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The Humanities and the SDGs
Exploring the contribution of the humanities to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
3 October 2020
This collaborative project set out to explore and demonstrate the major contribution that the Humanities can make to achieving the UN SDGs. It premised that the 17 SDGs have gained remarkable traction听since their launch in 2015. Far more than their听predecessors (the Millenium听Development听Goals), the SDGs have had a major impact both听on policy-makers and the general public. This crop of ideas speaks to a set of听genuinely urgent problems and has transformed听public debate over the last seven years.
Yet few of these discussions are informed听by the type of thinking that takes place in the听humanities.听UN Reports on the SDGs advocate technocratic, resource management solutions,听referring to human behaviour only insofar as it听impedes policy implementation.听Little attention听is paid to the human factors 鈥攕ocial, political听and ethical鈥� essential to any prospect of lasting听success in transforming what people can or will听do. The UNESCO Hangzhou Declaration of 2013听championed culture as 鈥榓n enabler and driver of听sustainable development鈥�,听but policy-makers rarely听draw upon the vast reservoir of cultural expertise听that is the Humanities.听
While there is widespread听recognition that the Humanities could make a major听contribution, their integration into the work is still听patchy, partial and far below its true potential. To do so, the project explored three related questions:
1) What do we miss by not including the Humanities in the debate?
2) What could the Humanities already be adding to the work on SDGs?
3) What more should be done to include the Humanities?
Findings were brought together in a major research report and an app has been developed as听a collaborative resource for gathering critical perspectives, grounded in humanities thinking, on the SDGs.
The Humanities & The SDGs project exhibition panel at the听Grand Challenges, Grand Impacts听exhibition, 2023
