Sustainability concept in context of economy politics of communication and brands

Concepts are holistic disciplines, which are used to define the World, its relations and reality. The emergence of new concepts depends on the changing social relations and so, new concepts are created or existing ones are innovated to define the new World. Sustainability concept, which became popular with 2000s, attracts attention in this term. Although the concept was first used in Brundtland report in 1987, it has been institutionalized with the declaration of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, which is the framework of principles of sustainable development set by the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is an initiative of the United Nations (UN). When the principles were first set in 2000, Kofi Annan declared them as a global transformation strategy to counter the negative consequences of globalisation. In this context, the sustainability concept has been presented as the reverse process of the globalisation especially in terms of social democracy. The UNGC was presented as a social contract and the sustainability strategies as humanisation of capitalism. However, the similarities between the sustainability and the globalisation concepts in terms of notion and action point the contradictions in context of the reliability of the commitments. In this context, the sustainability concept will be examined in terms of notion and action within the historical progress of the changing social relations. Findings will be compared with its current representation made by the UNGC. The regulatory role of the communication will be examined while tracing the question of 'what is definition of the sustainability concept?'. At the first chapter of the research, it will be discussed whether the sustainability concept is the aesthetic expression of globalization. Second chapter will be the investigation of three pillars of sustainability concept – environment, social and governance- in terms of their hegemony building actions and discourses. The third chapter will cover an economic policy approach that discusses the functioning of UNGC sanctions and the fulfilment of sustainability commitments in the context of brands and companies that sign the UNGC. In the conclusion, the integral doctrine of the sustainability concept will be discussed.