Discursive Relationships Between Landscape Science, Policy and Management Practice: Concepts, Issues and Examples - Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Environment and Culture - page 221

reasoned consensus is difficult. Yet proponents of deliberative planning believe it
is possible for people to change their position during the course of the planning
process, at least to the extent needed to move forward towards a resolution of the
issue at hand.
Closely linked to the idea of communicative rationality is the concept of value
rationality. Initially developed by the social theorist Weber, value rationality is a
process of deliberating openly upon the desired ends, rather than means. Dietz
et al. ( 2005 ) identified three dimensions of environmental values that may be
expressed in a community—usefulness, individual preference, and collective
principles or morality. Value rationality is thus a process of determining desired
outcomes in terms of how values might be realised, what individuals might prefer,
and how to meet collective norms. This parallels the way Andrews ( 1979 ) con-
ceptualised values in public decisions about landscape as intrinsic, preferences,
and norms.
Flyvberg ( 2001 ) framed the application of value rationality in urban planning as
a form of practical wisdom, and it is this melding of means and ends that char-
acterises Duff et al. ( 2009 ) conclusions from their experience of collaborative
landscape science and management in Australia. Similar combinations of modern
science and practical wisdom are characteristic of best practice in co management
of landscape resources in New Zealand (Wardle and Collins 2008 ) and reflect the
emerging practice of collaborative landscape management in Denmark (Primdahl
et al. 2010 ). As Demeritt put it, 'ultimately environmental narratives are not
legitimated in the lofty heights of foundational epistemology but in the more
approachable and more contested realm of public discourse ( 1994 : 22).
In the next section of the chapter, we examine the implications of recognising
and negotiating values in deliberation over landscape conditions and futures, in the
context of the approach known as alternative ecological futures planning.
12.3 Alternative Futures as a Form of Deliberative Science
12.3.1 Alternative Futures Planning
Alternative futures (and scenario) planning provides useful insight into the con-
sequences and challenges of a rational approach to planning through science.
Development of scenarios and/or alternative futures has emerged as a powerful
way to engage science with place, and projects typically use scientific knowledge
to either predict landscape trajectories or to identify pathways towards desired
future conditions. The advantage and appeal of identifying alternative pathways to
the future, and different possible futures, rather than proposing a singular trajectory
or outcome, is that it can accommodate a range of assumptions, where knowledge
is uncertain, and enables comparative evaluation of alternative solutions. Most
alternative futures and scenario projects are expert led (Hulse et al. 2002 ) and in