SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: RESEARCH IN AN INTERCULTURAL CONTEXT

Although there are various well argued definitions about what sustainable development means, there is a lack of information about its meaning in the particular context of an intercultural university. Generally, sustainability is a goal which could never be obtained completely; sustainability is an ideal while sustainable development means all concrete humans attempts to obtain such goal. There is a direct link between human needs and sustainable development. Therefore, the popular concept of describing sustainable development as an absolutely valid objective for everybody is an illusion. It is based on the failed idea that humanity counts with universal needs. However, this is only correct for the most basic human needs. Except of these basic requirements, there is huge amplitude of very diverse human needs, especially in socio-economic and sociocultural belongings. The more populated the community to be evaluated is, the more difficult becomes to determine common interests and therefore the more representative evaluation becomes. In other words, sustainable development must be seen as a subjective process - always depending on the persons defining their own needs. This is a factor which definitely complicates measuring; on the other hand it forces researches to take position: they have to declare which subjects have the privilege to determine such needs. In the case of the intercultural universities, the selection of the determinants of sustainable development requires a profound knowledge of the rural communities which usually - in an occidental point of view - do not show huge social-economic variety, but well count with a diverse spectrum of nuances within their habitants, especially valid for political and socio-cultural aspects. This is why it is necessary to establish well developed links between researchers and the population of these small rural communities - a process which requires an ambient of reliance resulting from deep interaction between researchers and local people. Therefore, in this context the only way to realize investigation is participatory research. The academic individual involved in this process has all the right to be exigent selecting the adequate community. Anyhow, this requires a well argued choice neglecting the researcher's own interests. The academic should be becoming a tool of the rural population's interests.