The Practical Fit of Concepts
Ecosystem Services and the Value of Nature
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12754284 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hayley Stevenson (0000-0002-4876-1496, Volkswagen Foundation, corresponding author), Graeme Auld (0000-0002-4054-7284, Volkswagen Foundation), Jen Allan (0000-0003-1353-5744, Volkswagen Foundation), Lorraine Elliott (0000-0003-4940-1262, Volkswagen Foundation), James Meadowcroft (0000-0003-0901-0195, Volkswagen Foundation) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 3-22 |
| Publication date | 2020-12-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Global Environmental Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1526-3800 • E-ISSN: 1536-0091 |
| Publisher | The MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1162/glep_a_00587 |
| OpenAlex | W3118093821 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 25 |
Conceptual innovations are a central feature of global environmental governance. Confronting degradation and unsustainability, scholars and practitioners turn to new concepts to identify, make sense of, and chart new directions towards meaningful governance solutions. But why do some concepts create lasting changes to governance institutions and governance practices, while others do not? Ideational theories of international relations highlight the importance of normative fit. In this paper we analyze the concept of ecosystem services to show that normative fit is just one dimension of governance fitness, which also includes practical fitness. Ecologists and economists coined the concept of ecosystem services to make biodiversity conservation intelligible to decision-makers versed in economic thinking. It has gained rhetorical traction, but ultimately failed to change how we treat nature because it lacks practical fitness. We interviewed fifty-six individuals working in twelve international organizations that have sought to translate the concept of ecosystem services into practice. Our analysis reveals forces limiting practical fit and constraining institutional uptake at three levels of analysis: structural, organizational, and agent. We present a cautionary tale that pushes scholars to carefully consider practical fit alongside normative fit when suggesting new concepts as organizing frames for how we govern global environmental challenges
Corporate governance · Dimension (graph theory · Economics · Ecosystem · Ecosystem services · Environmental governance · Environmental resource management · Management · Management science · Normative · Political science · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Law · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance · Ecology
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Institutional Influences and the Governance and Administration of the Programa Produtor de Água Payment for Ecosystem Services Program in Brazil
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Do planning concepts matter? A Lacanian interpretation of the urban village in a British context
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Indigenous Meanings of Provenance in the Context of Alternative Food Movements and Supply-Chain Traceability
Performing Nature’s Valuation
Making explicit an Ecosystem Services indicator as a policy instrument
Distributive difference, dynamic evolution and spatial convergence of the supply capacity of ecological products in China
Valuing Nature to Save It? The Centrality of Valuation in the New Spirit of Conservation
Invasive Species in Post-2020 Global Environmental Politics
Transnational Governing at the Climate–Biodiversity Frontier
Impacts of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Ecosystem Service Values in the Eastern Amazon
The Compromise of Liberal Environmentalism
Institutional Change and Globalization
Precisely incorrect? Monetising the value of ecosystem services
The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital
Institutional change and globalization
Great Transformations
The Ipbes Conceptual Framework — connecting nature and people
The Institutional Roots of Incremental Ideational Change
The history of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice
Ideas are Not as Stable as Political Scientists Want Them to Be
Ideational Theorizing in the Social Sciences since “PolicyParadigms,SocialLearning, and theState
What’s in a Norm? Mapping the Norm Definition Process in the Debate on Sustainable Development
Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State
How Ideas Spread
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 15 |