Abstract
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Environmental debates reflect the existence of plural rationalities; sets of convictions about the nature of the world we live in that are fundamentally contradictory and that generate different definitions both of the environmental problems we face and of the solutions that are available to us.
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These rationalities are linked to particular forms of social organisation — markets, hierarchies, egalitarian groups and excluded margins — all of which, in varying strengths and patterns of alliance, are the inescapable features of any society.
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To be effective, environmental decision making must take constructive account of these rationalities.
Examples of this approach include: liquefied gas terminal siting, Himalayan deforestation, hazardous waste management, global energy futures, oil and gas reserves estimation, the health effects of low level radiation, and mass housing.
This paper summarises a line of argument that is set out in two recently published books: Schwarz and Thompson (1990) and Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky (1990). The development of this argument in terms of varieties of uncertainty, was supported by the British Economic and Social Research Council (award reference number w 100311002).
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Thompson, M. (1991). Plural Rationalities: The Rudiments of a Practical Science of the Inchoate. In: Hansen, J.A. (eds) Environmental Concerns. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2904-6_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2904-6_15
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