Rethinking the sustainable development goals : learning with and from community-led initiatives
Henfrey, Tom (Universidade de Lisboa. Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change)
Feola, Giuseppe (Utrecht University. Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development)
Penha-Lopes, Gil (Universidade de Lisboa. Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change)
Sekulova, Filka (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Esteves, Ana Margarida (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. Centro de Estudos Internacionais)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	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.
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Note:	Ajuts: 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).
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Civil society ; Post-growth ; Social justice ; Sustainability transformation ; Transformative social innovation
Published in:	Sustainable Development, Vol. 31, Issue 1 (February 2023) ,p. 211-222, ISSN 1099-1719

DOI: 10.1002/sd.2384

12 p, 1.3 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles