Anthropogenetic Development: Long Unnoticed and Already in Crisis

Robert Boyer () and Olivier Boylaud
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Robert Boyer: CNRS & EHESS
Olivier Boylaud: CNRS & EHESS

Chapter 2 in Capitalism, Innovations, and Health after Covid-19, 2026, pp 23-67 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Development is conceptualized as the result of the interaction between two processes: on the one hand, training through education, the extension of life expectancy through health, and culture, which socializes individuals; on the other hand, the creation of value, which enables the financing of public goods such as education, health, and culture. The complementarity and synergy between these processes defines a mode of anthropogenic development, in the sense of human creation through work. This mode has quietly asserted itself in contemporary societies as the mode based on mass production and consumption has weakened, even beyond the power of financialization. It takes three contrasting forms in the United States, Japan, and the European Union, depending on contrasting institutionalized compromises: commercial, civic, or strongly state-driven. After nearly a century of growth, the North American anthropogenic model is stumbling over the ineffectiveness of competition to steer the public health sector and extend life expectancy for the greatest number of people. The EU, the home of welfare capitalism, is struggling to sustain its model because its poor economic performance limits its public funding. In contrast, Japan seems to have maintained its progress in life expectancy despite near economic stagnation, but its founding compromise is not easy to replicate. In addition to this comparative historical analysis, supported by long-term statistics, this chapter analyzes various contemporary issues. The return of pandemics, aging, the consequences of digital technology and AI on the organization of health, education, and culture. Not to mention the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss on global health. The imperative of habitability calls for an update of the anthropogenic mode of development.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-24479-6_2

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