Ecosystem services as a boundary object for incorporating local knowledge in normative spatial planning: preliminary findings from two case studies in Southern France

摘要: This paper reports empirical findings from a European research project that explores the ecosystem services (ES) concept as a boundary object in local land use planning. Our theoretical starting point is grounded in classical Pragmatism: we posit that the uncertainties and knowledge gaps that emerge when the ES concept is taken beyond its mainstream interpretation can motivate stakeholders to question their settled beliefs about how they live from, with and in their local environment. This allows a conception of ‘ecosystem valuation’ as a cognitive social process based on the interpretation of signs. A sign is something, for example a parcel of farmland, which stands to somebody, for example a visiting tourist or a local grower, for something, for example a sense of place and history, in some respect or capacity. Such a semiotic perspective can be grounded in real-world land use planning by considering that actors’ settled beliefs about their environments are embedded in the institutions (norms, rules, shared strategies) that govern their actions. Understanding these beliefs (rather than ‘measuring preferences’), how they are formed and how they might change, can therefore inform local land use planning in practical terms. We reframe and trial the ES concept as a “boundary object” at the nexus of science, policy and practice, addressing three questions: (i): can the ES concept help to better articulate and demonstrate public benefits from peri-urban agri-ecosystems? (ii) what forms of knowledge can be harnessed at the local planning scale to (e)valu(at)e ES?; and (iii) what role do representations play in the process of semiosis? We present …