El desarrollo sostenible: un concepto de interés para la geografía

Abstract

At the present time, «sustainable development» has set up us the new philosophy that could guide us to productive models more rational with the environment and more equitable with society. The basic objective would be to make viable and lasting the human well-being, through process of integration socioeconomic and ecological dimensions. This success in the use of the term, doesn’t usually turn into important and effective results, both global and local terms. The ambiguity and indefinition of their principles and targets —coming from political and institutional ambits—, and the discord in the forms, methods and instruments to make it operative, are some of the reasons that explain those poor advances. Therefore, the dominant position is a sustainable development «inside the system», that doesn’t question and/or introduces essential changes in the habitual economic behaviour, true reason of the «world eco-social crisis». Their scientific bases have formed a reduced idea of economic system, separated from its maintenance system, Biosphere, and devoid of objectives and valuations beyond monetary aspects. Reaction to these formulations, some scientific disciplines, based on global and integrating approaches, should offer contributions and solutions to the complex, variable and multidimensional task of the sustainable development. Within those, it is possible to locate, Geography.

This article begins with a general and introductory approach about the situation of sustainable development’s discussion, through three general dialectics («What it is?» «What should it be?» and «How should it be?»). After, we justify the utility of Geography for the study and understanding of sustainability process, pointing out some of the most important and appropriate conceptual and methodology possibilities.