RCI - Eco-place

As a follow-up to the work on the RCI, the RCI Écolieu (RCI-E) was created through a dedicated multidisciplinary research team composed of:

• Cécile Ezvan (doctor in philosophy, professor of ethics and CSR associated with Excelia Business School),
• Hélène L'huillier (doctor in economics, professor related to the program CODEV of l'ESSEC and independant consultant in a CAE in Occitanie)
• Fanny Argoud (PhD in Management Sciences at LEST), and
• Cécile Renouard (doctor in philosophy, professor of ethics at ESSEC Business School, the Mines de Paris, and the Faculties Loyola Paris).

At the end of 2019, an action-research on good living in eco-locations was initiated by the Transition Campus and the Oasis Cooperative. Although these sites are small-scale laboratories experimenting with low-environmental consumption and production patterns, there is no reference tool available to assess their social contribution, even though the desire to develop quality links in interaction with their territories and living environments is one of the strong values of these sites.

The research question was as follows: "To what extent is the analysis in relational capacity relevant to measuring environmental well-being? »

For this purpose, a three-year study funded by ADEME and ESF was conducted between 2020 and 2022 by a multidisciplinary research team gathered around the Transition Campus by mobilising mixed qualitative (in-depth field visits on ten sites) and quantitative (questionnaire with 120 inhabitants of these sites).

This action-research allowed to build a new indicator of relational capacity, articulated around five spheres of relationships :

1. self-esteem
2. relations within the place
3. relations outside the place
4. relationship to society
5. Environment

The research methodology draws on both the theoretical anchoring of commons and capacities and field observation.

There were many round trips between the field and the theory with several field explorations to formulate the hypotheses and then extend the study to other eco-locations. A total of 100 semi-directive interviews were conducted, participating observations of two to four days in each of the 10 eco-villages were conducted, not to mention the work of understanding and decrypting internal documents provided by the structures.

The results of the study showed a high relational capacity in the ten eco-locations concerned, supporting the hypothesis of a correlation between sober lifestyles and quality of relationships. The study also highlighted structural elements from well-being to the prism of the relational quality that these lifestyles allow.