Moving metrics: Exploring local sustainability indicators as a mobile policy in Norway

Following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and calls to "localise" the Sustainable Development Goals, local governments are increasingly relying on sustainability indicators to operationalise the goals and measure progress. With this, the global market for indicators and the number of international policy experts promoting these tools has expanded. This paper explores the practical work involved in the spread and adoption of sustainability indicators in rural counties and municipalities in Norway. Drawing on ideas from the policy mobilities literature, and data from interviews with local and regional policy actors, the paper identifies mechanisms that facilitate the circulation of sustainability indicators in these peripheral regions. It shows sustainability indicators have been promoted as a quick fix for local governments, while offering little of substance in terms of sustainability work. A key finding of the study is that the sustainability indicators were constructed at the local level as a meaningful common project, and thus acquired a function which kept them in circulation, despite their lack of relevance. As sustainability indicators help shape local priorities and focus attention, they become a particularly powerful mobile policy. An implication of the paper is therefore for practitioners to be wary against one-size-fitsall solutions promoted by international policy experts in the name of the sustainable development. Moreover, research on policy mobilities should to a greater degree be attuned to the challenges and opportunities of smaller municipalities in global policy circulation, especially given the heavy weight of universal policy agendas.