Interculturality as an ethical and political horizon: reflections on education and health

Abstract

Contemporary society is facing a convergence of crises—climatic, political, educational, and moral—whose common thread is a drift away from social justice and the weakening of community ties. From an anthropological and intercultural perspective, this article reflects on how modern instrumental rationality —conceptualized by Weber (1964) as an “iron cage” and critically explored by the Frankfurt School (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1994)— contrasts with the substantive rationalities of indigenous societies in continuity and change, which inextricably link knowledge, feeling, and territory. This article offers a preliminary exploration of interculturality as an ethical and political framework capable of providing answers to the contemporary crisis of values, with an initial examination of specific concepts such as the idea of “good living” (sumaq kawsay, sumaq kamaña), Fals Borda’s notion of “feeling-thinking” (2015) and certain ideas emerging from studies on community and indigenous education. It also introduces the concept of the commons (Ostrom, 1990) as a framework for thinking about both collective knowledge and intercultural education and health practices, highlighting the need to articulate top-down institutional approaches with bottom-up community initiatives that originate from indigenous territories and epistemologies themselves. The conclusion affirms that strengthening the communal as a living space for intercultural practice —and bottom-up policies— constitutes an ethically oriented pathway to confront the growing dehumanization in the era of artificial intelligence.