René Passet, former Professor of Economics at Bordeaux, Professor Emeritus at the Sorbonne and ex-president of the editorial advisory board of ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens’ Action), died on 23 November 2025 at the age of 99. We have pleasure in publishing a tribute to him here from his students, not least for the pioneering role he played in the ‘Group of Ten’ alongside Edgar Morin, Jacques Robin and Joël de Rosnay, in the ‘Science-Culture Group’, and in Futuribles International, particularly through his book L’Économique et le vivant (Paris: Payot, 1979). That work was an early debunking of the myth of infinite growth in a finite world, reminding us that the economy is simply a subsystem of the human system, which is itself merely a subsystem of the biosphere.
René Passet played a seminal role in resituating the economy in its proper place and promoting a systemic vision of development, achieving a total integration of the human sphere into wider nature, a vision to be seen in his book Les Grandes Représentations du monde et de l’économie à travers l’Histoire. De l’univers magique au tourbillon créateur (Paris: Les Liens qui libèrent, 2010) and in the articles we have published in these pages. He was a man of outstanding culture, kindness and commitment. His ‘bioeconomy’ and his writings will remain essential references for all whose concern is with the future.
The article is downloadable only in French. It is not available in English.
