Environmental ethics and development: democratic participation for a sustainable society

Abstract

The global society confronts a double crisis: one concerning our relation with the natural environment and the other referred to our own human condition. With this idea as starting point, we proposed the need to think about the issues of development, not only in the economic sense, but in a more complete human sense. In this task, we consider that different institutions and social actors must be involved in order to build together a better future. Educational institutions, and specially universities, will have a fundamental role, because they constitute the natural place for inquiry, analysis, and construction of new proposals. In this article, we undertake a review of the background behind these crises, discuss new lines of thought directed to deal with these crises and we conclude emphasizing the importance of creating spaces for ethical consideration.