Despite rapid advancements in the development of non-monetary techniques for the assessment of social values for ecosystem services, little research attention has been devoted to the evaluation of their underpinning paradigms. This study evaluates two contrasting paradigms for the assessment of social values in non-monetary terms: an instrumental paradigm involving an objective assessment of the distribution, type and/or intensity of values that individuals assign to the current state of ecosystems and a deliberative paradigm involving the exploration of desired end states through group discussion. We present and then justify through case examples two approaches for assessing social values for ecosystem services using the instrumental paradigm and two approaches using the deliberative paradigm. Each approach makes different assumptions about: the underlying rationale for values assessment; the process through which values are elicited; the type of representativeness sought, and; the degree of involvement of decision-makers. However, case examples demonstrate that the boundaries between instrumental and deliberative paradigms are often not concrete. To accommodate this fluidity, we offer a third, pragmatic paradigm that integrates some of the qualities of both. This paradigm has implications for engaging multiple community groups and decision-makers in the articulation and mapping of social values for cultural ecosystem services.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	social values, participatory mapping, non-economic valuation, non-monetary valuation, ecosystem services, deliberative valuation, instrumental valuation
Research Division:	Environmental Sciences
Research Group:	Environmental management
Research Field:	Environmental management
Objective Division:	Environmental Management
Objective Group:	Management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments
Objective Field:	Assessment and management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean ecosystems
UTAS Author:	Raymond, CM (Dr Chris Raymond)
UTAS Author:	Alexander, KA (Dr Karen Alexander)
ID Code:	95790
Year Published:	2014
Web of Science® Times Cited:	140
Deposited By:	Centre for Environment
Deposited On:	2014-10-08
Last Modified:	2017-10-31
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