A pragmatic view on values in economics

Abstract

A cultural economic perspective focuses on values as they affect behavior, the valuations in various spheres as well as the valorization, that is, the enhancement or the changing of values. The pragmatic view focuses on the way values function in everyday life and in particular on the deliberations in which they are formed and expressed. Values matter; the challenge is to render them susceptible to analysis in economic contexts. The illustrations are derived from the economics of the arts.Values, Economic, Social And Cultural Values, Pragmatics, Culture, Economics, Valuation, Valorization, Economics Of The Arts,

An economic anatomy of culture: Attitudes and behaviour in inter- and intra-national ultimatum game experiments

“…Depending on context, the term culture can have a number of meanings, including the arts, good manners and habits, artefacts, shared knowledge, symbols and discourse as well as civilisation generally. 5 Here, we follow the conception of culture as a set of values and attitudes shared by a particular group, acquired through the process of socialisation (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, & Dasen, 2002;Grunert & Juhl, 1995;Klamer, 2003;Smith & Schwartz, 1997). In turn, attitudes are commonly defined as learned predispositions to react to stimuli (objects and events) in consistent ways (DeFleur & Westie, 1963;Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975;Gross & Niman, 1975;Kiecolt, 1988;Schuman & Johnson, 1976).…”

The value of value: Further excursions on the meaning and role of customer value

“…Indeed, Holbrook (1994Holbrook ( , 1999 has emphasized that value-related terms are used in ways (psycholinguistic performance) that may depart dramatically from their philosophical conceptualization (linguistic competence). In this connection, confusion between ''value'' (singular) and ''values'' (plural) occurs too often, though authors such as Klamer (2003) and Stuhr (2003) have addressed this topic, shedding light on the differences between such terms as ''values,'' ''valuations,'' and ''valorization.'' For example, another potential source of misunderstanding comes from the discrepant meanings of the word ''value'' in two marketingrelated domains -consumer behavior and marketing strategy (Lai, 1995).…”

What are shared and social values of ecosystems?

“…Yet conventional economic approaches to valuation, including the valuation of non-market benefits of the environment, and the welfare economic theory on which these are based, tend to approach value as one-dimensional, and (ultimately) held by individuals alone. Value to society is thus typically considered through aggregation of individual valuations, with the assumption that these valuations reflect underlying preferences and values (Klamer, 2003). However, such an approach may not capture collective meanings and significance ascribed to natural environments, potentially missing important, shared dimensions of value.…”