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The Sustainable Development Goals: A New Space for Action?

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Yearbook on Space Policy 2016

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Abstract

The article trace the history and trajectory of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The guiding questions are whether the SDGs constitute a possible space or agenda for a profound paradigm shift in ‘development’ thinking and practice or, to put it differently, whether the SDGs have the potential to rethink the narrow, economic and outdated ‘western’ concepts of 'development' which are still embedded in the idea of continous growth. For understanding the new agenda a brief debate of the history of 'development' and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is necessary before discussing the weaknesses and strengths of the SDGs and thus the guiding questions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sengupta, Muti. “The Sustainable Development Goals: An Assessment of Ambition”. 18 Jan. 2016. E-International Relations 9 Jul. 2017 http://www.e-ir.info/2016/01/18/the-sustainable-development-goals-an-assessment-of-ambition/

  2. 2.

    Langford, Malcolm. “Lost in transformation? The politics of the sustainable development goals.” Ethics & International Affairs 30.2 (2016): 167–176.

  3. 3.

    Moore, Henrietta L. “Global Prosperity and Sustainable Development Goals: Global Prosperity and SDGs.” Journal of International Development 27.6 (2015): 801.

  4. 4.

    Koehler, Gabriele. “Seven Decades of ‘Development’, and Now What? The SDGs and Transformational Change 2015.” Journal of International Development 27.6 (2015): 737.

  5. 5.

    Ibid. 738.

  6. 6.

    Escobar, Arturo. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2011; Rist, Gilbert. “‘Development’ as a Part of the Modern Myth: The Western ‘socio-cultural Dimension of ‘development’.” The European Journal of Development Research 2.1 (1990); Ziai, Aram. Exploring Post-Development: Theory and Practice, Problems and Perspectives. London ; New York: Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2007.

  7. 7.

    Tandon, Yash. “Aid without Dependence: An Alternative Conceptual Model for Development Cooperation.” Development 52.3 (2009): 356.

  8. 8.

    Moore 802.

  9. 9.

    Hulme, David. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): A Short History of the World’s Biggest Promise. Manchester: Brooks World Poverty Institute, (2009): 8.

  10. 10.

    Koehler 741.

  11. 11.

    Sengupta.

  12. 12.

    Hulme 19.

  13. 13.

    United Nations. “Millennium Development Goals.” UN City Copenhagen20 June 2017 http://un.dk/about-the-un/the-mdgs

  14. 14.

    Sengupta.

  15. 15.

    Hulme 41.

  16. 16.

    Koehler 714.

  17. 17.

    Langford 16.

  18. 18.

    Obrosky, Michael. “Keynote.” Konferenz: Universalität der SDGs und die Folgen für Österreich Politik und Zivilgesellschaft im Dialog. Karl-Renner-Institut, Vienna. 2015: 1.

  19. 19.

    Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko, Joshua Greenstein, and David Stewart. “How Should MDG Success and Failure Be Judged: Faster Progress or Achieving the Targets?” World Development 41 (2013): 19–30.

  20. 20.

    United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015. New York: United Nations, (2015): 2.

  21. 21.

    Pogge, Thomas. “Die MDGs sind moralisch ein Skandal”. 2014. Vereinte Nationen 7 July 2017 http://www.dgvn.de/fileadmin/publications/PDFs/Zeitschrift_VN/VN_2014/Heft_6_2014/04_Standpunkt_Pogge_VN_6-14_25-11-2014.pdf

  22. 22.

    Fukuda-Parr et al.

  23. 23.

    Easterly, William. “How the Millennium Development Goals Are Unfair to Africa.” World Development 37.1 (2009): 35.

  24. 24.

    Koehler 743.

  25. 25.

    Loewe, Markus. “Post 2015: How to Reconcile the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?” Bonn: German Development Institute, (2012): 3.

  26. 26.

    Easterly, William. “The SDGs Should Stand for Senseless, Dreamy, Garbled.” 28 Sept. 2015. Foreign Policy, 24 June 2017 http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/28/the-sdgs-are-utopian-and-worthless-mdgs-development-rise-of-the-rest/

  27. 27.

    Moore 808.

  28. 28.

    Ibid. 805.

  29. 29.

    United Nations General Assembly. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015. Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UN Doc A/RES/70/1 of 25 Sept. 2015.

  30. 30.

    Sengupta.

  31. 31.

    United Nations. “Sustainable Development Goals.” United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 21 June 2017 http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

  32. 32.

    Koehler 744; Scott, Andrew, and Paula Lucci. “Universality and Ambition in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: A Comparison of Global and National Targets: Universality and Ambition in the SDGs.” Journal of International Development 27.6 (2015): 753.

  33. 33.

    Koehler 744–45.

  34. 34.

    Langford 169.

  35. 35.

    Koehler 745.

  36. 36.

    Scott and Lucci 752.

  37. 37.

    United Nations General Assembly.

  38. 38.

    Scott and Lucci 758.

  39. 39.

    Moore 811.

  40. 40.

    Cited by Langford 174.

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Correspondence to Petra Dannecker .

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Dannecker, P. (2018). The Sustainable Development Goals: A New Space for Action?. In: Al-Ekabi, C., Ferretti, S. (eds) Yearbook on Space Policy 2016. Yearbook on Space Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72465-2_6

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