TY - JOUR
T1 - Rethinking the sustainable development goals: Learning with and from community-led initiatives
AU - Henfrey, Tom
AU - Feola, Giuseppe
AU - Penha-Lopes, Gil
AU - Sekulova, Filka
AU - Esteves, Ana Margarida
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Frank Biermann and Tim O'Riordan for their stimulating critical comments on a previous version of this manuscript. Work on this paper was partially supported by various awards from the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, whose support is gratefully acknowledged: Bolsa IF/00940/2015 (Penha‐Lopes, Henfrey), Bolsa SFRH/BPD/94495/2013 (Esteves) and project grant PTDC/SOC‐SOC/2061/2020 (Esteves, Henfrey). 1
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - This paper explores the actual and potential contributions of community-led initiatives (CLIs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As examples of self-determined practical action for sustainability and social justice, CLIs prefigure many of the intended outcomes of the SDGs. Existing evidence shows that CLIs are already contributing, at local scale, to almost all of the SDGs, and achieving particular success in bringing different goals into synergy. However, these achievements are based on ethics, guiding philosophies, issue framings, practical goals and ways of organising that differ significantly from those behind the formulation and delivery of the SDGs. Embracing those differences, and with them greater plurality and ongoing critical self-reflection, would allow the SDGs to transcend certain self-limiting contradictions, particularly concerning the role of economic growth. Such a shift in orientation is essential if the SDGs are to move from reinforcing to challenging the root causes of unsustainability and injustice.
AB - This paper explores the actual and potential contributions of community-led initiatives (CLIs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As examples of self-determined practical action for sustainability and social justice, CLIs prefigure many of the intended outcomes of the SDGs. Existing evidence shows that CLIs are already contributing, at local scale, to almost all of the SDGs, and achieving particular success in bringing different goals into synergy. However, these achievements are based on ethics, guiding philosophies, issue framings, practical goals and ways of organising that differ significantly from those behind the formulation and delivery of the SDGs. Embracing those differences, and with them greater plurality and ongoing critical self-reflection, would allow the SDGs to transcend certain self-limiting contradictions, particularly concerning the role of economic growth. Such a shift in orientation is essential if the SDGs are to move from reinforcing to challenging the root causes of unsustainability and injustice.
KW - civil society
KW - post-growth
KW - social justice
KW - sustainability transformation
KW - transformative social innovation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137017542&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/sd.2384
DO - 10.1002/sd.2384
M3 - Article
SN - 0968-0802
VL - 31
SP - 211
EP - 222
JO - Sustainable Development
JF - Sustainable Development
IS - 1
ER -