Rethinking Economic Practices and Values As Assemblages of More-Than-Human Relations

Highlights

• Conceptualizations linking economies and human-nature relations are predominantly dualistic.

• We propose a conceptual integration of economies as assemblages of more-than-human relations.

• Economies are negotiated and shaped by human and non-human practices and abilities.

• Humans experience economies through blends of relational, instrumental values and senses of place.

• Such perspective shifts away from a utilitarian morality towards relational diverse economies.

Abstract

The relational turn in the academic literature on environmental values explores ontologies that rethink the dualistic, hierarchical separations of humans from nature. In particular, the consideration of a plurality of values and ways in which humans connect to nature has brought new insights on the dynamic interconnections between people, place and environmental processes, all highly relevant for the world's sustainability challenges. However, many conceptualizations of economic practices and values are still predominantly dualistic and anthropocentric. To overcome this human-nature divide we propose a conceptual integration of relational values with assemblages of more-than-human relations, illustrated with examples from the literature and ongoing empirical research. These concepts offer a way of representing meaningful and dynamic interrelationships, including humans, physical elements, materials (e.g. technologies, tools), immaterial entities (e.g. sounds, lights, colors), and other non-human beings. We argue that such conceptual integration provides a useful framework to rethink diverse economies as the processes through which humans and non-humans co-constitute their interrelated livelihoods. With this, we extend the relational turn to research on economic human-nature connections, following the call of many scholars in the field of ecological economics to unveil non-utilitarian values and consider multiple economic agencies.