but there is hope, for global social policy development and for (transnational) solidarity, in grassroots struggle and the growing number of networks and coalitions mobilizing for change. The 2020s needs to usher in a decade of ambitious action to accelerate socially sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges and deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
In this volume, then, the idea of the social and that of ‘social policy’ is critically examined and reappraised, along with the notion of an increasingly globalising or globalised form of social policy, signified by international agreements, global goals and targets for humankind, all of which is increasingly geared towards the idea of ‘social sustainability’ itself. This reappraisal is not without problems or challenges, as this timely new volume serves to illustrate, because it is forcing us to critically reconsider and rethink age-old ideas, debates and perspectives in order to try and arrive at a better understanding of what the social of social policy may mean in and for the age of social sustainability.
Christopher Deeming
Glasgow
March 2021
The ‘social’ in the age of sustainability
Christopher Deeming
Introduction
COVID-19 is a human tragedy, but it has also created a generational opportunity, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres (2020) has observed. An opportunity to build back a more equal and sustainable world. New and emerging socially inclusive models and global policy frameworks are being formulated by policy makers to address the pressing global challenges of the 21st century, such as rising social inequality, extreme poverty and the climate emergency, that focus on important aspects of the social of social policy, are the subject of this volume. This introductory chapter provides a critical introduction to the idea of the ‘social’, and considers how notions of the social are now guiding the development of global social policy for the age of sustainability. The chapter also introduces the different contributions to the evolving debate on the social of social policy and the social dimensions of sustainability that this volume brings together for critical examination and reflection.
Social sustainability
The ‘social’ is now becoming more integrated in global social policy debates around sustainability (Koch and Oksana, 2016; Gough, 2017). Often, however, we find conceptions of the ‘social’ are less than well-defined in ascendant discourses of sustainability (Dillard et al, 2008; Vallance et al, 2011). Certainly, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNGA, 2015), and the associated 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, Box 1.1) with their 169 targets adopted by member states of the UN in September 2015, underlines a global commitment to ‘achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions, economic, social and environmental in a balanced and integrated manner’ (UNGA, 2015, 2020; UN, 2019a, 2019b). This is a major achievement, global social policy in the making (Gore, 2015; Fukuda-Parr and Muchhala, 2020). The SDGs are global goals, which build on the experience and successes of the international development goals, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, Box 1.1) agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 (UNGA, 2000), and also the recommendations and targets, eradicate poverty, support full employment, achieve equity, equality and protect human rights, found in the report A Fair Globalization of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization (WCSDG) (ILO, 2004), and the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development adopted at the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) in 1995. All 193 UN member states have pledged to achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030, relating to global social problems of extreme poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice as well as the promotion of healthy lives. Here we find the social, the ecological and the economic are understood to be interconnected, in order to address the global challenges that humanity now faces.
Box 1.1: Global goals: from the MDGs to the SDGs
| The 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Develop a global partnership for development | The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to Transform Our World 1. No poverty 2. Zero hunger 3. Ensure good health and well-being 4. Ensure quality education 5. Achieve gender equality 6. Ensure clean water and sanitation 7. Ensure affordable and clean energy 8. Promote decent work and economic growth 9. Build resilient infrastructure 10. Reduced inequality within and among countries 11. Make cities and communities sustainable 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production 13. Climate action 14. Conserve life below water 15. Protect life on land 16. Peace and justice strong institutions 17. Partnerships to achieve the Goals |
Note: For the MDGs see www.un.org/millenniumgoals/; for the SDGs see www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
Source: Adapted from UN UNGA (2015: 14).
(Reproduced with the permission of the United Nations.)
Agenda 2030 aims to mobilise global efforts to transform our world. The scale and ambition of this universal policy agenda and the political commitment has never been seen before, endorsed by 193 countries (UN member states), formulated and supported by the international and global institutions and organizations like the World Bank (2020a) and International Monetary Fund (IMF, 2020), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2019) and world-regional social policy actors. The European Union (EU), for example, was one of the leading forces behind the 2030 Agenda and is fully committed to its implementation. The SDGs thus act as a compass, guiding regional sustainability strategies, reviews and monitoring (for example, ECLAC, 2018; EC, 2019; ECA, 2018; ESCAP, 2019). The long-term development goals are helping to unite policy actors at all levels and across all regions.
In this age, then, we find growing interest in the social dimensions of sustainability. Importantly, we find ideas and contested conceptions of ‘the social’ (which have a long history in the social sciences), now taking centre stage in international and globalizing social policy debates, the focus of this volume. The notion of ‘social sustainability’