The Value of Our Common Environment

Abstract

The Encyclical Letter “Laudato Sì” (“Praise be to you”) gives space to an important reflection on the social and environmental development dimensions as well on the relationship between economic growth and human progress. The Letter proposes an explicit critique to the current economic system, based on the neoclassical paradigm, and it claims some not strictly traditional economic issues. Starting from this critical analysis, the Letter offers an in-depth reflection that moves from the decisions making processes and the objectives of economic policies up to the evaluation tools, which should be able to support an effective care of the Earth, dubbed as a “Common Home”. In order to overcome prejudices and the traditional perspectives and to seriously tackle the environmental and social challenges, the Encyclical Letter tries to broaden the concepts of value and progress. There are several causes for reflection: from the critique to methodological individualism (and the consequent representation of choices based on preferences not structured as needs) to the lack of recognition of the special harmony between humans and nature. Similarly to the Marxian thought of men’s alienation, it underlies the identity value of places, so to make the reduction of environmental and public goods to mere commodities controlled by the market unacceptable. The answer to this challenge cannot be vague ecology. For this reason the Letter calls for a new definition of the relationship between human beings and nature, starting from the Judeo-Christian anthropocentrism, which recalls that kind of reciprocity and which doesn’t assign to man the role of lord of the universe, but rather of responsible administrator. This new definition is based on some deep-rooted principles: the limits of resources and technology’s power, the social limits of affluent societies, the acceptance of the steady state condition, the attention to diversities, capabilities, willingness to participate by local communities, the individual character of well-being and life projects, the exhortation for a distributive justice into and between generations. The change of paradigm should be radical and subjected to mediation. In this framework the Encyclical Letter assigns to the Appraisal discipline a fundamental role for pursuing the envisaged changes and it outlines some operational assumptions to make the evaluation activities a real support to policy making.