IB Environmental Systems and Societies: Topic 1.1: Perspectives VOCAB

Broad Values

• general moral guiding principles and life goals informed by people’s worldviews and beliefs

  i.e. freedom, justice, harmony with nature, harmony with Mother Earth, health, prosperity, responsibility

Specific Values

• judgements regarding nature’s importance in particular situations

• grouped into instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values

Specific Values: Instrumental

things that are a means to a desired end and tend to be associated with nature and its contributions to people

Specific Values: Intrinsic

values of nature expressed of any reference to people as valuers and include entities such as habitats or species that are worth protecting

Specific Values: Relational

meaningfulness of people-nature interactions and interactions among people through nature

Value Indicator

• quantitative measures and qualitative descriptors that reflect nature’s importance to people

• generally grouped as biophysical, monetary, and sociocultural

Perspectives

• how a particular situation is viewed and understood by an individual

• mix of personal and collective assumptions, values, and beliefs that influence people’s choices and actions

Values

• qualities or principles that people feel have worth in life

• affects decisions and perspectives and that can be shaped/shared by/with communities though different views cause tension

Value Surveys

used in order to determine that value of a resource to a given community/group or their values that affect a particular environmental issue

Worldviews

the lenses shared by groups of people through which they perceive, make sense of, and act within their environment

Environmental Value Systems (EVSs)

models that show the inputs affecting our perspectives

inputs: media, education, our worldviews, culture, experiences

outputs: judgement, positions, and choices and actions

Technocentrism

assumes all environmental issues can be resolved through technology

Anthropocentrism

humankind is central as the most important element of existence, and splits into a wide variety of views

Ecocentrism

the natural world has pre-eminent importance and intrinsic