Sustainability and ethnic peace discourse: in search for synergies from bringing together discourses on intercultural communication and on global sustainability

Abstract

In political discourse, the notion of sustainability frames a worldwide debate on how to ensure future constructive development on a global scale. Decades ago, the finiteness of natural reserves firstly initiated an awareness for the need of sustainable economic development. Recently, political agendas on sustainability and sustainable development also comprise the pillar of social sustainability. While intercultural understanding is seen as a necessary condition to ensure social sustainability, a corresponding concept of the sustainability of intercultural understanding has not been elaborated any further, yet. This article fleshes out the normative frameworks of the political discourse on sustainability. It will then explore the contemporary field of intercultural communication research to find out in what ways the existing research can contribute to specify the role of intercultural understanding in sustainability discourse. Centrally, potential normative orientations underlying intercultural communication theory and research need to be identified to build a bridge to the normative discourse on sustainability.