Governing through Goals

A detailed examination of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the shift in governance strategy they represent.

In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Sustainable Development Goals built on and broadened the earlier Millennium Development Goals, but they also signaled a larger shift in governance strategies. The seventeen goals add detailed content to the concept of sustainable development, identify specific targets for each goal, and help frame a broader, more coherent, and transformative 2030 agenda. The Sustainable Development Goals aim to build a universal, integrated framework for action that reflects the economic, social, and planetary complexities of the twenty-first century.

This book examines in detail the core characteristics of goal setting, asking when it is an appropriate governance strategy and how it differs from other approaches; analyzes the conditions under which a goal-oriented agenda can enable progress toward desired ends; and considers the practical challenges in implementation.

Contributors
Dora Almassy, Steinar Andresen, Noura Bakkour, Steven Bernstein, Frank Biermann, Thierry Giordano, Aarti Gupta, Joyeeta Gupta, Peter M. Haas, Masahiko Iguchi, Norichika Kanie, Rakhyun E. Kim  Marcel Kok, Kanako Morita, Måns Nilsson, László Pintér, Michelle Scobie, Noriko Shimizu, Casey Stevens, Arild Underdal, Tancrède Voituriez, Takahiro Yamada, Oran R. Young

Norichika Kanie is Professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University and Senior Research Fellow at United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability.

Frank Biermann is Research Professor of Global Sustainability Governance with the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University and the author of Earth System Governance: World Politics in the Anthropocene (MIT Press).

Norichika Kanie is Professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University and Senior Research Fellow at United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability.

Frank Biermann is Research Professor of Global Sustainability Governance with the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University and the author of Earth System Governance: World Politics in the Anthropocene (MIT Press).

Peter M. Haas is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Oran R. Young is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Institutional Dynamics: Emergent Patterns in International Environmental Governance (MIT Press) and other books.

Oran R. Young is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Institutional Dynamics: Emergent Patterns in International Environmental Governance (MIT Press) and other books.

Arild Underdal is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo.

Norichika Kanie is Professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University and Senior Research Fellow at United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability.

Frank Biermann is Research Professor of Global Sustainability Governance with the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University and the author of Earth System Governance: World Politics in the Anthropocene (MIT Press).

Aarti Gupta is Associate Professor in the Environmental Policy Group of the Department of Social Sciences at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Norichika Kanie is Professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University and Senior Research Fellow at United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability.

Peter M. Haas is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Steinar Andresen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Norway.

Arild Underdal is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo.

Frank Biermann is Research Professor of Global Sustainability Governance with the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University and the author of Earth System Governance: World Politics in the Anthropocene (MIT Press).

Norichika Kanie is Professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University and Senior Research Fellow at United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability.