‘Sustainable’ Discourse: A Critical Analysis of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-224
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ala-Uddin

Sustainability is a catchphrase in contemporary theory and practice of international development. It has become an epicentre of development debate following the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 by the United Nations (UN). Many view the new set of goals as a significant step in the field of development, but scholars and practitioners still grapple with reaching a consensus on a common definition of sustainability. This article problematizes the notion and theoretical underpinning of sustainability. The author focusses on the discursive practices that played a dominant role in shaping the conception of sustainability, especially within the formation of the SDGs. Using the three-dimensional analytical framework of discourse studies outlined by Fairclough (1995, Critical discourse analysis, Boston, MA: Addison Wesley), the author interprets the text of the SDGs at micro level (discourse), meso level (discursive practices) and macro level (discursive events).

Author(s):  
Andrew Harmer ◽  
Jonathan Kennedy

This chapter explores the relationship between international development and global health. Contrary to the view that development implies ‘good change’, this chapter argues that the discourse of development masks the destructive and exploitative practices of wealthy countries at the expense of poorer ones. These practices, and the unregulated capitalist economic system that they are part of, have created massive inequalities between and within countries, and potentially catastrophic climate change. Both of these outcomes are detrimental to global health and the millennium development goals and sustainable development goals do not challenge these dynamics. While the Sustainable Development Goals acknowledge that inequality and climate change are serious threats to the future of humanity, they fail to address the economic system that created them. Notwithstanding, it is possible that the enormity and proximity of the threat posed by inequality and global warming will energise a counter movement to create what Kate Raworth terms ‘an ecologically safe and socially just space’ for the global population while there is still time.


Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 2263-2281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Montero

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is marked by the consolidation of sustainability as a key guiding principle and an emphasis on cities as a potential solution to global development problems. However, in the absence of an agreement on how to implement sustainable development in cities, a set of urban policy solutions and ‘best practices’ became the vehicles through which the sustainable development agenda is spreading worldwide. This article shows that the rapid circulation of Bogotá as a model of sustainable transport since the 2000s reflects an increasing focus of the international development apparatus on urban policy solutions as an arena to achieve global development impacts, what I call the ‘leveraging cities’ logic in this article. This logic emerges at a particular historical conjuncture characterised by: (1) the rising power of global philanthropy to set development agendas; (2) the generalisation of solutionism as a strategy of action among development and philanthropic organisations; and (3) the increasing attention on cities as solutions for global development problems, particularly around sustainability and climate change. By connecting urban policy mobilities debates with development studies this article seeks to unpack the emergence, and the limits, of ‘leveraging cities’ as a proliferating global development practice. These urban policy solutions are far from being a clear framework of action. Rather, their circulation becomes a ‘quick fix’ to frame the problem of sustainable development given the unwillingness of development and philanthropic organisations to intervene in the structural factors and multiple scales that produce environmental degradation and climate change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (40) ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Sergii Bardash ◽  
Tetiana Osadcha

Research relevance lies in the irreversibility of course choice for embodiment of the sustainable development concept. However, a pluralism of opinions, concerning the implementation of model definition of this concept, as well as the priority tasks for realization of its constituents significantly decelerates the socio-economic development of Ukraine. An inadequate scientific research of the sustainable development problems on a microeconomic level generates the reduction of expected management results and the degree of progressive changes at the level of individual business units. The role and transformation of accounting science, necessary for the implementation of the sustainable development concept, are not fully disclosed. The research purpose and tasks are to determine the accounting component of sustainable development concept on the basis of the rent theory, to outline the directions of rent accounting development under the following factors influence: globalization and transformation of the ownership institution and scientific research activation on this basis, aimed at forming the theoretical and methodological baseline of rent accounting ‘as an additional income. The methodology of the research includes general scientific methods of cognition the necessity and invariant implementation of the sustainable development concept, its constituents allocation and specification; dialectical method for cognition the economic content of rent; a comparative analysis of the definition differences, formed at different stages and forms of realization of economic relations; modeling method for determining the direction and logic of the rent accounting development under the influence of such factors, as globalization and ownership institution transformation. It has been established that realization of sustainable development concept should take place with understanding of the interaction mechanisms of economic, social and environmental components. These generate new ideas about the basic socialization mechanisms and social development of human, external influences on the environment and cost estimation. The interconnection of the constituent of sustainable development concepts and the economic, social and ecological system as a whole is the basis for the theory and practice development of accounting. The accounting information creates preconditions for assessing the achievement and forecasting of further sustainable development of the economy as a separate economic entity, region, country, and the world as a whole. It has been established that the existence of discussion aspects in the treatment of rent and failure to recognize the last object of accounting should be considered as one of the essential factors in accelerating the implementation of the sustainable development concept. Bearing the results of research in mind, the development of a conceptual approach to rent accounting, as an additional entity income, should be based on the recognition the rent as a management object, that requires adequate information support for users’ requests from the accounting system side, based on the systematic development of the theoretical, methodological and organizational-practical regulations of rent accounting. The practical value of research is to formulate a methodological provision of rent accounting, which will further improve an active and passive income distribution of relation participants in the economic sphere.  The obtained scientific results will form the prospects for further research, which will lay in proving the need for the transformation of the property institute in the post-Soviet countries, to determine the models of rent relations between different parties in the field of economic relations, as well as to determine the rent-forming factors of production for the development of the rent assessing methodology.


