Problems:
Quality of life, natural and man-made environments, physical, social and mental well-being are currently undermined by all sorts of hazards and injuries; political, economical, social and cultural disarray normalise atrocious behaviours and violence throughout the world, in a context of dehumanisation, depersonalisation and reification.
Objectives:
1) To apply a theoretical and practical ecosystemic approach integrating different domains in view of a multidisciplinary process to deal with the problems of difficult settlement or solution in the world, in the benefit of teaching and research programmes, public policies and community projects;
2) To integrate all the dimensions of being-in-the-world as essential and complementary aspects of the problems related to the quality of life, encompassing education, culture, ethics, natural and built environments, physical, social and mental well-being.
Materials and Methods:
For the diagnosis and prognosis of current problems, a multidisciplinary ecosystemic approach considers the four dimensions of being-in-the-world, as donors and recipients: intimate, interactive, social and biophysical. Social, cultural, health and environmental vulnerabilities are understood and dealt with in terms of the connections and ruptures between the dimensions of being-in-the-world, as they induce the events (deficits and assets), cope with consequences (desired or undesired) and contribute for change. Development projects promote the singularity of each dimension and the dynamic equilibrium between them. The methodology is participatory, experiential and reflexive; heuristic-hermeneutic processes unveil cultural paradigms and subject-object relationships, giving people the opportunity to reflect on their own realities and develop the conditions to live better in a better world.
Results:
Instead of taking for granted fragmented representations of reality and working with problems according to political and economical interests, academic formats, mass-media headlines or common sense prejudices, this proposal provides new paradigms to define the problems and a comprehensive framework and planning model to deal with and improve the overall quality of life.
Conclusions
Beyond the segmented “bubbles in the surface”, the focus on complex configurations (the ”boiling pot”), responsible for different sorts of hazards and injuries in the contemporary world, shows that problems of apparently difficult settlement or solution can be understood and dealt with within new paradigms by this ecosystemic approach.

URL of full text of the proposal:
http://www.comminit.com/files/ExperienceandLearningintheEcosystemicModelofCulture.pdf