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Assessing the SDGs from the standpoint of eco-social policy: using the SDGs subversively

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Gabriele Koehler
Gabriele Koehler*
Affiliation:
UNRISD Senior Research Associate, Geneva
*
*Email: [email protected]. Postal address: Habsburgerplatz 6, 80801 Munich, Germany. www.gabrielekoehler.net
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Abstract

The UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development impresses with its ambition of transformation, and because it has succeeded in marrying economic, social and environmental goals. This article looks at two interrelated questions. It asks whether and to what extent the Agenda's goals are transformative, but finds numerous omissions and clashes. It also seeks to examine whether the Agenda refers to eco-social policy. Two schools of thought are examined. Both critical theory and sufficiency economics propose shifts in norms, policies and practice – and argue for a “hierarchy reversal”, whereby social and climate justice goals override the economic rationale. The article concludes with a case for instrumentalising the commitments of the 2030 Agenda, but complemented by a subversive approach – injecting radical thinking and action for economic, environmental and social justice. Whether this could succeed in light of political constellations is open, and requires an idealistic faith in the power of ideas.

Keywords

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Developmentsustainabilitywelfare stateeco-social policyhierarchy reversalcritical theory
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 32 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Social Policy and the Transformative Potential of the SDGs , June 2016 , pp. 149 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

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