This chapter, starting from the United Nation's (UN) 2030 agenda, analyzes the current stage of implementing its objectives, focusing on the milestones. The UN Agenda 2030 aims to overcome inequalities, poverty, and disparities. This ambitious goal, especially considering the social transformations caused by the pandemic, requires new models of sustainable development. Sustainability and inclusion are key: how can artificial intelligence (AI) support sustainable development and create an inclusive society? AI's pervasiveness can become a risk without a society democratically oriented toward awareness of its centrality and the common good. The emergence of new inclusion models, such as flipped inclusion, can address this challenge and make the ambitious project of the UN Agenda 2030 a concrete reality.
TopIntroduction: The Culture Of Sustainability Connectiveness For Inclusive Societies
An ideal model of society is one that can adapt to various natural and human crises, face challenges and negative impacts arising from environmental, social, and economic changes, while simultaneously preserving natural resources and ensuring the well-being of people. This enables individuals to live full and creative lives, develop their potential, and organize meaningful lives that honor their equal human dignity (Nussbaum, 2011).
The culture of sustainability represents a form of social capital that indicates the degree of civic cohesion, institutional collaboration, and bonds of solidarity (Malavasi, 2017) within the planetary community. Defining sustainability as a pedagogical paradigm occurs in a historical period characterized by weakened relationships with others and the environment. Sustainability requires profound anthropological and ethical reflection that crosses social and economic sciences, not just a cultural adaptation to climate change data (Alessandrini, 2021). The theme of human development connected to the capabilities approach can be considered a substantive point for rethinking educational practices from a “generative” perspective, emphasizing new educational values centered on inclusivity and fighting inequalities, including gender (Alessandrini, 2021).
The term “new humanism” or “humanism of commitment” is used to describe a new model of development. Sustainable development is an inspiring social doctrine that respects humanity and serves as the roadmap for the future. The goal is to build a generation committed to a vision of knowledge networks towards progress and an inclusive, sustainable, and accessible future. This generation of commitment aligns with the United Nation’s (UN) Agenda 2030, realizing a “development model” with 2050 as its horizon, overcoming inequalities, promoting work, green initiatives, digital cities, the knowledge society, the fight against poverty, gender equality, and sustainable prosperity (Malavasi, 2022).
The UN Agenda 2030, often referred to as the World Charter of Progressivism, introduces a new formula of “geo-reformism” that outlines a “New Human Agenda” (Harari, 2017). The concept of “pars pro toto” emphasizes that our connectivity is linked to a whole, reminding us that defending the common home is our collective responsibility. The survival of the human race depends on mutual responsibility towards ecological transition, which develops through continuous interaction between individuals and their environment, value orientations, and responsible actions (Iavarone, et al., 2017).
Transitioning to the role of AI in this context, Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly generative intelligence, represents a significant cultural shift (Accoto, 2021) as it undertakes activities long considered exclusive to humans, necessitating cultural renewal. The social value of this transition emphasizes the qualitative relationships involved, expanding the concept of collaboration between educational contexts, and fostering positive interactions (Triani, 2018). A sustainable society aims for peace and prosperity for all, ensuring inclusivity that “leaves no one behind,” integrating AI's pervasiveness with these principles..