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Conceptualizing values as part of a dynamic multilevel world

Date

2015

Authors

Dietsch, Alia M., author
Teel, Tara, advisor
Manfredo, Michael, advisor
Gavin, Michael, committee member
Henry, Kimberly, committee member

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Abstract

Humans are engaged in complex relationships of adaptation and change with the environment, each affecting one another. These relationships (i.e., feedback loops) necessitate an increased understanding of the different components of social-ecological systems. However, these systems appear to operate differently depending on the levels and scales under investigation, making it difficult to fully conceptualize these interconnected phenomena as well as raising important questions. We narrow our focus on two specific areas of inquiry in the interest of explicating factors that influence social values, which in turn lead to the attitudes and behaviors that can either drive or alleviate the many environmental challenges we face. First, how might macro processes of social change at different levels affect individual-level thought, and what might this mean for biodiversity conservation and environmental protection? Second, can internal human cognitions transform into widespread societal beliefs about how the environment, including wildlife, should be treated? This dissertation presents two manuscripts designed to contribute to these areas of inquiry by considering how values are influenced by processes at different levels on a geopolitical scale, and how those values shape levels of cognition within individuals (an internal cognitive scale). The first chapter specifically focuses on understanding how socioeconomic advances at the county-level within the state of Washington are influencing new value priorities, and how these values lead to support for biodiversity conservation of species irrespective of human needs. For example, higher levels of income, education, and urbanization at both individual and county levels were associated with higher degrees of mutualism, a value orientation that prioritizes the needs of wildlife as similar to the needs of humans. Indeed, we found mutualism to be positively associated with support for wolves (Canis lupis) recolonizing the state despite the potential for livestock predation and concern for human safety. Results also indicate that these new value priorities can lead to social conflict among different segments of the public based on beliefs about how wildlife should be managed. This work demonstrates several key findings. First, broad changes in social systems lead to a fundamental shift in social values in such a way that clearly indicates social-ecological context matters. Second, these values lead to predictable patterns of response to actions that promote biodiversity conservation. However, those patterns of response vary across the landscape, providing further evidence of cross-level and cross-scale dynamics within systems. The second article casts social values as actors in a different, but equally important systems view complete with feedback loops. Specifically, social values are depicted as subject to the upward processes of emergence (micro-to-macro level) and the downward processes of immergence (macro-to-micro level). Our conceptualization acknowledges values as phenomena that emerge from individuals who are in turn shaped by pervasive social-ecological conditions (e.g., warfare, mass migrations, disease spread). Although processes of emergence are not directly studied in this manuscript, immergence is explored in two ways: (1) the effect of socioeconomic advances at a state level on individual expressions of postmaterialist values (values that tend to focus on the needs of others outside of self), and (2) the existence of widespread environmental attitudes associated with a prevalence of postmaterialist values. Only support for the second pathway of immergence was found, suggesting that individuals with postmaterialist values do indeed support protection of the environment, including wildlife, even at the expense of human interests such as economic development and recreation behaviors. In total, this dissertation is intended to provide a deeper look at the feedback loops between different levels of cognition and the world in which we live in the hopes of informing solutions to the grave environmental challenges we face.

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