Natural Environments and Cultural Services

自然环境和文化服务

• 批准号: AH/L004321/1
• 负责人: Simon James
• 金额: $ 6.22万
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FL004321%2F1
• 关键词: Natural; Environments; Cultural; Services

Natural environments provide us with a range of material benefits, from the provision of hydroelectric power to the capture and storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Yet some of the benefits we derive from them are better described as 'cultural' rather than 'material'. For instance, a certain wetland might provide inspiration to - and hence benefit - landscape photographers and water-colour artists. A desert might provide a religious ascetic with an emblem of God's power and divine simplicity. A certain area of upland might contribute to the sense of identity of a particular alpine community.Organisations such as DEFRA and the US Environmental Protection Agency tend to conceive of such benefits as 'cultural services' that natural environments provide to human beings. They typically hold, moreover, that those environments that yield important cultural services are, all things being equal, of higher value than those that provide less important ones. In the first, 'critical' half of the project, I will explore the limitations of the practice of evaluating natural (or at least semi-natural) environments on the basis of the cultural services they provide. In particular, I will develop and appraise the charge that this practice misrepresents the kinds of benefits we derive from such environments.To appreciate the force of this charge, consider the example of a hill farmer for whom a certain area of upland is pervaded by personal significance. These, she thinks, are the same hills that my parents knew, and their parents before them. The hills do not just provide her with material benefits such as shelter and land on which to rear sheep. They give her a sense of the wider family- and community-orientated narratives within which her own life has meaning. Yet it is not clear that this non-material benefit can be accurately described as a service. On the one hand, talk of services suggests the existence of alternative 'service providers'. For the farmer, however, there are no alternative providers. 'It is these hills,' she might insist, 'that tell the story of my community.' On the other hand, the hills are not a means to the end of the farmer obtaining a sense of the narratives within which her life has meaning. The hills are partly constitutive of that end, which is to say that one cannot provide an adequate description of the relevant narratives without referring to the upland environment within which they were played out. Hence in such cases - in those, as I put it, when an environment provides certain 'constitutive' benefits - there are reasons to think that the environment is not properly conceived as providing a cultural service. In the second, 'constructive' half of the project, I will explain how the cultural value of natural environments should be conceived in cases like that of the fictitious hill farmer. I will defend the claim that in such instances environments benefit people, not simply by giving them pleasure, but by providing the foci of certain practices (such as farming, bird-watching or fell running) which help to give their lives meaning. Furthermore, I will argue that it is in many cases this capacity to confer meaning that accounts for the distinctive cultural value of such environments.Ultimately, the project will, I believe, transform the way that we understand the value of woods, wetlands and other natural environments. It will show that they can be of value, not simply because they provide material benefits such as food, fuel and flood defences, but because they contribute to the overall 'meaningfulness' of our lives.

自然环境为我们提供了一系列物质利益，从提供水力发电到捕获和储存大气二氧化碳。然而，我们从它们中获得的一些好处最好被描述为“文化”而不是“物质”。例如，某个湿地可能会为风景摄影师和水彩艺术家提供灵感，从而使他们受益。沙漠可能为宗教苦行者提供上帝力量和神圣纯朴的象征。高地的某个区域可能有助于特定高山社区的认同感。DEFRA 和美国环境保护署等组织倾向于将自然环境为人类提供的“文化服务”视为此类好处。此外，他们通常认为，在所有条件相同的情况下，那些产生重要文化服务的环境比那些提供不太重要文化服务的环境具有更高的价值。在该项目的第一个“关键”部分中，我将探讨根据自然（或至少是半自然）环境提供的文化服务来评估自然环境的实践的局限性。特别是，我将提出并评价这种做法歪曲了我们从这种环境中获得的各种好处的指控。要理解这种指控的力量，请考虑一个山地农民的例子，对他来说，一定面积的高地充满了个人意义。她认为，这些山就是我父母以及他们的父母所认识的那座山。山丘不仅为她提供了物质利益，例如庇护所和养羊的土地。它们让她感受到更广泛的以家庭和社区为导向的叙事，在这些叙事中，她自己的生活才有意义。然而，尚不清楚这种非物质利益是否可以准确地描述为服务。一方面，对服务的谈论表明存在替代的“服务提供商”。然而，对于农民来说，没有其他供应商。 “正是这些山丘，”她可能会坚持说，“讲述了我社区的故事。”另一方面，山并不是让农民了解其生活意义的叙事的手段。山丘在一定程度上构成了这一目标，也就是说，如果不参考故事发生的高地环境，就无法对相关叙述进行充分的描述。因此，在这种情况下——正如我所说，当环境提供某些“构成性”利益时——有理由认为环境没有被正确地视为提供文化服务。在该项目的第二个“建设性”部分中，我将解释在像虚构的山地农民这样的例子中，应该如何构想自然环境的文化价值。我会捍卫这一观点，即在这种情况下，环境对人们有益，不仅仅是给他们带来快乐，而是通过提供某些有助于赋予他们生活意义的实践（例如农耕、观鸟或跑步）的焦点。此外，我认为，在许多情况下，正是这种赋予意义的能力解释了此类环境的独特文化价值。我相信，最终，该项目将改变我们理解森林、湿地和其他自然环境价值的方式。它将表明它们是有价值的，不仅因为它们提供了食物、燃料和防洪等物质利益，而且因为它们为我们生活的整体“意义”做出了贡献。

项目成果

Cultural Ecosystem Services: A Critical Assessment

• DOI: 10.1080/21550085.2015.1111616
• 发表时间: 2015-01-01
• 期刊: ETHICS POLICY & ENVIRONMENT
• 影响因子: 1
• 作者: James, Simon P.

Protecting Nature for the Sake of Human Beings

为了人类保护自然

• DOI: 10.1111/rati.12091
• 发表时间: 2015
• 期刊: Ratio
• 影响因子: 0.5
• 作者: James S

Natural Meanings and Cultural Values

自然意义和文化价值

• DOI: 10.5840/enviroethics20194112
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Environmental Ethics
• 影响因子: 0.3
• 作者: James S

The New Greenspeak

新绿语

• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: James, S P

The Trouble with Environmental Values

环境价值观的麻烦

• DOI: 10.3197/096327116x14552114338747
• 发表时间: 2016
• 期刊: Environmental Values
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: James S