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Environmental Values

Realms of Value: Conflicting Natural Resource Values and Incommensurability

Environmental Values 15(2006): 3-29. doi: 10.3197/096327106776678951

ABSTRACT

Divergent values are often at the heart of natural resource conflict. Using discord over the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, U.S.A. as a case study, I propose that values are perceived as incommensurate because they reflect different realms, with which there exist distinct concepts of what it means to value and distinct, irreducible forms of value expression. I further argue that collaborative, discursive processes are one way to account for plural values in policy and decision making without requiring a common metric, yet they are not without theoretical and practical challenges.

KEYWORDS: Value conflict, incommensurability, plural values, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, wilderness, collaborative decision making

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