1 - Origin and context

Summary

Introduction

The principal aim of this Sustainability Matters series is to produce an interesting, engaging and accessible set of titles addressing each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a consistent style and format, framed by an introductory volume contextualizing the SDGs and exploring their rationale as an integrated suite that attempts to represent the holistic nature of sustainable development. This is explained by Agenda Publishing's series specification as follows:

In 2014, the United Nations set out an ambitious global agenda for sustainable development, with a series of 17 interlinked goals and 169 associated targets to be met by 2030. Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an action plan for the future of people, the planet and prosperity, representing the three essential pillars of sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda and goals are widely recognized as being aspirational rather than achievable in reality, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, scholars and activists have identified contradictions and compromises inherent within and between the goals as well as deeper ideological concerns. The Sustainability Matters series explores the most pressing contemporary economic, environmental and social issues faced by humanity against the backdrop of the 2030 Agenda while also looking to the longer term.

This book addresses SDG 11, on sustainable cities and communities. Since each title in the series should be sufficiently robust to serve as an authoritative reference work in its own right, it opens with a contextual discussion in this chapter of the origin and development of the global sustainable development agenda in 2015 and 2016, of which the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs comprise a key element. The Campaign for an Urban SDG – which, along with other actors and coalitions, was ultimately successful in defining what became Goal 11 – is a key part of that story, told later in this chapter, and it draws on personal experience, other authoritative accounts and associated documents. The internal structure and composition of Goal 11 are set out and explained in Chapter 2, along with case studies of how SDG 11 is being used and understood in different contexts, sometimes positively but also selectively and highly instrumentally. The objective is to provide a balanced and dispassionate analysis, highlighting problems and limitations alongside positive applications.