© 2009 The White Horse Press The New Environmental Pragmatists, Pluralism and

The role and meaning of environmental valuation has become increasingly messy and confused. At one time environmental economists advocated cost-benefit analysis as a branch of new welfare economics with a theoretical basis in neoclassical theory. Ecologists maintained a concern for systems change in physical terms and advocated environmental impact assessment. Environmentalists were against industry and encroachment of the market in to areas where other values dominated. This latter position was distinct from the other two. Thus a grove was sacred, not so many board feet of timber to be sold on the open market, or so many species and nutrient flows function-ally serving humanity. The three distinct positions became characterised as economic, environmental and social sustainability. The divisions between these categories and the distinctiveness of their disciplinary positions are no longer so easy to draw. Economics ’ appeal to the individual and the power of their preferences led to an expansion of value categories, supposedly captured by new methods. This meant