Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Item

Loving the mess: navigating diversity and conflict in social values for sustainability

Kenter, Jasper O.
Raymond, Christopher M.
van Riper, Carena J.
Azzopardi, Elaine
Brear, Michelle R.
Calcagni, Fulvia
Christie, Ian
Christie, Michael
Fordham, Anne
Gould, Rachelle K.
... show 10 more
Citations
Altmetric:
License
© 2019, The Author(s).
DOI
10.1007/s11625-019-00726-4
Abstract
This paper concludes a special feature of Sustainability Science that explores a broad range of social value theoretical traditions, such as religious studies, social psychology, indigenous knowledge, economics, sociology, and philosophy. We introduce a novel transdisciplinary conceptual framework that revolves around concepts of ‘lenses’ and ‘tensions’ to help navigate value diversity. First, we consider the notion of lenses: perspectives on value and valuation along diverse dimensions that describe what values focus on, how their sociality is envisioned, and what epistemic and procedural assumptions are made. We characterise fourteen of such dimensions. This provides a foundation for exploration of seven areas of tension, between: (1) the values of individuals vs collectives; (2) values as discrete and held vs embedded and constructed; (3) value as static or changeable; (4) valuation as descriptive vs normative and transformative; (5) social vs relational values; (6) different rationalities and their relation to value integration; (7) degrees of acknowledgment of the role of power in navigating value conflicts. In doing so, we embrace the ‘mess’ of diversity, yet also provide a framework to organise this mess and support and encourage active transdisciplinary collaboration. We identify key research areas where such collaborations can be harnessed for sustainability transformation. Here it is crucial to understand how certain social value lenses are privileged over others and build capacity in decision-making for understanding and drawing on multiple value, epistemic and procedural lenses.
Description
Date
2019-09-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Kenter JO, Raymond CM, Van Riper CJ, Azzopardi E, Brear MR, Calcagni F, Christie I, Christie M, Fordham A, Gould RK, Ives CD. Loving the mess: navigating diversity and conflict in social values for sustainability. Sustainability Science. 2019 Sep 2;14(5):1439-61.
Embedded videos