Value pluralism, religious particularity, and environmental policy in pursuit of a sustainable future

Ives, Christopher D

Abstract

Science has presented a clear picture about global environmental destabilisation and the need for dramatic solutions to ensure a safe and flourishing future. Current policy approaches are grossly insufficient to reverse the decline in key indicators of planetary health. Consequently, sustainability scholars have increasingly pointed to the deep social and cultural roots of the environmental crisis. This article therefore argues for more authentic engagement with religious and spiritual perspectives in environmental policy formulation. Literature representing a 'normative turn' in sustainability science is firstly reviewed that articulates the need for wholesale transformations of beliefs, values and worldviews. This is then contrasted with dominant policy approaches that are grounded in natural science and neoliberal economic rationalities, namely biodiversity offsetting and payments for ecosystem services. It is argued that such policies are the product of simplified economic values to the neglect of more diverse and relational values underlying environmental concern. A culture and process for integrating religious perspectives into public environmental policy is presented that holds together a plurality of values with particularity of religious belief. Opening an action logic for environmental policy that accommodates alternative cosmologies and moral motivations may enable more effective and authentically human responses to the global sustainability crisis.

Citation

Ives, C. D. (in press). Value pluralism, religious particularity, and environmental policy in pursuit of a sustainable future. Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology, 2(4), 4-26

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 19, 2023
• Deposit Date: Mar 7, 2024
• Journal: Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology
• Print ISSN: 1385-3473
• Publisher: European Society for the Study of Science and Theology
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 4-26
• Keywords: Religion; Values; Sustainability; Environment; Conservation; Policy; Transformation; Science; Culture; Biodiversity Offsetting; Payments for Ecosystem Services
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/32174423
• Publisher URL: https://www.esssat.net/esssat-news-reviews