The “winds of change”: the SPES framework on Sustainable Human Development

The general objective of this paper is to provide a novel theoretical framework for Sustainable Human Development, offering a clear integrated vision to sustainability transition processes to reconcile potential contradictions between economic, social, and environmental spheres and better identify its pillars, driving actors and triggering factors. This is done by combining the global policy framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the theoretical insights of the Human Development paradigm and other critical perspectives and schools of thought. Taken together, they allow for the integration of the dimensions of social, environmental, and economic sustainability into a new integrated framework – the SPES framework – to consolidate the Sustainable Human Development paradigm for its mainstreaming and uptake at all levels. Therefore, the ambition of this paper – and the SPES project in general – is to offer a theoretically-grounded and policy-oriented framework, pointing out that the lives of human beings and the sustainability of our societies should be the ultimate concern for any government intervention at all levels. In this regard, the SPES framework is dynamic and centred on collective action, shaped by a clear attention for the common good and underpinned by a normative position on capitalism and structural change, as well as on objectives and factors shaping transition processes. The SPES framework has relevant implications for academic research on sustainability transition. In particular, it urges the whole global community of scholars to keep the vibrant debate on sustainability at the forefront, to guide measurement systems, research activities and policy discussion in reconciling the multiple facets of sustainability transitions, as well as to support societal actors in the systemic change towards Sustainable Human Development.