Abstract

The relational turn in the academic literature on environmental values explores ontologies that rethink the dualistic, hierarchical separations of humans from nature. In particular, the consideration of a plurality of values and ways in which humans connect to nature has brought new insights on the dynamic interconnections between people, place and environmental processes, all highly relevant for the world's sustainability challenges. How-ever, many conceptualizations of economic practices and values are still predominantly dualistic and anthro-pocentric. To overcome this human-nature divide we propose a conceptual integration of relational values with assemblages of more-than-human relations, illustrated with examples from the literature and ongoing empirical research. These concepts offer a way of representing meaningful and dynamic interrelationships, including humans, physical elements, materials (e.g. technologies, tools), immaterial entities (e.g. sounds, lights, colors), and other non-human beings. We argue that such conceptual integration provides a useful framework to rethink diverse economies as the processes through which humans and non-humans co-constitute their interrelated livelihoods. With this, we extend the relational turn to research on economic human-nature connections, following the call of many scholars in the field of ecological economics to unveil non-utilitarian values and consider multiple economic agencies.

Keywords

Human -Nature Interrelations; Ontologies; Commodification; Livelihoods Co -Production; More -Than -Human Agency

Published in

Ecological Economics
2023, Volume: 211, article number: 107866
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Raymond, Christopher

  • Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of Helsinki

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG8 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all


UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences
Economics
Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107866

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/122915