Rankings and the Organisational-level Implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Case Study

Alhanaya, Ibrahim; Belal, Ataur; Gebreiter, Florian

Abstract

This paper examines the organisational-level implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in higher education institutions, with a particular emphasis on the roles of rankings in this context. Drawing on translation theory and a case study of a Saudi Arabian university, the paper shows that rankings played a central role in motivating our case organisation to implement SDGs, and in navigating the implementation process. The paper moreover shows that the reliance of rankings on self-reported data allowed for gaming and manipulation, as the case organisation was, for example, able to present a politically-compliant staff associations as evidence for trade union activity, and a segregated college for female students as evidence for the empowerment of women. The paper however also argues that the flexibility this reliance on self-reported data affords higher education institutions can play a crucial role in adjusting the transnational SDG framework to the political, social and institutional realities of the many different contexts in which it is implemented. Without this flexibility, the entire SDG framework, including the genuine sustainability advances it brought about, might have been rejected outright in the Saudi Arabian context.

Citation

Alhanaya, I., Belal, A., & Gebreiter, F. (online). Rankings and the Organisational-level Implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Case Study. Financial Accountability and Management, https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12418

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 4, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Oct 20, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 5, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 30, 2024
• Journal: Financial Accountability and Management
• Print ISSN: 0267-4424
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-0408
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12418
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2949025