Value Pluralism Research Articles

The Community Narrative Space of Yim Tin Tsai in Hong Kong: A Study of Multi-Involvement Based on Domain Theory

Traditional villages are typical forms of farming settlements, which concentrate the essence of vernacular civilization. However, with the evolution of urbanization and modernization, the desire of villagers to improve their living standards is increasingly in conflict with the preservation of the authenticity of villages, calling for the innovation of village governance means. Based on this, this study attempts to highlight the role of multiple subjects participating in excavating the plural value of the traditional communities, in the hope of consolidating the sustained intrinsic motivation for the conservation. By using the domain theory, this study takes Yim Tin Tsai Art Village in Sai Kung, Hong Kong, as a case study to focus on the community involvement mode embodied in its revitalization and restoration plan. Through exploring the formation of cultural habitus, the logic, and the influencing factors of subject interaction, intending to provide references for addressing existing situational constraints and achieving overall development.

Beyond job‐search theory: A value pluralist approach to conditionality in Australian employment services

AbstractThis article examines the contested impact of financial sanctions on Australian employment services, with government evaluation relying on job‐search theory to justify sanctions while research from sociological and psychological perspectives suggests they exacerbate labour market disadvantages and poverty. The division in perspectives reflects both methodological differences and ethical stances within scholarship. Welfare conditionality scholars propose value pluralism as an approach to reach consensus on shared policy goals across disciplines. This article engages in a simulation of the value plural approach to identify evidence gaps in the research and evaluation of sanctions and conditionality in employment services. The article identifies a research and evaluation agenda for conditionality policy, emphasising the importance of reaching a consensus to advance ethically robust policy.

Forest policy in Nordic countries: Expert opinions on future needs, uncertainties, and recommendations

There are broad calls in national and international forest policy processes for basing decision-making on the best obtainable scientific knowledge. Simultaneously, there is also a need to accommodate plural values and objectives people and society in general have associated with forests. An essential step for building an evidence base that accommodates pluralistic understandings is to capture informant views on forest policies and the alternatives they offer to better prepare for future scenarios. This article draws on research experts’ views in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, gathered from interviews between February and May 2023. An existing gap to bridge is understanding to what extent such views differ or correlate across the study countries. By systematizing on the similarities and differences in opinions, we develop a synopsis of future needs and uncertainties in policies across the studied countries, concluding with recommendations for determining the use of Nordic forests. Despite divergence in personal views and uncertainties about the future, most respondents saw a need for inclusive policymaking, policy coherence and integration, and changes in forest management. We find that strengthening evidence-basis, stakeholder participation, adaptive governance, and integrative forest management are challenges for future policy making.

Understanding residents' engagement for the protection of urban green spaces by enriching the value‐belief‐norm theory with relational values—A case study of Munich (Germany)

Abstract Urban green spaces (UGS) provide mechanisms through which people connect and interact with each other, strengthening social relationships as well as human‐nature connections, both of high relevance for sustainable development. However, what determines urban residents' engagement in activities for the protection of UGS still lacks a systematic understanding. Our study aims to address this gap by enriching the value‐belief‐norm (VBN) theory with relational values based on a questionnaire (N = 221) among residents engaging in UGS maintenance in the city of Munich (Germany). Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling showed that both individual responsibility and societal responsibility guide urban residents in their actions towards UGS protection. Furthermore, we found a direct impact of biospheric, altruistic and hedonic values on engagement for the protection of UGS. Therefore, this study signals the importance of investing in actively promoting pluralistic values among urban residents as cities today urgently need a reconnection of the human‐nature relationship and UGS stewardship actions. As we further confirm that relational values have impact on the constructs of the VBN theory, we conclude with a plea for recognizing the potential of relational values as enablers of change towards more responsible behaviours towards urban nature. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

The self saves the day! Value pluralism, autonomous belief and the dissolution of the value problem through the encroachment of the self on knowledge

ABSTRACT In his book Autonomous Knowledge J. Adam Carter argues that the possibility of radical cognitive enhancement shows the need for epistemology to be significantly updated. Reflection on the possibility of such enhancement shows that doxastic autonomy matters. If a belief fails to be autonomous, it cannot qualify as knowledge. Sects. 1-3 of this paper introduce the key components of Carter's autonomy framework and his considerations on the value of knowledge (including his proposed solution to the value problem, i.e. the challenge of accounting for why knowledge has greater value than any of its proper parts). Sects. 4-7 offer a critical appraisal of Carter's framework. We are not convinced that Carter has succeeded in showing that there is an autonomous belief condition on knowledge. In this paper, however, we shall not engage with this issue. Instead, for the sake of our critical discussion, we shall assume that autonomous belief is a condition on knowledge and engage Carter on a cluster of issues concerning axiology.

