Environmental Disvalues

Raising awareness of the positive values of biodiversity is a key factor to promoting the ecological attitudes and behaviors necessary for its protection and restoration.

However, dealing with the “rough edges” of nature and the associated disvalues (negative values) is equally crucial for a biodiversity-friendly future. This field of research focuses on these disvalues and the concerns they raise among stakeholders, which can hinder nature conservation measures. A nuanced examination of negative values should help to depolarize the environmental discourse by systematically taking ambivalent experiences of nature into account and avoiding one-sided attributions. 

• FR

   Valeurs négatives de la biodiversité

  Il est essentiel de sensibiliser davantage aux valeurs positives de la biodiversité afin de promouvoir les attitudes et les comportements écologiques nécessaires à sa protection et à sa restauration.

  Toutefois, il est tout aussi crucial pour un avenir favorable à la biodiversité de se pencher sur la question des « aspects difficiles » de la nature et les valeurs négatives qui y sont associées (disvalues). Ce domaine de recherche se consacre à ces disvalues ainsi qu'aux réticences qu'elles suscitent chez les acteurs et qui peuvent ainsi entraver les mesures de protection de la nature. Une approche nuancée des valeurs négatives doit contribuer à dépolariser le discours sur l'environnement en tenant systématiquement compte des expériences ambivalentes de la nature et en évitant les attributions unilatérales.

• DE

   Negative Werte der Biodiversität

  Das Bewusstsein für die positiven Werte der Biodiversität zu stärken ist zentral, um ökologische Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen zu fördern, die für ihren Schutz und ihre Wiederherstellung notwendig sind.

  Ebenso entscheidend für eine biodiversitätsfreundliche Zukunft ist jedoch der Umgang mit den „rauen Seiten“ der Natur und den damit verbundenen negativen Werten (Disvalues). Dieses Forschungsfeld widmet sich diesen Disvalues sowie den Bedenken, die sie bei Akteur:innen hervorrufen und dadurch Naturschutzmassnahmen behindern können. Eine differenzierte Auseinandersetzung mit negativen Werten soll zur Entpolarisierung des umweltbezogenen Diskurses beitragen, indem ambivalente Naturerfahrungen systematisch berücksichtigt und einseitige Zuschreibungen vermieden werden.

Ongoing projects 

• Promoting Biodiversity by Addressing Environmental Disvalue Narratives

  This research project is part of the current NRP 82 “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”. It examines negative values with a focus on wetlands and, in particular, beavers. It analyses how people react to these negative aspects, what scope for action exists, and the role of normative orientations in this context. A transdisciplinary environmental humanities approach combines qualitative stakeholder analyses, cultural and literary perspectives, environmental ethical reflections, and the practical expertise of WWF Switzerland. The aim is to initiate a differentiated and reflective discussion of the possible disvalues of wetlands and thereby overcome obstacles to nature conservation.

  • Details

    The research in the project will be divided into four interlinked work packages (WPs):

    WP1: Qualitative analysis of stakeholders’ environmental disvalues (UZH and UniL)

    WP2: Analysis of cultural and literary narratives (Uni FR and UZH)

    WP3: Environmental ethics arguments for considerate responses to environmental disvalues (UZH)

    WP4: Development and testing of tools to stimulate reflection on environmental disvalues. (UZH, Uni FR, UniL and WWF Switzerland)

    Claudia Keller's group is working on work package WP2, which is dedicated to the analysis of cultural and literary narratives surrounding wetlands. A postdoctoral researcher is examining literary and cultural narratives about wetlands with a particular focus on beavers. The disvalues contained in these narratives are analysed and systematized, historical developments are traced, and the ambivalence of wetlands as phobotopes and, at the same time, ecologically valuable spaces is highlighted. During the project, media coverage of beavers – from daily newspapers to specialized publications such as the Bauernzeitung (farmers' newspaper) or hunting magazines – is also continuously recorded and evaluated.

    The aim is to highlight those cultural traditions and narratives that – sometimes implicitly – shape negative perceptions of wetlands and beavers in contemporary discourse. On this basis, existing narratives can be critically reflected upon and further developed, and new narratives can be formulated that take both positive and negative values into account.

Picture: Jonas Landolt