Value pluralism and incommensurability in Ecological Economics

We live in times of global crises, where economic, social and ecological problems are increasingly entangled and therefore require novel answers. Economics is today holding a hegemonic position and dominates the way we understand and relate to the problems we face, and it continues to gain new territory. This is reflected in a value hegemony framing everything from biodiversity to carbon emissions in monetary terms. We consider this a democratic problem since the diversity of values is thus not fairly represented in our current mode of decision-making. We believe that the solutions to the grand problems of our time lie in a democracy where multiple values can be communicated. In order to provide inspiration for thinking about such a democracy, this paper provides an overview of a wide range of philosophical positions on values and value pluralism and analyses how values and value pluralism are treated in a selection of articles in ecological economics. The paper concludes that the treatment of values and incommensurability in ecological economics can be characterised as ambiguous. There is a need for further research on the theoretical aspects of these issues.