Massimo Pallottino

The debate on growth and development that has been going on over the last decades has clearly highlighted a number of flaws and contradictions that the theory, as well as the practice, of International Development Cooperation (IDC) has failed to address in a convincing and effective way. IDC, once the prime tool for promoting a change in the livelihoods of the poorest and most vulnerable, is increasingly under scrutiny and does not seem to have provided an effective response to the current crisis. Buen Vivir (good life), Latin America’s new concept for collective well-being, which has emerged over recent years from the traditional cosmovisions of Andean indigenous peoples and translated into political and institutional practice, offers elements of reflection on economy, environment and social life that are useful for reframing the way ‘well-being’ is conceived within the current development setting: a fresh perspective on the most urgent global concerns is particularly useful as the debate regarding the successors to the Millennium Development Goals post-2015 starts to heat up. The new approach to IDC developed in Ecuador in recent years represents an attempt to put some of these elements into practice. However, beyond the experiences in Latin America, that can claim a closer link, albeit not without tensions, with the indigenous peoples with which the Buen Vivir culture has its roots, these suggestions can show an interesting convergence with alternative views on development emerging from the reflections and practices of Western social movements.

The aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent buen vivir (‘good life’), Latin America’s new concept for collective well being, can be considered a way forward beyond current paradigms related to economic growth, development, ideology and state building, with its strengths and potential weaknesses or just a new version of political discourse. In order to answer this question, we will briefly review the literature that can help to trace the buen vivir origins in the cosmovisions of Latino American indigenous peoples, and to connect it to reflections made in different areas of social, economic and political sciences, trying to identify the areas in which divergences arise using established approaches and frameworks. In the conclusions we will also try to look at the added value brought by the buen vivir towards a renewed understanding of political, social, and economic objectives of the associated life.

Il presente studio esamina il fenomeno delle disuguaglianze, intese come un fattore multidimensionale, che incide su diversi aspetti della vita umana e sociale. In particolare, l’obiettivo principale della ricerca è quello di verificare se nel territorio del XV Municipio di Roma, generalmente riconosciuto come una realtà ricca e sviluppata, esistono delle condizioni di disuguaglianza, se si riscontrano dei fattori sociali e urbanistici associati al fenomeno delle disuguaglianze e che tipo di raffronto si può fare tra i dati che emergono dall’analisi del suddetto territorio rispetto agli altri municipi del comune di Roma.

This study examines the phenomenon of inequality, understood as a multidimensional factor, which affects various aspects of human and social life. In particular, the main objective of the research is to verify whether in the territory of the XV Municipality of Rome, generally recognized as a rich and developed reality, there are conditions of inequality, whether there are social and urban factors associated with the phenomenon of inequality and what kind of comparison can be made between the data that emerge from the analysis of this territory compared to the other municipalities of the municipality of Rome.

Salvatore Monni e Massimo Pallottino ricordano che lo scorso 25 settembre a New York sono stati presentati i nuovi Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rispetto ai quali sono stati formulati numerosi giudizi positivi. Monni e Pallottino, illustrando le principali caratteristiche della nuova agenda di sviluppo delle Nazioni Unite spiegano perché, a loro avviso, essa sia meno innovativa di quanto si tende a ritenere. A questa conclusione i due autori giungono anche attraverso un confronto con l’enciclica Laudato Si’ di Papa Francesco.

Monni e Pallottino ricordano che nel 2015 verranno a scadenza gli Obiettivi di Sviluppo del Millennio e che è in corso il dibattito per definire i nuovi obiettivi. Monni e Pallottino illustrano il risultato provvisorio di questo dibattito che consiste in una lista di 17 nuovi Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile e sostengono che in questa lista sono presenti tutte le parole chiave del ‘politically correct’ dello sviluppo, ma sembra mancare la cosa più importante: il coraggio di rompere con le vecchie idee.

The debate around post 2015 is heating up while the international community is waiting for the United Nations General Assembly of September 2015, where the new international reference framework, based on a new conception of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will be endorsed. The evaluation of the outcomes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has contributed highlighting some advancements as well as some limitations, which need to be taken into consideration when looking into the future. The international negotiations are currently focussing on the proposal formulated by the Open Working Group that, at the end of its mandate has elaborated a proposal consisting in 17 objectives and 160 targets. Yet, the debate so far has highlighted that the future framework will have to be universal (that is: not only considering the so-called developing nations, but applicable to all human societies); adherent to the specific needs of the different peoples; based on human rights; based on the consideration of the intersection between economic, social and environmental sustainability; looking at a perspective for global change able to go beyond a simple and unidimensional understanding of development, solely based on the increment of GDP.