Philosophy of psychiatry: theoretical advances and clinical implications.

Work at the intersection of philosophy and psychiatry has an extensive and influential history, and has received increased attention recently, with the emergence of professional associations and a growing literature. In this paper, we review key advances in work on philosophy and psychiatry, and their related clinical implications. First, in understanding and categorizing mental disorder, both naturalist and normativist considerations are now viewed as important - psychiatric constructs necessitate a consideration of both facts and values. At a conceptual level, this integrative view encourages moving away from strict scientism to soft naturalism, while in clinical practice this facilitates both evidence-based and values-based mental health care. Second, in considering the nature of psychiatric science, there is now increasing emphasis on a pluralist approach, including ontological, explanatory and value pluralism. Conceptually, a pluralist approach acknowledges the multi-level causal interactions that give rise to psychopathology, while clinically it emphasizes the importance of a broad range of "difference-makers", as well as a consideration of "lived experience" in both research and practice. Third, in considering a range of questions about the brain-mind, and how both somatic and psychic factors contribute to the development and maintenance of mental disorders, conceptual and empirical work on embodied cognition provides an increasingly valuable approach. Viewing the brain-mind as embodied, embedded and enactive offers a conceptual approach to the mind-body problem that facilitates the clinical integration of advances in both cognitive-affective neuroscience and phenomenological psychopathology.

A social-ecological approach for identifying and mapping ecosystem service trade-offs and conservation priorities in peri-urban areas.

Considering both ecological and social dimensions in the assessment of ecosystem services (ESs) can facilitate acceptable and inclusive management strategies, especially in peri-urban areas characterized by intricate human-ecosystem interactions. A limited body of research, however, has mapped the plural values of ESs and their different types of trade-offs in such areas. This research aimed to execute an interdisciplinary analysis of the biophysical and social values of ESs in peri-urban Shanghai, China, through a social-ecological approach that integrates spatial biophysical assessment with participatory mapping. Trade-off analysis in both ES types and ES valuations were then conducted, and multicriteria decision-making was applied for conservation. Our results reveal that trade-off intensities were lower within the social values compared to the biophysical values. Within both value dimensions, relatively stronger trade-offs were found between food production and other ESs. Areas with both high biophysical and social values were infrequently observed across ESs. Based on the characteristics of diverse values, our study identified priority conservation areas and provided management implications. We argue that adopting the integrated social-ecological perspective in sustainable environmental management contributes to the realization of harmonious coexistence between people and nature in peri-urban areas.

A directional dilemma in climate innovation

ABSTRACT One branch of the responsible innovation literature involves the direction of innovation: if the public or decision-makers can or should direct innovation, how should innovation be directed? This paper explicates a case study where directionality – the plurality of plausible values for innovation – is directly implicated. In this case, a key technology may require a strategy for innovation, but there are contrasting normative reasons to drive that innovation in different ways, reflecting two distinct moral values, ‘effectiveness’ and responsiveness to ‘need’. In this case, carbon dioxide removal, these values may well conflict. Strategically deploying carbon dioxide removal in a cost-effective manner would tend to support siting it in regions where there are significant oil and gas operations. In contrast, strategically deploying carbon dioxide removal in response to need would tend to support siting it in regions where expected demand for the technology is required for development.