Author(s):  
София Горбунова ◽  
Sofia Gorbunova

<span>The article discusses the principles of education for sustainable development and examples of their implementation in the context of the ecological culture formation. The subject of the study is environmental education for sustainable development. The aim of this research is to formulate the principles of education for sustainable development and to show the ways of their practical implementation. The research uses the comparative approach with elements of hypothetical-deductive analysis. As a result of the study, a set of interrelated principles determining education for sustainable development was defined: continuity, inclusiveness, interdisciplinarity, integration, unity of theory and practice. The results of this study can be used in educational practice in the creation and implementation of curricula and courses, as methodological recommendations for the work of volunteer organizations and educational environmental activities. The results can be used in the sustainable development programs designed by the administrative authorities. Environmental education is an important tool for implementing the concept of sustainable development. Thus, the outlined educational principles should become the basis of educational practices and technologies aimed at the formation of ecological culture and the ecologization of consciousness.</span>


Author(s):  
Ronald Labonté ◽  
Arne Ruckert

The pursuit of global health gains has been one the aims of international development policy for several decades. Along with migration, trade agreements and dominant macroeconomic policies (i.e., neoliberalism), development assistance (aid) is one of the defining elements of contemporary globalization, a noblesse oblige on the part of wealthier nations to support the improvement of lives in poorer, often former colonized, nations. Rarely achieving its stated commitments, and declining since its peak-generosity in the 1960s, aid has been subject to intense disagreements, vacillating between being seen as creating a neocolonial dependency, to arguments for its absolute necessity in saving lives. Since 2000 the aid discourse has been dominated by global development goals, the first set expiring in 2015 (the Millennium Development Goals) and the next and more exhaustive set running until 2030 (the Sustainable Development Goals). Whether these new goals will deliver on their commitments remains an open question.


Author(s):  
Austin Muswere

The capabilities, efficiency and effectiveness of the outcomes of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development demands a lot of analytical work from an  African perspective towards its commitment on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the 2020-2030 decade. This paper provides an analytical framework questioning the forum`s outcomes and the African capabilities. The framework interrogates the feasibility of the approaches of the forum used as alternatives towards the achievement of the 17 sustainable development goals, 169 targets and 304 indicators. The analysis is made together with the outlook of the African aspirations as defined in the Agenda 2063. An analytical framework based on advocacy research and desk review of literature available was used. The framework provided a balanced analysis of both the progress made so far and the challenges that Africa is facing today. Africa does not have effective strategies that make her ready to meet the sustainable development goals by 2030. Africa is recommended to prioritise on investment, build strong partnerships and coalitions as a critical discernment of the different African initiatives propagated through the 2030 Agenda and 2063 Agenda.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-50
Author(s):  
Elwira Gross-Gołacka ◽  
Marta Kusterka-Jefmańska ◽  
Paulina Spałek ◽  
Bartłomiej Jefmański

The main goal of this article is to analyze the level of differentiation of awareness and knowledge among managers of small, medium and large enterprises in the scope of the essence and meaning of intellectual capital as well as the influence of its elements on the sustainable development of enterprises in Poland. Intellectual capital is perceived as a key resource of an enterprise. It is also one of the most valuable resources of an enterprise, which enables its sustainable development. It is critical base of organization’s innovative and strategic sustainability. This article is based around the results of a survey conducted in 2019 among 1,067 enterprises operating in Poland. For the purposes of the verification of the statistical hypothesis, the classical chi-squared test of independence has been applied along with the analysis of variations for fuzzy numbers (FANOVA) with an assumed level of significance α = 0.05. The assessment of the influence of the elements of intellectual capital on the sustainable development of enterprises has been conducted with the application of fuzzy conversion scales. In fuzzy conversion scales, points are most often expressed as triangular or trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. The conducted research indicates a difference between theory and practice in the field of intellectual capital management among enterprises in Poland. On the one hand managers declare awareness of the importance of the influence of intellectual capital on the development of enterprises in Poland, whereas on the other hand, a significant majority of them state that they have not implemented an intellectual capital management strategy at their enterprises and neither identify nor measure this capital or its elements.


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