‘I owe it to the animals’: The bidirectionality of Swiss alpine farmers' relational values

People and Nature

article

Mollie Chapman¹  Anna Deplazes-Zemp² 

[1] Department of Geography, URPP Global Change & Biodiversity, University of Zurich;Ethics Research Institute, URPP Global Change & Biodiversity, University of Zurich

关键词: Alpine livestock farmers;    environmental ethics;    farmer motivation;    human wellbeing;    multiple values of nature;    relational values;    semistructured interviews;    Switzerland;   

DOI  :  10.1002/pan3.10415

学科分类：护理学

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

1. Relational values have recently been proposed as a concept to expand our understanding of environmental values from the categories previously dominatingthe discourse: instrumental (nature for people's sake) and intrinsic values (naturefor its own sake). Empirical and conceptual research on relational values hasso far focused on the content of relational values or their relationship to otherkinds of values.2. In this paper, we fill a key gap in understanding exactly what relational valuesare and how they work; we call this the ‘syntax’ of relational values. We do soby applying the Syntax of Environmental Values Framework, which describesrelational values as bidirectional, expressed by genuine respect and care on theone hand and an eudaimonic contribution to wellbeing on the other.3. We developed a novel interview protocol which we applied in semistructuredinterviews with Swiss alpine farmers. We examine how both of these directionsare manifested in farmers' relational values.4. Our results showed how the bidirectionality manifests in relational values ofalpine farmers. Specifically, we identified three components of each directionality. The intrinsic element of relational values was constituted by: an attitude ofrespect, attention to the relationship and practices of care. The instrumentalelement of relational values was constituted by: emotional and experiential contributions for the valuer, satisfaction and joy in the relationship, and practicalcontributions to the activities associated with the relationship (e.g. farm management). We further elaborate on the conditions required to sustain relationalvalues, including physical, emotional and sociopolitical conditions.5. These results informed an elaborated conceptual framework of relational values, and environmental valuing more generally. While specifically derived fromour dataset, we believe our conclusions could directly or in a modified form,apply to diverse cases of relational valuing. In sum, this paper offers a concretestep towards better characterizing, distinguishing and applying the relationalvalues concept.

【 授权许可】

CC BY