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SDGs as common language for transcultural dialogue

  • The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations for 2030 and the regular progress tracking of their 169 targets represent the currently dominant international ‘’language’’  for having conversations on desirable futures and for coordinating respective action across scales, from local, to national to international. The SDGs provide a multidimensional framing that acknowledges the interconnectedness of different goals.

#04 - Wedding Cake of the United Nations’ SDGs (Dolors Quiles, 2022)

Image 03: Wedding Cake of the United Nations’ SDGs (Dolors Quiles, 2022)

  • As Community Catalysts we recognize the benefits of such a shared language for engaging highly diverse contributors with each other around a shared agenda. As systemic thinkers and actors, we also value the attempt to establish an interconnected multidimensional framework. At the same time, we remain critical regarding the flat, side-by-side view of economic, social and environmental goals and the total lack of Inner Development Goals. We also stress how far we are from what has been called the Inner Development Goals, calling for people to be able to live in communities that are happy, connected and interconnected.
  • The CC consortium has decided to take a regenerative interpretation of the SDGs, since it allows for the project to develop with a stronger theoretical basis. This framework is what is known as the "Wedding Cake" of the Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden. It gives us the added value of seeing the interconnectedness between layers (environment, society, economy, communication), and to see our biosphere and our bioregions as ‘keepers’, incorporating and holding all layers within their complex systems. This perspective allows us to better understand where we are and how to move towards regeneration in each layer.

Community Catalysts and the SDGs Wedding Cake

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