Environmental Values and Human Purposes

Some writings by Alan Holland provide the starting point for an exploration of sources of environmental value in human social practices. It is argued that many practices both serve human purposes and also provide a setting for the emergence of environmental value. Such practices are ones in which activity is embedded in, and so both strongly constrained and enabled by, its conditions and media. Capitalist 'modernisation' has tended to erode these practices and associated values in favour of external purposes and instrumental values, especially in the farmed countryside. In the face of this, and partly on grounds of social justice, a re-valuation of urban open spaces is advocated.