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Remaking the Sustainable Development Goals: relational Indigenous epistemologies
[Assessing national progress and priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Experience from Australia]

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  • Johannes M Waldmüller
  • Mandy Yap
  • Krushil Watene

Abstract

While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were inclusive in their design, the reliance on official measurement infrastructures has upheld narrow definitions of both the terms of sustainability and development. Indigenous and non-Indigenous “governance beyond the state” approaches call these definitions into question. They highlight that disaggregated official data are unable to fully reflect alternative grounds and aspirations of living sustainably with the environment and non-human world. Relational Indigenous epistemologies and practices contribute to alternative epistemic infrastructures. In this paper, three examples from the Andean-Pacific region provide an alternative lens through which to reconceptualize and remake the SDG landscape. Together this suite of cases highlights the importance of bottom-up articulation processes, knowledge inclusion, and alternative epistemic harmonization for operationalizing the SDGs. In particular, we highlight the urgent need to renegotiate the relationship between Indigenous communities and the global measurement infrastructure in order to pursue and realize global sustainability goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes M Waldmüller & Mandy Yap & Krushil Watene, 2022. "Remaking the Sustainable Development Goals: relational Indigenous epistemologies [Assessing national progress and priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Experience from Australia]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 471-485.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:polsoc:v:41:y:2022:i:4:p:471-485.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/polsoc/puac026
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marlee Tichenor & Sally E Merry & Sotiria Grek & Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Global public policy in a quantified world: Sustainable Development Goals as epistemic infrastructures [The ethics of a formula: Calculating a financial-humanitarian price for water]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 431-444.

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