Towards a Communication for Sustainable Development

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to put forward an approach for Sustainable Development Communication which is based in Thomas Tufte’s (2017) perspective of Development Communication and Enrique Leff’s (2009) approach to Sustainable Development. The dialogue between both theoretical frameworks draws upon the concepts of ecologies of knowledge (SANTOS; MENESES, 2009) and environmental rationality (LEFF, 2018). The former regards a dialogue between knowledges which encompasses both the modern scientific knowledge and knowledges that were made invisible by the Eurocentric orientation of the modern science; the latter refers – within the scope of a new ontological construction – to the constitution of a new complex unit of knowledge that goes beyond the logic of legitimation and intelligibility of modern Western science itself. In this regard, the role of Communication is to establish a dialogue between these different knowledges, since disciplinary specializations, in face of globalization, are moving towards transdisciplinarity. In that matter, the academic field of Communication would facilitate or even make possible this dialogue between different disciplinary knowledges.