Editorial
François Misser‘s study addresses the contemporary chapter of China’s return to the international scene, here in the African context. This country has become Africa’s leading trading partner and is on the verge of overtaking all European players on the continent, while already being the leading investor, not to mention the infrastructure and military and security equipment of African states, within a global strategy that abstains from imposing political or ideological criteria.
Christian Tremblay returns to the question of language use within the European Union, distinguishing between multilingualism and plurilingualism, which are commonly synonymous but for which the Barcelona European Council of March 2002 chose to give priority to the former, which requires that European citizens be able to communicate in at least three languages. In fact, usage is evolving towards some linguistic diversification, which should produce its effects in the long term.
In the second part of his studies on colonisation and decolonisation, François Rastier continues his analysis of the controversial concepts linked to them and their translations, such as identities, “races”, gender and associated themes. The critical reading that he undertakes puts the ideological interpretations and issues that emerge in an adequate context, i.e., into the complexity of the social sciences and the methodological principles required to grasp societies in their interactions.
Cristina Elena Popa Tache analyses from a transdisciplinary perspective the interactions between the rules of law and those governing religions and, more broadly, spirituality. She notes that the current era is moving from a relatively restrictive one to a more open one, whether it be the norms governing medicine and the living world, the field of education, the rights of the individual or the criteria defining each culture, towards a future that remains open.
Luis T. Gutierrez summarizes the various chapters of his study of a changing humanity in terms of its many converging factors, from individual priorities to collective rules, from economics to history, and from the imperatives of growth to openings towards degrowth. He concludes with the fundamental question of defining human nature between its male and female poles, and between allegories and patriarchal structures stemming notably from religion.
Yves Beigbeder reports on the position of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the face of the appetites of large multinational corporations. The contradictory, if not conflicting, objectives of those players give rise to divergent or biased interpretations of scientific data by certain private groups, in the case of mass consumption goods such as tobacco, alcohol or industrially processed food.
Nicole Morgan discusses the various forms of altruism available to human relations between secular and religious aims, Marxism and Christianity, charity and passion, love and friendship, based on the ancient concepts of eros, agape and philia, which are interpreted differently in the various Western cultures.
Paul Ghils