Integral Human Development, Ecology and Ethics

Research group #5

Manager: Professor Claire BRUN

Permanent members: Dr Sylvie ALLOUCHE, Dr Valérie BERTRAND, Professor Christophe BOUREUX, Dr Aimable DUFATANYE, Professor Vincent GOUBIER, Professor Jean-Marie GUEULETTE, Dr. Emmanuel D’HOMBRES, Dr. Béatrice DE MONTERA, Dr. Elara MOUDILOU (HDR), Dr Didier PRINCE-AGBODJAN, Dr Michel RAQUET

Fellow and temporary members: Professor Jean-Marie EXBRAYAT, Dr Noëlle FAVET, Laurence TERZAN

Disciplines involved : Animal Biology, Ecology, Psychology, Philosophy, Law, Theology


Topic and goals


This group is the result of a merger between the Jean-Bastaire Research Group and the CRESO (Social Entrepreneurship Research Centre).

Its research focuses on the study of relational ethics and anthropology based on integral ecology, currently translating into socially innovative approaches in a number of areas (organisations, social work, therapeutic work, etc.)

The two research teams, which had already been able to collaborate in the past, have now joined together around a shared theme and methodology. The theme is a focus on mankind looked at within its ecosystem and living and working environment (natural, economic and social). The research methodology is characterised by an approach that is both pure and applied, based on interdisciplinary work.

Flagship project for 2020-2025


‘Interdependent collaboration & cooperation for the common good.’


As Ethics involves reflecting on the significance of our actions, reflection on the theme of the common good encourages us to think about the significance of collaboration between human beings from an inclusive perspective, one that is critical of any system which creates social exclusion. The contemporary ecological thinking used in the concept of integral ecology gives the thinking a conceptual paradigm in which the essences of all things are fundamentally linked and slot into networks of interdependent interactions.

On a social level, interdependence in collaboration is the vehicle for achieving the common good. For that reason, that is what group 5’s research sets out to explore by:

• Looking for the basic principles of this linked ontology;
• Studying the fundamental interdependence it implies between beings and, more specifically, between humans;
• Exploring the manifestation and the implementation of this interdependence in organisations and the social, business and healthcare fields.