Turning things around: A discussion of values, practices, and action in the context of social-ecological change

Abstract

This special feature concerns understanding human-nature relations through the lens of values to comprehend how values of the natural world connect with wider processes of change, action and transformation in social-ecological systems. The relationships between values and action have preoccupied several disciplines and multiple discourses concerned with implementing change, including sustainability and health, and conservation. Focusing on the conceptual underpinnings of how values, action and change are generally understood, this paper proposes an alternate view informed by more-than-human thinking and theories of social practices. In doing so, it aims to closely scrutinise the relationship between values and actions in the context of creating transformative change. In highlighting this relationship and presenting some different ways to understand it, the paper aims to contribute to deepening understanding of how to relate to, value and act for nature and how this might be encouraged. One of the most common pathways assumed to generate action is based on the idea that action is driven by values, and that in order to change action, we therefore need to change values. The paper questions the assumed relationship between values and actions and its direction, and instead posits that beginning with actions is a more productive place to start. To work through these ideas, I introduce more-than-human theories, focusing on theories of social practice, to discuss how these theories can change how values and actions are conceptualised, how the relationships between them can be understood, and what these ideas can mean for rethinking how to achieve social-ecological change. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.