Building a better world: the ecosystemic approach to quality of life - doi:10.5020/18061230.2006.p100

Abstract

Quality of life, natural and man-made environments and physical, social and mental well-being are presently undermined by all kinds of hazards and injuries, in a context of dehumanisation, depersonalisation and reification. Instead of accepting the “bubbles in the surface” and define actual problems in terms of fragmented representations of reality, the proposed ecosystemic approach works with the dynamic and complex configuration “inside the boiling pot”. Events are defined as configurations intertwining four dimensions of being-in-the-world: intimate, interactive, social and biophysical (subject’s cognitive and affective processes; group mutual support and values; political, economical and cultural systems; natural and man-made environments and contexts). Diagnosis and prognosis take into account the four dimensions as donors and receptors, inducing the events (deficits and assets); coping with effects (desired or undesired) and contributing for change. Instead of projecting into the future of today trends, it proposes a previous definition of desirable goals and exploration of new paths to reach them. Heuristic-hermeneutic communication processes in the socio-cultural learning niches unveil cultural and epistemic paradigms which orient subject-object relationships, “enhancing” and “up-grading”, instead of “repairing” situations to make them “straight”. Accountability, equity, sustainability and empowerment, capacitating events in ethics, culture, environment, health and quality of life are associated to the development of an ecosystemic model of culture, having in mind new concepts of knowledge, wealth, power, growth, work and liberty. The proposal unites the developmental areas, ecological politics, psychology and anthropology, giving people the opportunity to reflect on their own realities engaging themselves in crucial experiences for finding new ways of living better in a better world.