Global Goals for Sustainability Integration?: The role of ideas, norms and institutions

Abstract

In the Anthropocene, the interplay between human and natural systems has become deeper and more complex than ever. This has increased the normative urgency of sustainability integration, exposing two main gaps. First, a knowledge gap between the new context and the conceptual frameworks available to understand its impact on how we perceive and deal with sustainability integration as a response to those changes. Second, an institutional gap between the structure and aims of current institutions – which include the Sustainable Development Goals - and the demands and challenges of the new Anthropocenic context. This thesis begins by developing a conceptual framework to investigate whether and how change towards sustainability integration is happening at the ideational, normative, and institutional level. It then puts the framework to the test and addresses three main research questions. First, how can we study and explain which models of sustainability integration are prevalent in the Anthropocene? Second, which models of sustainability integration are prevalent and why? Third, how do institutions such as the SDGs influence the prevalence of different models of sustainability integration? The results show a generalised prevalence of the balanced model of integration over the ecocentric model. The ambiguous relationship observed between the SDGs and different models of integration is also likely to affect their ability to fulfil their ambitious claims.