Sustainable Business Practices in Developing Economies : Decolonizing the SDGs

This book explores the intersection of sustainability and business practices in developing economies, focusing on innovative strategies that contribute to and critically engage with relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It takes a critical stance toward mainstream sustainability narratives and the global SDG framework. Moving beyond conventional CSR rhetoric, tokenistic sustainability practices, and unchecked SDG optimism, it interrogates whether global initiatives truly align with local realities in developing economies. Through a grounded critique, it explores how the SDG agenda may reinforce top-down, one-size-fits-all models that fail to capture the socio-political and economic diversity of the Global South. Rather than celebrating the SDGs uncritically, this book scrutinizes their operational feasibility, coherence, and inherent structural limitations, offering equity-driven and context-sensitive alternatives that challenge normative frameworks and conventional wisdom. Drawing from decolonial theory to highlight how knowledge production, sustainability discourse, and implementation models are often shaped by colonial legacies and northern-centric paradigms, this work focuses on grassroots approaches, localized epistemologies, and pluriverse thinking to reimagine sustainability as a more inclusive and transformative endeavor, potentially leading to the articulation of new, decolonially informed sustainability concepts. By bridging research and practice, this book combines scholarly analysis with grounded case studies, enabling readers to engage with both conceptual debates and real-world applications. Ultimately, it offers a roadmap for transitioning from ambition to action, advocating for sustainability practices that are both transformative and just.