Sustainable Development and the Role of Humanities in Addressing Global Challenges

Jose Miguel Villanueva Torres
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.19085/sijmas120101

Abstract

Sustainable development, as defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), asks humanity to meet its present needs without undermining the ability of future generations to meet theirs. For decades, the conversation about how to accomplish this has been dominated by economics, technology, and the natural sciences. But the problems the world faces today, from climate change to deepening inequality to eroding democratic institutions, are not purely technical. They are moral, cultural, and political. This paper argues that the humanities, including philosophy, history, literature, and the social sciences, have a serious and underappreciated role in how societies address these challenges. Drawing on the work of Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Jeffrey Sachs, and others, and engaging with frameworks like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the paper makes the case that humanistic scholarship sharpens how societies reason about justice, educate their citizens, and design policies capable of dealing with real human complexity. Without this, even technically sound solutions risk failing the people they are meant to serve. The paper also examines obstacles that limit the integration of humanities scholarship into sustainability policy, and argues for genuine interdisciplinary collaboration as the most productive path forward.

Keywords

Sustainable development, humanities, human development, climate justice, education for sustainability, ethics, global governance

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