Sustainability : a strong concept for humanity.

La sustentabilidad o sostenibilidad : un concepto poderoso para la humanidad.

The notion of sustainable or tenable development is still under construction, as it has transcended and enriched itself, but it has also broken into pieces and moved away from its roots. The indiscriminate use of the term «sustainable» has resulted in exhaustion of its original meaning, which has diluted its importance and made a rigorous analysis increasingly difficult. This paper fosters a critical debate on the role of the sustainable in societal development, considering that this concept involves significant changes in present day’s society concerning societal values. Based on a historic review of the sustainable and/or tenable up to our days, especially under the light of ‘our common future’ (ONU, 1987), both concepts are presented. While having points in common, tenable refers to the harmonic coexistence of economic, social and environmental aspects with the value system, and the sustainable considers each of those subsystems separately.

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