Call for Papers

Invitation to contribute to a major editorial project on the SDGDs: Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals- Regional Perspectives

The process leading to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been negatively influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The health crisis as a whole, and its substantial socio-economic impacts  in particular,  have led to many setbacks. These vary from the emerging of competing priorities, to restrictions in the availablility of financial resources needed to implement the  SDGs. The extent of this problem may be better understood if it is considered that there are at present doubts, as to whether the SDGs may be reached by 2030.

This state of affairs suggests that new - and innovative approaches- to support the implementation of the SDGs are needed. One of them is the support to regional implementation efforts across the various geographical regions, and the documentation and promotion of  these experiences. It is also important to promote studies, research, projects and good practice, which illustrate how the SDGs may be implemented in practice.

It is against this background that the series "Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals- Regional Perspectives" is being produced. The Series  aims to support the acceleration needed for the implementation of the SDGs, by mobilising the academic community, industry and the civil society by generating information and communicating on experiences focusing on the SDGs deemed as being most important for the world regions. These are known to be very different.

For instance,  whereas the need to pursue SDG1 and SDG2 is especially acute in the African region, and there is a special need to pay attention to clean water and sanitation (SDG6) due to the poor infra-structure in this region, they are not necessarily a priority in Europe or North America. To the same measure, rich countries are keen to engage on SDG9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) or  SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). This means that the main focus and contributions from developing countries will be on the "basic SDGs" relevant to these regions, whereas European and North American authors would more intensively engage on others.

The project will thus have a specific regional scope,  tackling the SDGs in a way that it takes the particularities of each region into account. Consistent with this strategy, the "Implementing the UN  Sustainable Development Goals- Regional Perspectives" project consists of four high impact volumes. 
These are:

  • Volume 1-  Implementing the SGDs in the Americas and Caribbean Region
  • Volume 2- Implementing the SDGs in the Asia and Pacific Region
  • Volume 3- Implementing the SGDs in Africa and the Middle East Region
  • Volume 4- Implementing the SDGs in the European Region

This approach means that regional chacteristics and needs are  not only documented on the 4 volumes, achieving the editorial objectives of the publication, but may also guide policy-making and help to unlock investments, since they are tackling issues which deserve more attention in each region.

The rationale behind this publication is the perceived need to provide a focus on the particular features of each geographical region, since needs in African or south-east Asian countries are quite different from those experienced in European or North American nations. By catering for the topics deemed as more  relevant -or urgent- to each of the world regions,  the Series will not only address a long felt information need for regional approaches,  but will also be instrumental in supporting post-pandemic recovery efforts.

Operationally, the project is demand-driven. This means that authors from across all subjects areas are invited to make suggestions for possible themes.  A further innovation is that there are many organisations as cooperating partners on this project (e.g. the EU, OECD, the World Bank, FAO, UNESCO, UNDP etc) and will provide inputs to its development.

The books will  be produced as part of the "World Sustainability Series", the leading peer-reviewed book series on matters related to sustainable development. Apart from 37 volumes produced to date, which can be seen here, it entails the Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education (267 entries) and the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals  (17 volumes, one devoted to each SDG and in excess of 2.500 authors), which is a historical publication since it is the largest editorial project on matters related to sustainable development ever undertaken.

As peer-reviewed publications, the contributions to the books  are acknowledged as high-quality academic outputs. Many authors have had over the years their contributions officially accepted for promotion and tenure purposes. For PhD students, accepted papers are an acknowledged sign of academic performance.

How to contribute?
We herewith invite authors and teams of authors from across all subjects, and from all geographical regions, to submit an expression of interest. This consists of:

1. Name and contact e-mail of the author(s) 2. Geographical region (please see titles of the volumes, 1 to 4):
3. Title of the contribution:
4. SDG it relates to:
5. Summary of up to 300 words:

The scope of the books, led by the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR) and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) is deliberately kept wide, and we are looking for contributions across the  spectrum of sustainable development from business and economics, to engineering, education, arts and fashion, administration, environment, languages and media studies.

The expressions of interest should be sent to the SDG-Publications team
at: SDG-Publications (at) haw-hamburg (dot) de
 

The deadlines are as follows:

Submission of abstracts: 27th Februrary 2022
Submission of full papers: 30th April 2022
Expected publication: papers which pass peer-review will be indexed and may be quoted shortly after acceptance. The full volumes should be completed by summer 2022.

Further details will be shared with the authors whose expressions of interest have been accepted.
If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to contact the editorial team at:
iusdrp (at) ls.haw-hamburg (dot) de

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