Quantifying relational values — why not?
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Publication Date
2018Journal Title
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
ISSN
1877-3435
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Volume
35
Pages
15-21
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Schulz, C., & Martin-Ortega, J. (2018). Quantifying relational values — why not?. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 35 15-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.10.015
Abstract
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Relational values have recently emerged as a novel concept for research on human-environment relationships, seeking to understand ethical principles that may foster environmental stewardship, coupled with a recognition of nature's contributions to people. At present, most empirical research on relational values uses qualitative methods. Here we review some of the reasons that may have contributed to the lack of quantitative research, besides noting that a lot of existing quantitative empirical research on human-environment relationships already deals with relational values, even if it does not use that terminology. We suggest that incorporating quantitative approaches into the methodological toolkit of relational values research has a number of benefits: First, it contributes to the empirical evidence base testing hypotheses and assumptions emerging from qualitative and conceptual work. Second, it may help identifying core relational values shared across cultures, and this way improve communication and cooperation across different cultures. Third, it may improve the political legitimacy of environmental decision-making via statistically representative measurements of public views. Complementing qualitative with quantitative approaches for relational values research is also in the spirit of integrated valuation and value pluralism.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.10.015
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/287223
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