Archive for August 2023

[Previous message][Next message][Back to index]

[Commlist] CfC - The Mediation of Sustainability Volume Two

Mon Aug 14 18:58:54 GMT 2023




The Mediation of Sustainability Volume Two: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Media Practice, Public Discourse, and Social Action

Call for Chapters

Dr Ben Harbisher

On 1 January 2015, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development came into force. The UN describes its Sustainable Development Goals as ‘a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future’. Consisting of 17 inter-connected fields of activity, the UNSDGs are framed as a moral intervention, and couched in the language of development. It is this perspective – an apparently progressive commitment to justice combined with adherence to the expansion of the economy – that has encountered both support and indeed criticism from academic commentators. While Kopnina believed that the UNSDGs will lead to ‘a greater spread of unsustainable production and consumption’ (2015), the sheer scale of the UN’s ambitions prompted Biermann et al (2017) to note that ‘[the Goals] collective success will depend on a number of institutional factors such as the extent to which states … translate the global ambitions into national contexts’. In essence, the SDGs address a number of ‘stakeholders’- ranging from multinationals to Governments; NGO’s and of course are regarded as objectives that should apply to all citizens of the world. Over the remaining seven years of this programme, the UN intends to readdress its efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that ‘no one is left behind’. Invariably, the midway point for this ambitious venture has been marred by several factors including i) repercussions from the global pandemic, ii) conflict in several theatres of war, iii) a worldwide financial crises, iv) the fragmentation of international trade agreements, v) the decline of political alliances, and vi) the rapid deterioration of environments and ecosystems. More alarming still, institutions such as the European Union have reported a decline if not reversal of SDG agendas such as gender-based violence and disparity in the workplace (both during and following the pandemic), an even greater financial divide than originally forecast (driving poverty, reducing opportunities, education, health and welfare), and year-on-year hostile weather patterns leading to floods and wildfires across the European continent and in other territories as well.

The intention of this publication is to examine the progress made in the fight to end poverty, to promote health, to develop sustainable cities, to prevent further climate change, to facilitate economic growth, protect the oceans, and end world hunger. The second volume of this work aims to celebrate successful SDG initiatives as well as outline new areas of activity/ existing risks. The publication aims to explore sustainable practices across business, industry, the creative arts, and education as four distinct sections in the book.

Potential themes include: • sustainable media, media practice, and sustainability research
•	links between business, economy, regeneration, and sustainability
• sustainability in the arts, creative practice, media production, film and television • how the SDGs are communicated or promoted within ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ nations • the extent to which these goals being measured, enacted, enabled, or resisted • sustainability in education, pedagogy, and curricula • grassroots initiatives that may embrace or go beyond the framework set by the UN • the social, political, cultural and economic barriers to the attainment of the UNSDGs • emerging areas of interest regarding disability discrimination, inclusion or research • the application of discourse/multi-modal approaches to the textual material produced within a material/symbolic environment • the representation of groups identified as vulnerable and in need of support • the ways in which the rights of women, notions of gendered identity, descriptions of class location, and ideas about race/ethnicity are articulated (or not) within the UNSDGs • the use (or appropriation) by state and corporate authority of discourses that attempt to reproduce the symbolic references employed by the UN • who, within the various DAC territories and within ‘developed’ nations, are presented as the main proponents, actors, or opponents of the UNSDGs • the relationship between the UNSDGs and the concept and practice of globalisation • the role of policing, surveillance, regimes of border-control, and other barriers and impediments to collective social action • the relationship between the Goals and the activity of social movements • how ‘existential’ and other threats are constituted through the language and images used in the SDGs • the media ecology/context of the call and the responses it creates • case studies covering the successes or failures of the initiatives
Proposal for Chapters
Please send an abstract of the proposed piece at 300 words, and a brief bio of 150 - words to Ben Harbisher ((ab9227 /at/ coventry.ac.uk)) – no later than 29th September 2023. Feedback will be provided shortly thereafter, with draft submissions due late March 2023 for initial review.

The anticipated publication of the book will be August 2024.

Upon acceptance of your CfC response please also consider IP factors such as copyright in advance of completing a form from the publishers to secure publication rights for your work and any images, tables and artwork provided therein.

---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ commlist.org)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------




[Previous message][Next message][Back to index]