Intrinsic, instrumental and relational values behind nature’s contributions to people preferences of nature visitors in Germany

ABSTRACT Protected areas not only provide biodiversity conservation but also offer a multitude of nature’s contributions to people (NCP), such as recreational opportunities. Visitors to these areas value nature and NCP for various reasons, potentially leading to different arguments for conservation planning. So far, research has neglected the heterogeneity of reasons why visitors value nature and NCP in natural areas. In this study, we identified NCP preferences and elicited diverse values underpinning those preferences, i.e. intrinsic, instrumental and relational values. We analysed 127 semi-structured interviews with nature visitors of three regions encompassing protected areas across Germany including Schorfheide-Chorin (North East), Hainich-Dün (Central), and Schwäbische Alb (South West). We found that relational values resonated more broadly than intrinsic and instrumental values. We also found a connection between NCP preferences and the values underpinning them: regulating NCP were mostly associated with care and stewardship, instrumental values and social responsibility. In contrast, non-material NCP were mostly associated with therapeutic values and aesthetic values. Moreover, we found that socio-demographic factors – i.e. age, gender, income, education – and sustainable consumption patterns influenced the expression of different values. For instance, intrinsic values resonated more broadly for women than for men. We showed geographic differences in NCP preferences and their corresponding values across the regions. The results show that NCP values and preferences can be diverse within stakeholder groups and that research approaches need to be chosen carefully to be able to reveal this diversity. We conclude that value pluralism is fundamental to understanding underlying mechanisms in NCP research.

Немецкий подход к гарантированию плюрализма в сфере массовой коммуникации

Using the political and philosophical context, the article analyzes the German model of guaranteeing pluralism in the field of mass communication, the core of which is formed by the communication rights of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, which have undergone a deep reinterpretation by the Federal Constitutional Court. Starting from the abstract politico-philosophical value of pluralism as the foundation of German democratic theory, its path is traced through its integration with general constitutional and legal principles. This integration leads to the concretization of pluralism in the communication sphere as specific regulatory provisions within constitutionalized ordinary legislation. Through the examination, the article highlights the key parameters of this model that correspond to the pluralistic theory of democracy. These parameters determine the logic of constitutional-legal regulation in the German communication sphere and influence the doctrinal aspects of fundamental rights.

A Common World is Possible: Maritain, Pope Francis and the Future of Global Governance

From planetary climate change to the COVID pandemic, the human family is faced with urgent challenges that transcend the borders of the traditional nation state. Here, the Catholic moral tradition, as embodied in different ways by the writings of Jacques Maritain and Pope Francis, offers constructive insights as to how the global political landscape should be organized. In the wake of the Second World War and the advent of the nuclear age, Jacques Maritain proposed a political philosophy for the future creation of a world state. Six decades later, Pope Francis offers a more pastoral argument for a more just, equitable, and fraternal world order. This paper examines the visions of global governance advocated by both Maritain and Pope Francis. Drawing from both figures, this paper identifies five key values that might guide the mobilization of the Catholic community as it works for a more just and common world order: a universal solidaristic vision centered on the human person that affirms the value of pluralism, a multi-layered structure of global governance, and bottom-up change through participation. Together, these values offer ethical guideposts as the international community considers how to reform the present system of global governance, including the United Nations system.

Isaac Breuer's Antiliberal Neo-Kantianism and the Politicization of Jewish Ultra-Orthodoxy

This article centers on the early writings of Isaac Breuer (1910–17), arguing that Breuer's radicalization of neo-Kantianism anchors his revolutionary call to politicize Jewish Orthodoxy. Moreover, it contends that neo-Kantianism, which is normally associated with liberal or social-democratic politics, was given a thoroughly antiliberal reading by Breuer that led to an antiliberal Orthodox politics. While the rise of non-Zionist political Orthodoxy is often regarded as an obsolete traditionalism unattuned to the nature of mass politics, Breuer's politicization of Orthodoxy reveals a coherent antiliberal political theory that addresses the aporias of the democratic age. Breuer uses neo-Kantianism to develop an anti-Weberian “science of politics” which attempts to overcome the modern plurality of values by positing Judaism as coercive public morality. Reading Breuer's Jewish writings through the lens of his quarrels with Weber, Stammler, and Cohen, this article explores Breuer's attempt to overcome the association of Kantian morality with liberalism, by legitimizing coercion politically, philosophically, and theologically. This enabled Breuer to criticize apolitical forms of Jewish Orthodoxy, Zionist programs to politicize Judaism, and democratic politics more generally.

