Advancing knowledge pluralism and cultural benefits in ecosystem services theory and application

Kristin R. Hoelting, Doreen E. Martinez, Rudy M. Schuster and Michael C. Gavin

Ecosystem Services, 2024, vol. 65, issue C

Abstract: Improved consideration of the cultural benefits of ecosystem services (ES) requires attention to knowledge pluralism in addition to value pluralism. Theorists have increasingly argued that meaningful inclusion of cultural benefits of ES requires attention to plural values, beyond the individual, instrumental values associated with ecosystems. However, there has been little engagement around the role of knowledge pluralism as a foundational enabling factor for meaningful consideration of plural values. This paper contributes to a conceptual toolkit for implementation of knowledge pluralism in ES theory and application by (re)conceptualizing ES-knowledge as a knowledge system. This can support personal and collective reflexivity around the role of worldviews embedded in our institutions, and illuminate what is at stake when assumptions about human-nature relationship and well-being remain hidden. Further, by locating benefits-knowledge as a core element of the ES-knowledge-system, we can imagine a greater range of possible cultural-benefits-knowledge-forms and improve our ability to comprehend and convey the plural values of cultural benefits of ES, as they arise across cultural contexts.

Keywords: Cultural benefits; Cultural ecosystem services; Ecosystem-services-knowledge; Environmental justice; Epistemic justice; Holistic value; Knowledge pluralism; Knowledge system; Recognitional justice; Relational values; Value pluralism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:65:y:2024:i:c:s2212041623000761

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2023.101583

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