This critical social research studies the underlying power configurations and forms of knowledge of the UN development agenda. Processes of empowerment already existed in the recourse to the concept of the state and the group formations based on it. Alternative forms of knowledge experienced exclusion early in the negotiation process. In the end, only a privileged few searched for a vision of the future of mankind by means of common methods. Through a survey of stakeholders, four fundamental contradictions were identified that result in the perpetuation of the status quo. Finally, a need for transformative approaches emerges at the level of the United Nations and beyond intergovernmental institutions at the level of global society.

Denk A. (2023) Nachhaltige Entwicklung und globale Ungleichheit. Eine wissenspolitologische Studie über die Entwicklungsagenda der Vereinten Nationen. Baden-Baden: Nomos. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748941644