Isaiah Berlin and Feminism: Liberty and Value Pluralism

Isaiah Berlin’s account of freedom is more useful for feminists than is generally recognized, especially when seen in the context of his value pluralism. Focusing on the work of Nancy Hirschmann and Sharon Krause, I argue, first, that Berlin’s concept of negative liberty can be used to resist patriarchy when his notion of the ‘conditions’ of negative liberty is taken into account. Second, positive liberty is also useful to feminists, but Berlin does not, as some feminist (and other) writers suppose, simply reject positive liberty; on the contrary, he sees it as a fundamental human value of great importance. Third, Berlin’s value pluralism makes a crucial contribution. It explains why he distinguishes negative liberty from its conditions and why he does not reject positive liberty as a value. It also explains how feminists can see the value in both negative and positive liberty without trying, paradoxically, to fit them both into a single concept. Further, my liberal-pluralist extension of Berlin’s pluralism locates all these insights within a complex but coherent political outlook which provides a sympathetic resource for feminism.

Digitale werktuigkist met ethische overlegmethoden in de zorg

Digital toolbox with methods of ethical case deliberation in care This era is characterized by pluralism of values. Therefore, caregivers cannot find the answer to the question “How do I have to act to be a good caregiver?” any longer in old certainties, but in dialogue between everybody involved in a given care situation. It is necessary to hold this dialogue systematically. Especially in complex situations, moral case deliberation is, therefore, the most proper method. The essential point in each ethical deliberation is posing the accurate moral question, which doesn’t probe only into theoretical or practical knowhow, but interrogates what the persons involved in the given situation are permitted to do, must do or have to refrain from. There are a lot of different methods of ethical deliberation, but in principle, they all have the same basic structure consisting of 7 parts. Moral deliberation must always start from the facts that occur in a specific situation, but one must look beyond the bare facts. Humans essentially give meaning to the facts that happen in their lives. Ethical deliberation should especially give attention to this sense-making. In practice, moral deliberation is not always practicable due to the lack of time. Therefore, more compact methods of ethical deliberation were developed. In order to place all these methods at everyone’s disposal, 2 websites with a digital toolbox were created: one in Dutch and one in French.

Inclusion, Equality and Educational Justice: Enhancing Social-Emotional Learning through Children’s Literature in a Diverse and Segregated Society

Children’s literature is an essential channel for providing children with social-emotional skills. This is particularly so in diverse and segregated societies where the need for enhancing awareness and acceptance of the Other is acute. Based on the content and semiotic analysis of 25 titles included in the state program “March of Books,” the present study examines how, if at all, social-emotional skills are reflected in the Hebrew-language children’s literature in Israel. Since the selected titles reflect all skill categories determined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the findings indicate that these selected titles can support children’s social-emotional learning (SEL). Nevertheless, the selected titles lack focus on a specific category within each text. Moreover, in a manner typical of Jewish-Israeli education, the selected titles expose young readers to their specific cultures and others through translated literature that highlights gender, Jewish-ethnic, physical, and age equality. At the same time, the selected titles tend to marginalize the culture of the Arab minority. The article concludes that education programs seeking to promote SEL through children’s literature must balance all SEL categories, represent the learners’ social differences, expose the readers to other cultures, and inculcate pluralist values.

Agroecosystem services: From general assessment to policy implications

Abstract Agricultural ecosystems managed by farmers provide and receive multiple ecosystem services that are essential to sustain human well‐being. Understanding how agricultural production systems generate agroecosystem services is as important as gaining deeper insights into how farmers perceive and value them to ensure the adoption and implementation of sustainable agricultural practices. We conducted a comprehensive review and in‐depth analysis of existing valuation studies on agroecosystem services to identify potential future research directions. We found two broad research strands of articles: one focusing on ‘General assessment of agroecosystem services’ and the other on ‘Implications for policy making’. The first strand focuses more on individual preferences and monetary values, which might limit a comprehensive assessment. The second strand emphasizes participatory and deliberative techniques to reflect the plurality of values and to provide empirical evidence for policymaking. We recommend to move beyond monetary valuation techniques, and to develop methods that bridge the two strands as a promising avenue for future inter‐ and transdisciplinary research. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

