Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:50:37.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing the SDGs from the point of view of global social governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Bob Deacon
Bob Deacon*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, York, UK Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
*
* Corresponding author. Emails: bob.deacon@york.ac.uk; b.deacon@sheffield.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article assesses the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in terms of their contribution to improved global social governance. As a global policy-making process they are commended. As a set of global social policy aspirations the SDGs are the first global social policy. In terms of the contributions the SDG document makes to improving the architecture of global social governance it is found to fail. It fails in the field of global redistribution, global taxation, global regulation and in the field of the realisation of global social rights. The SDGs document embodies a reversal in policy-making away from a concern to construct improved global governance institutions back to an era of strengthening national sovereignty. The anti-structural adjustment sentiments of the 1980s cast their shadow over attempts to construct a socially responsible globalisation in the 2010s. The SDGs do make suggestions regarding the role of regionalism in meeting the goals and targets and indeed the article suggests reforms in regional social governance might be a more productive route to follow.

Keywords

SDGsglobal social policyglobal social governance
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. 116 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addis Ababa Civil Society Forum. (2015). Retrieved November 23, 2015, from https://csoforffd.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/addis-ababa-cso-ffd-forum-declaration-12-july-2015.pdfGoogle Scholar
Bracht, C. (2015). G20 governance of social policy: Social protection, employment and education. G20 Information Centre, University Toronto. Canada. Retrieved November 23, 2015, http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/analysis/151113-bracht.htmlGoogle Scholar
Bradford, C. (2015). Implementing the Post 2015 Agenda. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2015/09/14-implementing-post-2015-agenda-bradfordGoogle Scholar
De Ville, F., & Siles-Brugge, G. (2016). TTIP: The truth about the transatlantic trade and investment partnership. Cambridge: Polity.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deacon, B. (2007). Global social policy and governance. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Deacon, B. (2013). Global social policy in the making. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Deacon, B., Macovei, M., Langenhove, L., & Yeates, N. (Eds.). (2010). World regional social policy and global governance. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fukuda-Parr, S. (2015). The 2030 agenda and the SDGs – a course correction? Retrieved October 1, 2015, from http://www.Recoveryhumanface.list.ilo.orgGoogle Scholar
G20. (2015). Retrieved November 23, 2015, from https://g20.org/main-achievements-of-turkeys-2015-g20-presidency-2/Google Scholar
G20. (2015a). G20 2015 communique. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2015/151116-communique.htmlGoogle Scholar
G20b. (2015b). G20 and low income developing countries framework. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2015/G20-and-Low-Income-Developing-Countries-Framework.pdfGoogle Scholar
George, S. (2015). Shadow sovereigns: How global corporations are seizing power. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Goodin, R. E., Heady, B., Muffels, R., & Dirven, H. (1999). The real worlds of welfare. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Gore, C. (2004). MDGs and PRSPs: Are poor countries in a global-local double bind? Global Social Policy, 4, 277–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ICSU, ISSC. (2015). Review of the sustainable development goals: The science perspective. Paris: ICSU.Google Scholar
ILO. (2015). SPIAC-B Minutes Feb 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—nylo/documents/genericdocument/wcms_348476.pdfGoogle Scholar
ITUC. (2015). Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/trade_unions_reaction_to_ffd3_action_agenda_final.pdfGoogle Scholar
Kaasch, A., & Martens, K. (2015). Actors and agency in global social governance. Oxford: OUP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirton, J., Kulik, J., & Bracht, C. (2015). G20 Social Policy Governance. In Kassch, A. and Martens, K. (Eds.), Actors and agency in global social governance (pp. 153–172). Oxford: OUP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehrotra, S., & Jolly, R. (1997). Development with a human face. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
O'Brien, R., Goetz, A.M., Scholte, J., & Williams, M. (2000). Contesting global governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortiz, I., Cummins, M., Capaldo, J., & Karunanethy, K. (2015b). The decade of adjustment: A review of austerity trends 2010–2020 in 187 Countries. Geneva: ILO.Google Scholar
Ortiz, I., Cummins, M., & Karunanethy, K. (2015a). Fiscal space for social protection: Options exist even in the poorest countries – eight options to expand social investments in 187 Countries. Geneva: ILO.Google Scholar
Pogge, T., Klein, N., & Chomsky, N. (2015). SDGs: Madness, false hopes and verbal fudge. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.redd-monitor.org/2015/10/08/sustainable-development-goals-madness-false-hopes-and-verbal-fudge/#letterGoogle Scholar
Schutte, O., & Sepulveda, M. (2013). Underwriting the poor: A global fund for social protection (UNHCR Briefing Note No. 7). Geneva; Human Rights Council.Google Scholar
Social Watch. (2015). Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.socialwatch.org/node/17008Google Scholar
Social Watch. (2015a). Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.socialwatch.org/node/17051Google Scholar
Stop TTIP. (2015). Retrieved November 23, 2015, from https://stop-ttip.org/what-is-the-problem-ttip-cetaGoogle Scholar
Surender, R., & Urbina-Ferretjans, M. (2015). In Kassch, A. and Martens, K. (Eds.), Actors and agency in global social governance (pp. 130–152). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
United Nations. (2015a). Addid Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA). Retrieved November 23, 2015, http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/69/313Google Scholar
United Nations. (2015b). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. New York: Author.Google Scholar
UNRISD. (2015). The sustainable development Agenda: From inspiration to action. Policy Brief 6 September. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from http://www.unrisd.org/b2015_6.Google Scholar
Weiss, T. G. (2013). Global governance: Why? what? whither? Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Willetts, P. (2011). Non-Governmental organizations in world politics: The construction of global governance. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Yeates, N. (2015, December 4). Briefing and discussion paper for PRARI workshop on Southern Regionalism and Global Agendas. Open University, Milton Keynes. Retrieved January 12, 2016, from www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/prari/files/policy_brief_3_en.pdfGoogle Scholar