The Ecosystemic Model for Being-in-the-World: A Four-Dimensional Approach to the Quality of Life

By:

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. Democracy, ethics, justice, social equity, education, culture, health and natural and man-made environments are impaired, cultural values are annihilated, reality is fragmented by public policies, academic formats, mass-media headlines, market-place’s interests and common sense prejudices.
Instead of dealing with the “bubbles” of the surface (consequences, taken for granted problems) and ignore what is inside the “boiling pot" (the real problems), a multidimensional theoretical and practical ecosystemic approach and planning model consider the dynamic and complex configurations intertwining, as donors and recipients, four dimensions or components of being-in-the-world: intimate (subject’s cognitive and affective processes), interactive (groups’ mutual support and values), social (political, economical and cultural systems) and biophysical (biological endowment, natural and man-made environments).
The different dimensions are assessed, as they induce the events (deficits and assets), cope with consequences (desired or undesired) and contribute for change (diagnosis and prognosis). The methodology is participatory, experiential and reflexive; encompassing heuristic-hermeneutic processes in the socio-cultural learning niches, which unveil cultural and epistemic paradigms and subject-object relationships.

Stream: Environmental Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Professional Experience: 1) Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo; 2) Psychologist, Justice Court of the State of São Paulo; 3) Director, Health Education Dept., Ministry of Health, Brazil; 4) Editor, journal Academus (BLISSN 0001-4230). Affiliations: 1) World Council for Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI); 2) International Union for Health Promotion and Education, 3) Inter-American Consortium of Universities and Training Centres in Health Promotion and Health Education / Pan American Health Organisation; 4) Centre for Research, Documentation and Development on Healthy Cities. Outline of Duties and Responsibilities: 1) Assessment, planning, development and evaluation of public policies, research projects and integrative academic and community programmes on education and culture, environmental education, physical, social and mental health promotion, human rights and quality of life; 2) Design of new approaches to understand and prevent violence, social exclusion and control of the effect of mass-media messages, marketing and propaganda on cultural values and the collective project of life; 3) Research on the relationships of adolescents with parents, peers, the opposite sex (including sexual and reproductive health) and cultural environments; 4) Editing and publishing of a cultural and scientific journal, delivered to the students and faculty of Brazilian universities.