XVI Basque Studies Congress
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - IT. the future

Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society is an institution that was born in 1918 to protect and impulse cultural and scientific development in culturally Basque territories. It is an entity that is in the vanguard of knowledge, which attempts to advance by reflecting on the main social challenges and to articulate positive responses thereto.

Historically, Basque Studies Congresses have played a very relevant role in terms of stimulation for research and technical and humanistic progress of communities united by a common cultural link. From the first of such congresses, held in 1918 and which marked the scientific awakening of modern Basque society, to that held in 2001 which dealt about the state of art, culture and science in the Basque Country within the new coordinates of the third millennium, each and everyone of the fifteen Basque Studies Congresses have represented a time of rigorous, in-depth and fructiferous reflection on the present and on the future projection of our societies.

It is following these lines that the XVI Congress of Basque Studies is set to be held on 29th and 30th November and 1st December 2005, with reference to an aspect that is transcendentally important for us all: Sustainable Development.

With the idea that Sustainable Development is clearly a factor of the maximum priority for the future of the Basque Country, in spring 2004 Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society started working on the first phase of prospective-strategic reflection involving over 60 specialists and social agents, with the purpose of identifying the key strategic factors and outlining political decisions and decisions on environmental, energy, social, cultural, technological and economic action that will lead us to a new and more efficient model of development that is solidary with the coming generations.

In Phase II, which started in February 2005, six working groups were constituted from a transversal, multidisciplinary and multi-participating perspective. The XVI Congress will be a milestone in this long process of reflection, at the conclusion of which a series of action proposals will be spelt out, and which will have to be fulfilled within the 2020 Sustainable Development deadline.

With the guarantee of its scientific thoroughness, its apolitical character and its positive relationship with public administrations in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, the Statutory Community of Navarre and in the continental Basque Country, Eusko Ikaskuntza-Basque Studies Society seeks the amplest social and economic, institutional and civic implication in this crucial process. A process that does not only point towards a better management of biodiversity, but also towards the management of demodiversity, that is the respect for the diversity f the peoples and cultures that make up the rich mosaic of Humanity.

The Congress will be held in three days:

On the first day a presentation will be made of the conclusions that are the results of the Second Phase of the process, together with the exhibiting of concrete achievements and presentations by international experts.

As we are witnessing the unstoppable “urbanisation” of our lives, the second day will be dedicated to the “Reinvention of the Towns”. The possibility of a new concept of sustainable town will be explored, as developed by citizens supported by technology and economic and cultural agents.

On the third day, Public Administrations and the institutions that are related with Science and Technology will explain their vision of Sustainable Development. Specific actions will be carried out by means of presentations, communications and debates. In parallel, during the second day there will be a Youth Forum with the participation of young people and students from the seven Universities of the Basque Country. Finally, the conclusions of the three days will be established, including those of the Youth Forum.

We wish to encourage the active participation in the Congress by Basques from the Autonomous Community, which is already equipped with a Sustainable Development Strategy for 2002-2020, by those from the Statutory Community of Navarre, which is a model of energy planning, and by those from the territory of Iparralde, which has such a delicate harmony between industry and countryside, between urban and rural life. We also invite corporations and economic agents to assume their dynamic role, trusting this will provide them with a competitive advantage; and public organisations and entities, who are to establish the strategy and operational system that is to lead us towards a fairer and more excellent future by means of Sustainable Development. And, of course, we open the XVI Congress of Basque Studies to young people, whose critical sensibility towards the present and whose dynamic imagination towards the future is indispensable to impulse a structural change in our model of growth.

Nicolás Gaminde
Chair of the XVI Congress and of the Scientific Committee
April 2005