"Resilience is defined as the ability that a community has to respond positively to negative impacts. The term was devised for ecological communities and is currently defended by many as the best alternative for sustainable development.
Sustainable development is characterized as a type of development capable of ensuring the expansion of the present generation without compromising the future generation. The three components of this type of development are the social, economic and environmental component.
The concept of development lacks a clear definition. What is development? The answer may not always be universal. This will depend on the moral, social and economic values of each individual. The three pillars of sustainable development lose sense at this very point. From the moment you think of this concept, this is dependent on values, which in turn depend on the person who is evaluating the development ceases to be sure, being destined to policies he doomed to failure. So how do we organize a society based on progress? For that we have to be reductionist enough to think that particular bet will benefit an entire society, even though effectively that it won't.
What is the solution?
As I said earlier, the emphasis on community resilience and capabilities. Communities is that define their own path, the function of the Government creating support platforms and policy decision making in communities (shouldn't be this same Government function?). Mirrors-if nowadays in movements such as the movement of transition (Transition Town Network) and is based on policies of prosperity of primary goods (food and health).
Emphasizes the well-being, development ends with capitalist policies and increases the production of goods locally, reducing the ecological footprint and promoting the establishment of money in the community. However, contrary to popular belief, these communities do not necessarily have to live isolated. In fact, how can we assist in transition initiatives, there is a high exchange of information between the various communities (as so should be on globalization), by changing ideas but most of all, inspiring them.
This production site has high benefits. There's an increase in empirical knowledge within the community, passing from generation to generation and from neighbor to neighbor, there is an approach of society to the land, there is food prosperity, with Exchange of food between the people of the Community (who work for themselves and not for other communities), there is an increase of social relations between individuals in the community, there is the decline of abandonment and isolation and the increasing interactions and occupations.
At the bottom, all are helpful (isn't that how happy we are, being useful?). There are locally, power generation from renewable sources (environmentally acceptable and more efficiently without the community the most interested in the subject). This policy resembles a bit to the idea of a Communist policy, however, is not as utopian as this, because the smaller the area of implementation of this policy, there is less likelihood of error, because less will be reductionist, leaving the community, the interested party, responsible for the correct policies to be applied, not the Government, that in many cases it doesn't make the proper assessment of the problem which creates solutions that often aren't any solutions.
In an era of globalization, we should live a little more like our grandparents, however, all that globalization has good to give to society, information. "
Pedro Joel Rodrigues da Costa (joel12510@hotmail.com) is a student of master in environmental engineering at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro and writes under the new orthographic agreement. Want to publish your article in our aggregator? Send us your text to info@greensavers.pt or cmartinho@gci.pt. We're looking for inspiration or rant.
Foto:  Rui Ornelas / Creative Commons
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