Economics of Care and Meaningfulness for an International Transdisciplinary Chair

The term ‘care’ was introduced into societal debates in the early 1980s with the writings of Carol Gilligan, Janet Finch and Dulcie Groves, and later Joan Tronto. The notion of care associates an individual and moral disposition (taking an interest in others) with an idea of activity (helping, taking care of others) mobilizing the individual, collective and institutional levels. Such behavior lies outside the paradigm of economics based on the logic of homo oeconomicus. In line with what anthropologists are telling us today, it goes beyond the pursuit of individual interest and calls on the logic of giving and the community dimension of the human being. The economy of care and meaning thus integrates two dimensions that conventional economics ignores. On the one hand, the idea of gift and gratuity, and on the other, the consideration of the common good. The economy of care and meaning, beyond its economic dimension, thus calls, in a transdisciplinary perspective, on other academic fields: sociology, anthropology and political science.