An embodied perspective on the co-production of cultural ecosystem services: Toward embodied ecosystems

Abstract

Despite arguments justifying the need to consider how cultural ecosystem services are coproduced by humans and nature, there are currently few approaches for explaining the relationships between humans and ecosystems through embodied scientific realism. This realism recognises that human-environment connections are not solely produced in the mind, but through relations between mind, body, culture and environment through time. Using affordance theory as our guide, we compare and contrast embodied approaches to common understandings of the co-production of cultural ecosystem services across three assumptions: (1) perspective on cognition; (2) the position of socio-cultural processes and (3) typologies used to understand and value human-environment relationships. To support a deeper understanding of co-production, we encourage a shift towards embodied ecosystems for assessing the dynamic relations between mind, body, culture and environment. We discuss some of the advantages and limitations of this approach and conclude with directions for future research.

Keywords

affordances; worldviews; social-ecological systems; "sense of place'; relational values; cultural ecosystem services

Published in

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
2018, Volume: 61, number: 5-6, pages: 778-799

SLU Authors

• Raymond, Christopher

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

UKÄ Subject classification

Other Earth and Related Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2017.1312300

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/86257