RCI - Eco-place
RCI-E is interested in the measurement of well-being through, not economic wealth, but the quality of relationships in eco-place collectives aimed at sober and supportive lifestyles.
Created in 2008 by Cécile Renouard and Gaël Giraud, the Relationship Capacity Index (RCI) was thought to be a alternative development indicator to conventional growth indicators (such as GDP) and complementary to other development indicators that measure material poverty, such as the Multidimensional Poverty Indicator (MPI) created by OPHI and used by UNDP).
It is based on a mixed approach combining qualitative and quantitative tools and on the theoretical framework of the approach to capabilities (Sen, 1993, 1999; Nussbaum, 2000), which invite human development to be assessed from people's access to freedoms of being and doing.
The RCI thus seeks to measure the quality of the social bond within a group, territory or organisation.
In its first version, the relational capacity indicator consisted of three dimensions:
- integration into socio-economic networks,
- social ties within the private sphere, and
- citizen engagement.
Each of these dimensions consisted of several components or criteria – 14 in total – that correspond to capacity access conditions.
It has been applied to different contexts: evaluation of projects carried out by multinational companies in Africa, Asia and Central America, measurement of the value of work, diagnosis of territory in local geographical context.
- EZVAN, C., L'HUILLIER, H., RENOUARD, C. (2022). Beyond CSR, increase the power to act of vulnerable stakeholders An ethical perspective based on the capacity approach. Review of the Responsible Organization, 17 (2022/2), 63-80: https://doi.org/10.54695/ror.172.0063
- Ezvan, C., and Renouard. C, (2020) "Social footprint" of an investment. Assessing a company's social contribution from relational capabilities", Revue française de gestion, vol. 287, no. 2, 2020, pp. 51-65
- Ezvan C., L Routledge, 83-100.
- Giraud, G., Renouard, C., L-Oillier, H., de la Martiniere, R. and Sutter, C. (2013). A Multidimensional Approach, ESSEC Working Paper 1306.
- Giraud, G. L
- "Corporate responsibility towards social transformation. The case of a waste picker empowerment project in Mexico, Worlds in Development, vol. 180, no. 4, 2017, pp. 87-104.
- Renouard, C. (2011). Corporate social responsibility, utilitarianism, and the abilities approach. Journal of business ethics, 98(1), 85-97.
- Giraud, G., & Renouard, C. (2010). Measuring the contribution of extractive enterprises to local development. Journal française de gestion, (9), 101-115.
Further work led to the establishment of an ICR 2.0 (Giraud, G., Gupta N.R. R., Renouard C. and Roca T. (2014), ) and a Green RCI to further include sustainable development issues.