Giving. Oh, how great is the influence of this phenomenon in the social sciences? The discovery by Marcel Mauss of this so-called “Bedrock” of human morality has given rise to many debates and reflections which, far from being solved today, are constantly being renewed in accordance with the changing face of giving in contemporary societies. Indeed, to show interest in the act of giving, or more broadly in altruism, is not at all tantamount to studying an anachronistic survivor,inherited from a distant and primitive social stage that tradition would have preserved, but inevitably doomed to disappear under the weight of modernity. In congruence – or against? – a process of modernization governed by what Caillé calls “the axiomatic of interest” and the generalization of the anthropological figure of “homo oeconomicus”, the practices of giving are indeed present, showing a vitality which has nothing to envy of the past. Whether it is the symbolic exchanges that surround daily life or the way in which citizens give or give themselves to a cause to transform their community, there are many facts that show that donation practices adapt rather than be intimidated by the disenchantment of the world and the hegemonic domination of instrumental rationality.
- From the outstretched hand to the Voices that are heard… Renewed essay on donations and altruism, by Jean-Marc Fontan, codirecteur du PhiLab, blog juin 2018.
- Pésentation “Pour une histoire naturelle du don“, by David Grant-Poitras, séminaire académie #6
- Présentation“Donner…une histoire d’altruisme”, by Emmanuelle Gagné et Anaïs Bovet, séminaire academie #6
- Des dons à fluctuations cycliques, interview with Caroline Bergeronby Simon Lord pour les Affaires, mai 2018
- Année PhiLanthropique juin 2018, Giving and Altruism.