135: Relational values with Rachelle Gould

In this episode, Michael speaks with Rachelle Gould, Associate Professor at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and an Environmental Fellow at the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont.

Rachelle is a prominent and productive scholar on several topics, and one of the main ones she has written about is relational values, which were introduced to represent a different way of relating to the environment that hadn’t been expressed by the more traditional dichotomy of intrinsic and extrinsic value. Relational values have become very popular within academia and have become a focal point of publications by the The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPBES, which Rachelle describes as the IPCC for Biodiversity. Rachelle was also a Lead Author on the recent IPBES Values Assessment.

During their conversation, Michael asks Rachelle about some concerns he has about relational values, primarily that it seemed to be so popular that it was becoming a way of labeling anything that we like as relational, and secondly, that it had become a new panacea: something that doesn’t present trade-offs but which we should simply want more of, regardless of context. They discuss these concerns as well as the significant value that Rachelle sees in a concept that can better represent how human beings can and do relate to the natural world.

References:

Routledge Handbook of CES and Rachelle's critiques chapter

IPBES Transformative Change Summary for policymakers

IPBES Values Assessment

West et al. relational turn paper

Gould et al. response focused on Indigenous relationality

Gould et al. response focused on Latin American relationality

Muraca’s original relational values paper

“Key to pluralistic valuation” Himes and Muraca 2018

Hoelle et al Relational values desirability paper

Spash tribute critiques of monetary valuation

Pratson relational values review

Relationality is not WEIRD paper