Isabelle Delannoy presents us the symbiotic economy, an economy based on the dynamics of living beings, those who know how to recreate, reinvent themselves, recycle their waste and revitalize their creations and destructions. It is a question of combining the positive contributions of the existing paradigm (technological progress) with the teachings of the First Peoples (who found the keys to sustainability) and the lessons of the living (biomimicry), in order to create a "symbiotic" and sustainable third way. Learning to regenerate the world we are transforming.
Isabelle Delannoy talks to us about the reconnection of man and the living, about the recognition of the human technological power we need to break the deadlock we are in and learn to reconnect together to put the power of the collective at the service of the common good.
An agricultural engineer specializing in ecology, Isabelle Delannoy began her career as a lobbyist for organic farmers. She then accompanied Yann Arthus-Bertrand in his message and actions for ecology. In 2008, she wrote her film Home.
An activist through her blogs (eco-echos), broadcasts and books, she has gradually left the media for entrepreneurship, engineering and research, and has spent the last five years analyzing and working with the emerging world, especially the economic and productive world. She has developed an integrative theory of these new logics of economic production and organization, the symbiotic economy model.
It supports territories and companies with the tools derived from the model through its economic development agency. Do Green, economy of symbiosis, around which an association, L'Atelier symbiotique, has been formed, bringing together individuals and companies wishing to accelerate the transition to the symbiotic economy.
She has written "Nous sommes prêts, l'économie de la symbiose, comment 40 ans d'innovations accouchent d'un nouveau monde" (We are ready, the economy of symbiosis, how 40 years of innovations give birth to a new world), which is due to be published by Actes Sud in 2016.
Part 1: Humanity at a time of rupture
"I think we're really at a point of radical breakup.
According to economists, what we are experiencing is as radical as the 1929 crisis and the two world wars combined; according to historians, it is a new renaissance; according to archaeologists, we are revisiting humanity since the beginning of the great civilizations (patriarchal and pyramidal); according to geologists, we are experiencing the 6th extinction of species, the last one being that of the dinosaurs 60 million years ago.
We are at a renewal of humanity. Symbiotic economy is a recognition of the technical intelligence of the living.
Symbiotic economy, a circular economy: what is the difference between a circular economy and a symbiotic economy?
In symbiotic economy there is an aspect that is taken into account by agro-ecology, which sees the power of the ecosystems themselves, whose plus values are social and landscape and which are physiologically and psychologically regenerating for the individuals who live in these ecosystems and who perform identical functions for human and living societies.
Part 2: Two Conceptions of Humanity: Symbiotic Economy, Transhumanism: " Transhumanism is a vision of human performance that is linked to the power of action. »
Civilizations and primitive societies: two visions of the world : The first societies identified what makes the specificity of the living, and thus the human specificity, i.e. the unity of the living. What we are experiencing today is the reconnection of man and the living, the recognition of the human technological power needed to break the deadlock and to reconnect together, and the recognition of individual human power in the collective.
The conceptual power that we have to understand an ecosystem and recreate a wetland and to do it in three weeks, when it would have taken thousands of years to form, that is the contribution of human intelligence. It is our technological power that makes this possible, and therefore it allows us to be faster in managing the dysfunctions that we have created. »
Part 3: A Third Way: The Regenerative Economy
"The leading companies are inspired by the living and they deal with it. What we have forgotten in our society today is fertility. We transform, we transform the world but we forget to regenerate it. And what is wonderful about the economy that is emerging is that it is a regenerative economy, it regenerates the financial, economic and social fertility of the world because it is an economy of collaboration.
This economy creates two ruptures, the first is to move from competition to cooperation, the second is that it recognises the intelligence of living beings and it makes symbiosis with human intelligence.
The emerging paradigm is linked to the living
The new economy regenerates natural resources.
The spiral evolution: from the conquest of the current paradigm based on a linear model (line) and the first societies based on the symbol of the circle, the cycles. Today, the two models converge to form another form which is spiral evolution. The combination of the two is even more exciting.
Going beyond archetypes
Symbiosis is when two entities see in their difference their complementarity. The symbiotic economy is an economy of growth. For me, the real break is humanity truly entering the living, marvelling at the living. Man is a catalyst of the living.
We are in an economy where man is a catalyst; catalysts are chemical molecules that make it possible for two molecules to meet and lead to a reaction which, without a catalyst, would have taken an infinite amount of time to come together.
Part 4: Thousands of actors in action
By working with the territories, this allows us to highlight the tens of thousands of actors who are taking concrete action throughout France and the planet.
We lack a social mirror to recognize this social effervescence, this economic dynamic lacks the media to be visible. Politicians at the national level do not see this change in the economy, whereas local politicians have understood it because they see the initiatives. The weak signals have long since been overcome.
A global and systemic awareness of the problems
Example: the TAFTA, mobilization of territorial policies and less of national ones.
Climate awareness.
Since the 2000s, cancer, hormonal problems, or the fact that bees die by the thousands, or that fish change sex, there's a connection between fish that change sex and my niece's ultra-early puberty or the increased sterility of couples. All of these seemingly disparate elements are understood as part of one reality. I manifest my right to be alive.
How can we raise the level of awareness and understanding of the transdisciplinary part of the complexity of our systemically connected world?
The existing paradigm is not designed to solve the existing economic crisis because it destroys what it depends on.
If we understand our world using the new paradigm, then it is based on the levers of the dynamics of life, it is complex because it is interrelated but not complicated.
Part 5: Cooperation to achieve the shift to the new paradigm
Younger children are "wired" for cooperation through their use of the Internet. We manage to cooperate when we have a common question, like a heart of daisies, each one with its skills and specificities, plugs itself into this heart, like petals that all go in the same direction. This implies avoiding jargon, finding a common language and around a common interest and building despite our differences. This is what I mean by symbiosis. This makes it possible to clarify the territories of competition and to identify the territories of power. This raises questions of governance and the redistribution of value. You find when you build. Today, we have to take the plunge.
New modalities of governance, participatory democracy, cooperation that make it possible to create radical innovations.
Meta-organisations are emerging, ecosystems where each entity is independent but associates to respond to problems or calls for tenders.
We're doing a 4G mutation; it's violent! Today the players are converging and with the power of the Internet, we are moving very, very fast. Are we going fast enough to meet the ecological challenges? That's the whole question...
Where a major difficulty lies is in the appropriation of living data, both by the GAFA and the personal data of individuals such as those of animal or plant species. The problem is that these societies do not redistribute wealth. But there is no general governance that would allow the generalized redistribution of wealth.
We have the same thing with companies, when they operate in symbiotic and regenerative mode their performance is increased. It's quite exciting actually.
The need for global governance
"I also believe that there is a third way between global governance which is very centralized and pyramidal and a non-governance, what emerges is this kind of... collaborative moving governance in which everybody can become a producer, an investor, a consumer. All the boundaries are blurring.
All that we have destroyed, we destroy it in 50 years, without knowing it, so what can we build in conscience today and with the Internet today.
To sum up, the final word:
"We really have a possible change of path, it's up to all of us to believe in it, to accept it, and to make the choice to make it happen. All this is not a will that comes from above, it is necessarily done in collaboration with others. »
