Transposing emotions to conserve nature? The positive politics of the metrics of ecosystem services

ABSTRACT

In contrast to terrifying extinction numbers, the metrics of Ecosystem Services (ES) highlight the positive impacts of the functioning of ecosystems for human societies. In the French national park of Port-Cros, conservationists measured ES to increase the appeal of nature conservation and soothe conflicts generated by the park’s extension. Their actions can be described as a ‘transposition’, an inversion in the logic of conservation policies to turn negative emotions into positive ones. Conservationists used the transposition achieved by the ES metrics to manage their own emotions and elicit specific emotions among decision-makers. Responding to the anxiety generated by the park’s shrinking budget and unstoppable environmental degradation, they attempted to be hopeful by transforming conservation knowledge. To convince mayors of the surrounding municipalities to join the park, they sought to make them trust the parks’ budgeting practices and to induce enthusiasm in protected ecosystems. Yet, decision-makers were relatively indifferent to ES numbers and remained worried about the park’s possible extension. The case of Port-Cros affirms that metrics can be used to govern social changes by transforming emotions, but challenges the assumed optimism of ES promoters for positive emotional politics. Continuing previous STS research on emotions, the concept of transposition documents how the reconceptualisation of knowledge in alternative ways enables scientists to conduct emotional work and manage the emotions generated by their profession. It provides a tool to study how scientists invert the logic of political issues to produce positive emotions and how they use these emotions to facilitate environmental governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion
• transposition
• metrics
• nature conservation
• numbers
• ecosystem services

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank those who commented on preliminary versions of this article: Allison Loconto, Scott Prudham, Steven Wolf, the participants of the Institute on Critical Studies of Environmental Governance in Toronto (2018), Isabelle Arpin, Taru Peltola and Mallory James. This article has been greatly improved by the remarks of anonymous reviewers and the editorial guidance provided by Allison Loconto, Les Levidow and Kean Birch. None of this work would have been possible without the time and support of the employees of the Port-Cros national park.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Koneen Säätiö; ARC Environnement of Rhône-Alpes region.

Notes on contributors

Lucas Brunet

Lucas Brunet is postdoctoral researcher at the Science, