The Mediation of Sustainability Part V

Call for Papers

On 1 January 2016, 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 some 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’.

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, at the midway point for this ambitious venture, and reeling from the repercussions of i) the global pandemic, ii) ongoing conflict in several theatres of war, iii) a worldwide financial crisis, and iv) the fragmentation of international trade agreements or political unions, the conference poses the question – is accomplishing sustainability still possible within the designated timeframe?

The intention of this conference is to examine the progress made in the fight to end poverty, to promote health, to develop sustainable smart cities, to prevent further climate change, to facilitate economic growth, to protect the oceans, and to end world hunger.

Conference themes include:

• sustainable media, media practice, and sustainability research

• how the objectives above are communicated or promoted within ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ nations

• the extent to which these goals being encouraged, measured, enacted or resisted

• the local, autonomous, grassroots initiatives that may embrace or go beyond the framework set by the UN

• the social, political, cultural and economic barriers to the successful attainment of the UNSDGs

• the application of discourse/multi-modal approaches to the textual material produced within a material/symbolic environment

• the representation of those 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 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

Full Programme as below:

THE MEDIATION OF SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE - 7 June 2023

LSPR TRANSPARK CONFERENCE ROOM AND VIA ZOOM

THE MEDIATION OF SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE

7 June 2023

LSPR TRANSPARK CONFERENCE ROOM AND VIA ZOOM

CONFERENCE

Jakarta Time Speaker Time Zone Duration (Minutes) Activities

09.00 - 09.05 5 Opening by MC

09.05 - 09.30 25 Introduction from Dr. Ben (Coventry University)

09.30 - 10.00 10.30 NYC 30 Jayashri Wyatt (United Nations)

10.00 - 10.30 15.00 AUCK 30 Serenity Wise (Auckland)

10.30 - 11.00 30 BREAK

11.00 - 11.30 12.00 - 12.30 PHP 30 Prof. Marco (DLSUD)

11.30 - 12.00 05.30 - 06.00 UK 30 Mark Hughes Webb (Media consultant, Sustainability Entrepreneur)

12.00 - 12.30 06.00 - 06.30 UK 30 Jason lee (De Montfort University)

12.30 - 13.00 30 LUNCH BREAK

13.00 - 13.30 07.00 - 07.30 UK 30 Stuart Price (De Montfort University)

13.30 - 14.00 07.30 - 08.00 UK 30 Donatella Maraschin (Coventry University)

14.00 - 14.30 08.00 - 08.30 UK 30 Mark Charlton (De Montfort University)

14.30 - 15.00 08.30 - 09.00 UK 30 BREAK

15.00 - 15.30 09.00 - 09.30 UK 30 Rhys Davies (De Montfort University)

15.30 - 16.00 09.30 - 10.00 UK 30 John Coster (Documentary Media Centre)

16.00 - 16.30 10.00 - 10.30 UK 30 Rachel Carter (De Montfort University)

16.30 -17.00 10.30 - 11.00 UK 30 Jenifer Ere (De Montfort University)

17.00 - 17.30 07.00 - 07.30 BR 30 Bárbara Cruz (Brazilian Chamber of Deputies)

17.30 - 17.35 11.30 - 11.35 UK 5 Photo Session

17.35 - 17.40 11.35 - 11.40 UK 5 Closing Remarks

SDG Conference, 7 June 2023

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86717044312?pwd=OGN2OGhzYmlZR01ESmFXclh6czlxQT09

ID: 86717044312

Passcode 005949

The Global Promotion & Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals