SDG Implementation through Technology? Governing Food-Water-Technology Nexus Challenges in Urban Agriculture

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes the importance of technology as a pillar for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Technology innovation promises benefits especially for the implementation of SDG 2 to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. Contributing to current debates on SDG implementation, technology innovation, and cross-sectoral governance, we argue that technology innovation carries both the potential to contribute to global goal implementation and the risk of posing new governance challenges. Applying a food-water-technology nexus (FWTN) perspective, we conduct a case study on an emerging technology in urban agricultural production in Germany. The technology connects the wastewater treatment system and the agricultural production system and projects the transformation of a conventional sewage treatment plant into a ‘NEWtrient®-Center,’ which draws the essential resources for urban hydroponic plant cultivation from municipal wastewater. Building on qualitative and participatory research methods, the study provides deeper insights into the governance implications of FWTN issues stemming from the emerging technology. The analysis shows that this technology has the potential to facilitate SDG implementation, but simultaneously fuels new sector interlinkages between water and food and policy demands that substantiate the need for more integrated policymaking to ensure the smart use of technology to reach the SDGs

Vom Business Case zum Public Case? Der Beitrag privater Selbstregulierung zu Global Governance

"Unternehmen sind immer häufiger an grenzüberschreitenden Normsetzungs- und Normdurchsetzungsprozessen beteiligt. Die beiden Autoren untersuchen Bedingungen für das Auftreten privatwirtschaftlicher Governance-Beiträge und gehen der Frage nach, unter welchen Voraussetzungen sie wünschbare Beiträge zu Global Governance leisten können. Dabei werden Legitimationsanforderungen und das Selbstlegitimierungspotential transnationaler privater Selbstregulierung betrachtet und Perspektiven für deren Einbettung in eine institutionelle Gesamtarchitektur erörtert." (Autorenreferat)"In new forms of public private or even private governance arrangements beyond the state the functional division of labor between the private and the public sector is blurred. Companies have taken on authoritative roles and regulatory functions in processes of norm setting and norm development. This corporate behavior is a new type of norm-entrepreneurship. In order to prevent corporate governance contributions from losing sight of the public interest, they have to meet contextualized normative criteria of legitimacy. Therefore, we argue that they must be embedded in an overarching institutional architecture of global governance in which public institutions can safeguard the conditions under which private self-regulation can make meaningful contributions to governance beyond the state." (author's abstract

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Transformative Change through the Sustainable Development Goals?

The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 sub-targets which serve as a global reference point for the transition to sustainability. The agenda acknowledges that different issues such as poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality, environmental degradation, among others, are intertwined and can therefore only be addressed together. Implementing the SDGs as an ‘indivisible whole’ represents the actual litmus test for the success of the 2030 Agenda. The main challenge is accomplishing a more integrated approach to sustainable development that encompasses new governance frameworks for enabling and managing systemic transformations. This thematic issue addresses the question whether and how the SDGs set off processes of societal transformation, for which cooperation between state and non-state actors at all political levels (global, regional, national, sub-national), in different societal spheres (politics, society, and economy), and across various sectors (energy, transportation, food, etc.) are indispensable. In this editorial, we first introduce the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs by providing an overview of the architecture of the agenda and the key challenges of the current implementation phase. In a second step, we present the eleven contributions that make up the thematic issue clustering them around three themes: integration, governance challenges, and implementation

Vom Business Case zum Public Case? Der Beitrag privater Selbstregulierung zu Global Governance (The Contribution of Private Self-Commitments to Global Governance)

Unternehmen sind immer haeufiger an grenzueberschreitenden Normsetzungs- und Normdurchsetzungsprozessen beteiligt. Die beiden Autoren untersuchen Bedingungen fuer das Auftreten privatwirtschaftlicher Governance-Beitraege und gehen der Frage nach, unter welchen Voraussetzungen sie wuenschbare Beitraege zu Global Governance leisten koennen. Dabei werden Legitimationsanforderungen und das Selbstlegitimierungspotential transnationaler privater Selbstregulierung betrachtet und Perspektiven fuer deren Einbettung in eine institutionelle Gesamtarchitektur eroertert. (In new forms of public-private or even private governance arrangements beyond the state the functional division of labour between the private and the public sector is blurred. Companies have taken on authoritative roles and regulatory functions in processes of norm setting and norm development. This corporate behavior is a new type of norm-entrepreneurship. In order to prevent corporate governance contributions from losing sight of the public interest, they have to meet contextualized normative criteria of legitimacy. Therefore, we argue that they must be embedded in an overarching institutional architecture of global governance in which public institutions can safeguard the conditions under which private self-regulation can make meaningful contributions to governance beyond the state.)Private Self-regulation, Transnational Governance, Good Governance, Neo-Westphalian Approach, Transnational Governance Architecture

Herausforderung Nachhaltigkeitstransformation: Mehr Politikwissenschaft wagen!

International audienceIm Bereich der Nachhaltigkeitstransformation hat die Politikwissenschaft einiges beizutragen. Anhand zentraler Ansätze der politikwissenschaftlichen Nachhaltigkeitsforschung – Policy-Forschung, Governance-Ansätze, Diskurs- und Machtfragen – werden in diesem Beitrag intra-, inter- und transdisziplinäre Forschungsperspektiven eröffnet und zukünftige Handlungsfelder diskutiert. Die Autor*innen plädieren dafür, die Nachhaltigkeitstransformation stärker in den Mittelpunkt politikwissenschaftlicher Forschung zu stellen und so realpolitische Wandlungsprozesse zu unterstützen

The Future of the UK

In the light of the British referendum on EU membership on 23 June, the Centre for British Studies of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin organised a series of public lectures on the future of the UK during the summer term 2016. Despite some forebodings, the outcome of the referendum still came as a harsh surprise. Brexit affects the Centre and its students professionally and personally. Whilst these are exciting times for scholars of British studies, we hope that our good relations to the UK can be maintained. The lecture series allowed us to follow the recommendations of our advisory board to produce a publication on the recent political developments in British politics. This short book is based on the public talks of our lecture series