Blog series - debating the SDGs
We will publish weekly episodes, from different authors – including academics and voices from the development sector – discussing the SDGs from different angles.
This series is created in collaboration with MO*Magazine. The contributions will be published in English on this webpage and in Dutch on MO*Magazine.
Episode 1: Jan Orbie and Sarah Delputte (UGent) - Who wants some more old wine in new bottles? Why the Sustainable Development Goals will not save the world.
Episode 2: Remco van de Pas (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp) - The Coronavirus pandemic and the irrelevance of the SDGs. Time for a Jubilee.
Episode 3: Marc Maes (11.11.11-Coalition of the Flemish North-South Movement) - Trade and the Sustainable Development Goals. Mission unfulfilled.
Episode 4: Francine Mestrum - How sustainable are the SDGs? We need more development, not post-development.
Episode 5: Chiara Macchi (Wageningen University & Research) - The SDGs and the urgency of human rights in times of crisis
Episode 6: Jonathan Matthysen (Oxfam Belgium) - The SDGs as double agent for progressive sustainable development
Episode 7: Bernard Mazijn (UGent) - Agenda 2030: the limits of multilateralism?
Episode 8: Brecht De Smet (UGent) - SDGs caught between development and underdevelopment. It is time for new alternatives based on old critiques
Episode 9: Tonia Novitz (University of Bristol) - The normative promise of sustainability for labour standards – and the limitations of the SDGs
Episode 10: Mia Kristin Häckl and Julia Schöneberg (University of Kassel) - It is time to abandon “development” goals and demand a post-2030 Utopia
Episode 11: Keya Khandaker and Lata Narayanaswamy (University of Leeds) - The unbearable whiteness of international development: the SDGS and decolonial feminisms
Episode 12: Thomas Vervisch (Ghent University) - 0,7 cake crumbs or actual cakes? Why we need a Minister of Global Affairs
Who wants some more old wine in new bottles?
Why the Sustainable Development Goals will not save the world
Jan Orbie and Sarah Delputte (Gent University) are of the opinion that the SDGs do not tackle - and may even strengthen - global injustice. Delays and failures in achieving the SDGs may easily be blamed on the global disruptions following the covid-19 pandemic. However, there have always been fundamental problems with the SDG approach. SDGs do not contain any structural reforms and further legitimise the existing world order, as evidenced by the role attributed to (free) trade.
Seminar on Post-Development
Global Studies Research Seminar 2020
The making and unmaking of development: de- and reconstructions - May, 18-20
The Ghent Centre for Global Studies, together with the Governance in Conflict Network, invites participants for a spring seminar series on post-development, with reading groups (in February, March and April) and a 2,5 day seminar in May, with workshops and debates with keynote lecturers Jason Hickel (LSE), Lata Narayanaswamy (Leeds University) and Pavel Lopez (Università di Milano 'Bicocca'). You can find the full program and registration information, here.
