Governance and Actor Roles In Sustainable Development in a Global - Local Framework

Early Career Researcher Workshop and Network

Funder

This work was supported by a Researcher Links Workshop grant, ID 2017-RLWK8-10714, under the Newton Fund. The grant is funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and The Foundation of Support for Research and Innovation of the State of Santa Catarina (FAPESC), Brazil and delivered by the British Council. For further information, please visit www.newtonfund.ac.uk.

Value

£23,100

Collaborators

The Communitarian Regional University (UNOCHAPECÓ), Santa Catarina State, Brazil.

Team

Prof. Neil Renwick (Coventry University, UK); Prof. Giovanni Olsson (Unochapecó, Brazil); Prof. Jing Gu (Institute of Development Studies, UK);  Prof. Stefania Paladini (Aston University, UK); Prof. Odete Maria de Oliveira (Unochapecó, Brazil); Prof. Claudio Machado Maia (Unochapecó, Brazil).

UK Participants

Dr Laurence De Clippele, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Edinburgh; Dr. Jing Gu, Institute of Developing Studies (Project Mentor); Dr Masud Ibrahim, Senior Lecturer in (Energy & Environmental) Accounting, Coventry University; Dr Frens Kroeger, Research Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University; Mr. Tim Messeder, PhD Student, Coventry University; Dr. Selina O’Doherty, Lecturer in International Development, Swansea University; Dr. Stefania Paladini, Associate Professor, University of Aston Business School (Mentor); Dr. Darren R. Reid, Senior Lecturer, Course Director of History, Coventry University; Prof. Neil Renwick,, Coventry University (Co-Organiser); Mr. Henry Staples, PhD Student, University of Sheffield;  Dr. Leticia Muraro Wildner, Research Fellow - Brighton and Sussex Medical School; Miss Zimu Xu, Research Assistant, Games Institute, Coventry University.

Project Description

The project brings together early career researchers (ECRs), Project Mentors and the organisers in equal number from universities from the UK and Brazil. The project began with a five-day multidisciplinary Workshop hosted by Unochapecó in southern Brazil in late August 2018. The  Workshop provided an opportunity for ECRs to meet, exchange ideas and explore joint research collaboration work. The Project runs for an initial 5 years, the Workshop establishing a research network to build upon the academic relationships and friendships formed during the event.

To join the network contact: n.renwick@coventry.ac.uk

Sustainable development is a core objective for the future. It should reach all peoples in the world in an integrated and articulated way. In a globalised world, it is not possible for it to be fully achieved without overcoming its main challenges: climate change, decent work, and the fight against poverty and inequalities.

It is essential, therefore, that public and private actors can take part in debate and policy-making. The challenge is to ensure that there is an effective two-way engagement between the global and local domains in a way that engages international organisations, governments, NGOs, business, labour and communities). The dynamic, complex and sometimes contradictory forces of change and the new governance challenges being generated need to be better explained and understood in order to strengthen policy and practice. These challenges are broad, deep and mutually constitutive pressing the need for, and benefits of, a multi- or trans-disciplinary approach, drawing upon the expertise and insights from researchers across a wide spectrum of academic disciplines and policy experience.

It was very important and timely, therefore, that the two universities, Coventry and Unochapecó,  were able to hold a joint workshop focusing on knowledge-sharing and long-term epistemic capacity-building, funded by the Newton Fund. Through the Newton Fund, the UK is using its strength in research and innovation to promote economic development and social welfare of partner countries. To contribute to this commitment, the central focus of the Workshop and of the ongoing research collaboration network is ‘Making the ‘2030 Agenda’ a Reality: Knowledge sharing and Long-term Epistemic Capacity-Building for Sustainable Development in a Globalising World: Working Together to Ensure “No One Is left Behind”.’

The main themes of the Project are:

• To identify the main tracks in governance and sustainable development;
• To relate the post-2015 development of the UN 2030 Agenda and its social, environmental, and economic dimensions to challenges of governance with and without government;
• To elaborate regulatory blueprints, for example the relationship between human rights, gender, and the human and civil rights of indigenous peoples to sustainable development and how agencies such as law can help to foster sustainable development;
• To explore “Power to” possibilities in a “power over” world, addressing the question of how private actors (business, civil society, and labour NGOs) can be engaged more effectively to help foster development in partnership with public actors?

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