Mutual aid, the other law of the jungle, by Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle
Edition Les liens qui libèrent, October 11, 2017 - 224 Pages
Dn this ruthless arena of life, we are all subject to the "law of the strongest", the law of the jungle. This mythology has given rise to a society that has become toxic for our generation and for our planet. Today, the lines are moving. A growing number of new movements, authors and organizational forms are challenging this skewed view of the world and reviving outdated words such as "altruism", "cooperation", "solidarity" and "kindness". Our era is rediscovering with wonder that in this famous jungle there is also a heady scent of mutual aid...
A careful examination of the range of life reveals that, at all times, humans, animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms - and even economists! - have practised mutual aid. What's more, those who best survive difficult conditions are not necessarily the strongest, but those who help each other the most. Why do we find this hard to believe? What about our spontaneous tendency to help each other? How does this happen in other species? What are the mechanisms by which people in a group can begin to collaborate? Is it possible to cooperate internationally to slow global warming? Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle propose to explore an immense, forgotten continent, through a transdisciplinary inventory, from ethology to anthropology, economy, psychology and neurosciences, to discover the mechanisms of this "other law of the jungle".
Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle both have an agricultural engineering background and a PhD in biology. They left the academic world to become "in(Land)dependent researchers". The former is notably co-author of Comment tout peut s'effondrer. Petit manuel de collapsologie à l'usage des générations présentes (Seuil, 2015). The second co-authored Le Vivant comme modèle. La voie du biomimétisme (Albin Michel, 2015).
