of nine Earth-system processes (like freshwater use, climate regulation, and the nitrogen cycle) that are critical for keeping this planet in the stable state which has been so beneficial to humankind over the past 10,000 years. (That's the Holocene Epoch, and it's nothing to sniff... Read more

Assessing the G20's record on green growth means getting clear on the concept of decoupling. Sounds tedious, I know, but it matters. (If you want to understand income inequality, you need to know about Gini coefficients - likewise, if you want to understand sustainable growth, you need to know the difference between relative and absolute decoupling). It's set out below. Relative and absolute decoupling: GDP and resource... Read more

In 2009, 29 of the world's leading Earth-system scientists drew up a set of nine 'planetary boundaries': critical natural processes that we must not breach if we want to maintain Earth's stable state of the last 10,000 years. Like what? Like climate change, ozone depletion, and biodiversity loss. No small fry. They got bold and attempted a first quantification of these boundaries (eg setting a climate change boundary... Read more