The Global Promotion and Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
Organisers: Ben Harbisher and Stuart Price
Submission email for all contributors: [log in to unmask]
Essential Details
The Media Discourse Centre, in collaboration with the
International Journal of Media Discourse (http://www.ijmd.org.uk) and
the London School of Public Relations (Jakarta), is pleased to announce a two-stage Call for Papers, on the Global Promotion and Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
The preliminary stage of the Conference (aimed primarily at colleagues in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, UK, New Zealand and Australia) takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia, on
Tuesday 9th April 2019.
The second, UK-based event, is hosted by the Media Discourse Centre, Leicester, UK, on
Monday 16th September 2019.
Note: contributors (see below for full CFP) can submit to both events - there are separate Eventbrite links.
Submissions are especially welcome from (but are not restricted to) Early Career Researchers, PGR Students, PhD candidates, Filmmakers, and members of NGOs. The
project is supported by De Montfort University's internal 'GCRF' seed funding.
CFP - The Global Promotion and Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
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 next fifteen years,
the UN intends to mobilise efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that 'no one is left behind'. Three years into this programme, the conference
examines 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:
how the objectives above are communicated or promoted within 'developed' and especially '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
Submission Deadlines: Indonesia
250 Word Abstract and Bio are required by
Friday 15th March 2019 - send to [log in to unmask]
Feedback and acceptance will be offered by the following
Monday, 18th March 2019.
Original research generated from this phase of the conference will be considered for the second edition of the International Journal for Media Discourse (Link: http://www.ijmd.org.uk).
The full papers will be delivered at the main event:
The Global Promotion and Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
Dates/Times: Tuesday 9th April 9.30-4.30
London School of Public Relations - Jakarta Auditorium,
3rd floor Campus B, Sudirman Park,
Jalan KH Mas Mansyur Kav. 35, Jakarta Pusat 10210
Submission Deadlines: UK - send to [log in to unmask]
This phase of the event will consist of a full-day MDC conference on the UNSDGs, paying particular attention to the rhetorical composition and discursive framework of the Goals, the response of governments and public
authorities, and the empirical evidence produced by the Bali case studies (see above for conference themes).
250 Word Abstract and Bio are required by 1st May 2019 - send to [log in to unmask]:
authors will be notified by the 15th May, and successful contributors will be asked to submit full papers by
30th August. Original research generated from this phase of the conference will be considered for the second edition of the International Journal for Media Discourse (Link: http://www.ijmd.org.uk).
Full papers will be delivered at De Montfort University, Clephan Building, Banners Lane, Leicester, LE1 9BH.
Best wishes
Ben, Stuart, and MDC events