“So Lonely”: Comparative Law and the Quest for Interdisciplinary Legal Education

For various reasons, that will be recalled and analysed throughout this paper, interdisciplinarity has become the keyword for any debate on legal education reform. However, what is meant by interdisciplinarity and how it should be achieved is open for discussion. Paradigms of “scientificity” of the law vary dramatically among legal cultures. Whereas in the US the advent of a more ‘substantial’ legal thought after the New Deal went hand in hand with the rise of the interdisciplinary paradigm, in Europe the traditional assumption of law’s autonomy has repeatedly been challenged, eroded and adapted, but it still represents the bulwark of the orthodox approach to law and legal scholarship. In the Continent, mainstream legal scholarship does not take as its object the social reality, but only the gamut of rules recognized as binding norms. Coherent with this approach is a model of legal education built around certain axioms, such as the statist and nationalist attitude, the extreme compartmentalization among the various branches of law, and the blindness to its surroundings. Comparative law is one of the few disciplines that provide a different role model for a legal scholar who is apt to confront the challenges of complex societies. Keeping at a reasonable distance the authority paradigm, embodying the spirit of enquiry and cherishing the values of pluralism (both in terms of legal pluralism and cognitive openness), comparativists may give specific content to the paradigm of the jurist as a social engineer. Comparative law may therefore offer an invaluable contribution to the debate on legal education reform.

Exploring economic dimensions of social ecological crises: A reply to special issue papers

In this paper I consider various shifts in my research and understanding stimulated by seeking how to combat social ecological crises connected to modern economies. The discussion and critical reflections are structured around five papers that were submitted to Environmental Values in an open call to address my work. A common aspect is the move away from neoclassical environmental economics, and its reductionist monetary valuation, to a more realist theory and multiple methods. This relates to my work on environmental ethics, plural values, stated preference validity and deliberative monetary valuation. Expanding beyond the narrow confines of mainstream orthodoxy has involved exploring a range of other disciplines (e.g. applied philosophy, social psychology, human geography, political science, social anthropology, history of thought and philosophy of science) and learning from this literature to rethink economics and develop social ecological economics. A broad range of subjects are covered here, including: personal responsibility, social practice, psychology of the individual, participatory processes, value (intrinsic, instrumental and relational), Nature–society relationships and interdependencies, critical realism and the conduct of unifying interdisciplinary science. I end with a series of comments concerning the failings of orthodox economics and the conduct of scientific research for social ecological transformation.

Value Kaleidoscope: Engaging AI with Pluralistic Human Values, Rights, and Duties

Human values are crucial to human decision-making. Value pluralism is the view that multiple correct values may be held in tension with one another (e.g., when considering lying to a friend to protect their feelings, how does one balance honesty with friendship?). As statistical learners, AI systems fit to averages by default, washing out these potentially irreducible value conflicts. To improve AI systems to better reflect value pluralism, the first-order challenge is to explore the extent to which AI systems can model pluralistic human values, rights, and duties as well as their interaction. We introduce ValuePrism, a large-scale dataset of 218k values, rights, and duties connected to 31k human-written situations. ValuePrism’s contextualized values are generated by GPT-4 and deemed high-quality by human annotators 91% of the time. We conduct a large-scale study with annotators across diverse social and demographic backgrounds to try to understand whose values are represented. With ValuePrism, we build Value Kaleidoscope (or Kaleido), an open, light-weight, and structured language-based multi-task model that generates, explains, and assesses the relevance and valence (i.e., support or oppose) of human values, rights, and duties within a specific context. Humans prefer the sets of values output by our system over the teacher GPT- 4, finding them more accurate and with broader coverage. In addition, we demonstrate that Kaleido can help explain variability in human decision-making by outputting contrasting values. Finally, we show that Kaleido’s representations transfer to other philosophical frameworks and datasets, confirming the benefit of an explicit, modular, and interpretable approach to value pluralism. We hope that our work will serve as a step to making more explicit the implicit values behind human decision-making and to steering AI systems to make decisions that are more in accordance with them.

Cultural Wealth: Indonesia’s Gateway to Become the Centre of Global Islamic Civilization

This research explores various aspects of Indonesia's rich culture and its important role in facilitating Indonesia's ascent to the pinnacle of global Islamic civilization. The research aims to disseminate its findings widely, encouraging a deeper understanding of Indonesia's unique potential as a global center of Islamic civilization. The research method is a literature review approach. The research begins with a careful exploration of Indonesia's historical trajectory, which explains the emergence and evolution of Islam in the archipelago. This historical analysis highlights the synthesis between Islamic traditions and indigenous cultures, thus illustrating the unique and syncretic character of Indonesian Islam. The results show that the government also needs to play an active role in developing moderate religious education. Investing in an education system that teaches the values of peace, tolerance and pluralism can create a younger generation that is more open to differences and better able to promote the message of peace in the Islamic world.