The Role of Human Communication in Addressing Global Wicked Problems

The United Nations reports that only 17% of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on track to be achieved by 2030. As a global development agenda endorsed by 193 countries, the SDGs aim to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. However, one critical yet often overlooked dimension is the role of human communication in shaping development outcomes.

Despite its fundamental role in fostering collaboration, trust, and social cohesion, human communication has not been explicitly recognized as an SDG. Scholars, policymakers, and global leaders increasingly acknowledge that neglecting communicative factors contributes to the failure of multiple SDGs and other global initiatives, exacerbating mistrust, conflict, and societal fragmentation worldwide.

This Research Topic critically examines the intersections of human communication and sustainable development, emphasizing the central role of communication in addressing global wicked problems now and beyond 2030. We invite contributions that explore communication as a key enabler of global and local dialogues, participatory governance, social transformation, and crisis response. By foregrounding human communication in glocal problem-solving discourse, this Research Topic aims to present new case studies, advance theoretical and methodological frameworks, and propose best practices and strategies for fostering sustainable and equitable futures.

Possible topics for submission may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• local and Indigenous knowledge and perspectives on communication in addressing wicked problems
• global futures and communication for development and social change
• health communication and the pursuit of health for all on a healthy planet
• the Anthropocene, environmental communication, and climate action
• addressing disinformation, misinformation, and societal divides through communication
• communicating science, technology, and innovation for sustainable futures
• peace and conflict communication in global, national, and regional contexts
• bridging the digital divide and addressing digital inequality through communication in underserved contexts
• artificial intelligence and communicative approaches to tackling wicked problems
• cultural, linguistic, and intersectional plurality in advancing communication for all
• global communication, diplomacy, and international relations in addressing multidimensional poverty at the margins
• the communicative roles of advocacy, stakeholder mobilization, and social movements in grassroots empowerment within under-resourced contexts.

Information and Instructions for Authors

This Research Topic accepts any of the article types listed below, except for Editorial (Editorials are submitted exclusively by the Topic Editors).

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: human communication, global wicked problems, UN-SDGs, sustainable and equitable futures, communicative praxis, communication for all, global communication

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.