IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v12y2022i1p33-d751718.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Seven Steps to Strategic SDG Sensemaking for Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Ville Taajamaa

    (Mayor’s Office/Strategy, City of Espoo, 02720 Espoo, Finland)

  • Minna Joensuu

    (Mayor’s Office/Strategy, City of Espoo, 02720 Espoo, Finland
    Department of Health and Social Management, University of Eastern Finland, PL 1627, 70211 Kuopio, Finland)

  • Barbara Karanian

    (Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA)

  • Luis Bettencourt

    (Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, Department of Sociology and Evolution and Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA)

Abstract

This practitioner paper is based on the need to make sense of UN Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the city level and in an urban context. We examine the need to explain how to utilise the SDGs in strategic, tactical and operative urban development. We find that there are knowledge and practise gaps in how to localise SDGs in the urban context. This need and the lack of existing tools has led to the development of a strategic sensemaking process, which has been tested and developed with municipal and other practitioners, locally and globally. The paper presents findings from this process of development and from implementation pilots, including an SDG Sensemaking Tool (SST), a step by step iterative procedure to address these gaps. The main focus of this paper is the SDG Sensemaking process, which relies on analysing SDGs in relation to any given phenomena or project within or outside a city. The first results in this work-in-progress show that it contributes to an understanding on the complexity of how SDGs are related to the analysed phenomena, and catalyses the SDG localisation process, which helps make sense of how to navigate and measure progress in such complex environments. More research and applications are, however, needed, so as to further understand how urban governance can meet holistic, sustainable-development needs. Future work will, firstly, comprise further integrating SDGs into city-level strategies with a focus on the local, regional, national, and global impact on sustainable development and the actualisation of SDGs, and secondly, on further developing SST so that it can serve these purposes.

Suggested Citation

  • Ville Taajamaa & Minna Joensuu & Barbara Karanian & Luis Bettencourt, 2022. "Seven Steps to Strategic SDG Sensemaking for Cities," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:12:y:2022:i:1:p:33-:d:751718
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/12/1/33/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/12/1/33/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abbas Hassan & Hyowon Lee, 2015. "The paradox of the sustainable city: definitions and examples," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 1267-1285, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Massimo Beccarello & Giacomo Di Foggia, 2023. "A Circularity Mapping Framework for Urban Policymaking," Journal of Politics and Law, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Inese Mavlutova & Dzintra Atstaja & Janis Grasis & Jekaterina Kuzmina & Inga Uvarova & Dagnija Roga, 2023. "Urban Transportation Concept and Sustainable Urban Mobility in Smart Cities: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Sanober Naheed & Salman Shooshtarian, 2022. "The Role of Cultural Heritage in Promoting Urban Sustainability: A Brief Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, September.
    3. Vahid Javidroozi & Claudia Carter & Michael Grace & Hanifa Shah, 2023. "Smart, Sustainable, Green Cities: A State-of-the-Art Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-28, March.
    4. Hyo Jung (Julie) Chang & Nasir Rakib & Jaehan Min, 2023. "An Exploration of Transformative Learning Applied to the Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability for Fashion Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Ali Cheshmehzangi & Andrew Flynn & May Tan-Mullins & Linjun Xie & Wu Deng & Eugenio Mangi & Weixuan Chen, 2021. "From Eco-Urbanism to Eco-Fusion: An Augmented Multi-Scalar Framework in Sustainable Urbanism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-22, February.
    6. Dimitra Tsirigoti & Katerina Tsikaloudaki, 2018. "The Effect of Climate Conditions on the Relation between Energy Efficiency and Urban Form," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-29, March.
    7. Ligorio, Lorenzo & Venturelli, Andrea & Caputo, Fabio, 2022. "Tracing the boundaries between sustainable cities and cities for sustainable development. An LDA analysis of management studies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    8. Ismaila Rimi Abubakar & Umar Lawal Dano, 2020. "Sustainable urban planning strategies for mitigating climate change in Saudi Arabia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 5129-5152, August.
    9. Xiaofeng Zhao & Mingming Zhang & Ying Li & Xianjin Huang & Baiyuan Wang & Lin Zhang, 2020. "Urban residential land expansion and agglomeration in China: a spatial analysis approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 5317-5335, August.
    10. Maria Spiliotopoulou & Mark Roseland, 2020. "Urban Sustainability: From Theory Influences to Practical Agendas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Justyna Przywojska, 2021. "Polish Local Government’s Perspective on Revitalisation: A Framework for Future Socially Sustainable Solutions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
    12. Yingying Zhang & Yigang Wei & Jian Zhang, 2021. "Overpopulation and urban sustainable development—population carrying capacity in Shanghai based on probability-satisfaction evaluation method," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 3318-3337, March.
    13. Gabriele Cepeliauskaite & Zaneta Stasiskiene, 2020. "The Framework of the Principles of Sustainable Urban Ecosystems Development and Functioning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, January.
    14. Barragán-Escandón, Edgar A. & Zalamea-León, Esteban F. & Terrados-Cepeda, Julio & Vanegas-Peralta, P.F., 2020. "Energy self-supply estimation in intermediate cities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    15. Sudeshna Kumar & Sumitro Bhaumik & Haimanti Banerji, 2021. "Methodology for Framing Indicators for Assessing Economic-Socio-Cultural Sustainability of the Neighbourhood Level Urban Communities in Indian Megacities: Evidence from Kolkata," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 511-544, April.
    16. Jeongseob Kim & Kristin Larsen, 2017. "Can new urbanism infill development contribute to social sustainability? The case of Orlando, Florida," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(16), pages 3843-3862, December.
    17. Aleksandra Plonka & Ewa Heczko-Hylowa & Wojciech Sroka, 2021. "Role of Spatial Planning in the Restitution and Development of Urban Agriculture," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2B), pages 698-711.
    18. Chiara Catalano & Mihaela Meslec & Jules Boileau & Riccardo Guarino & Isabella Aurich & Nathalie Baumann & Frédéric Chartier & Pascale Dalix & Sophie Deramond & Patrick Laube & Angela Ka Ki Lee & Pasc, 2021. "Smart Sustainable Cities of the New Millennium: Towards Design for Nature," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    19. Talal Obaid Alshammari & Abbas M. Hassan & Yasser Arab & Heba Hussein & Fatemeh Khozaei & Maryam Saeed & Basma Ahmed & Manaf Zghaibeh & Wesam Beitelmal & Hyowon Lee, 2022. "The Compactness of Non-Compacted Urban Developments: A Critical Review on Sustainable Approaches to Automobility and Urban Sprawl," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    20. S M Fijul Kabir & Samit Chakraborty & S M Azizul Hoque & Kavita Mathur, 2019. "Sustainability Assessment of Cotton-Based Textile Wet Processing," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-15, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:12:y:2022:i:1:p:33-:d:751718. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.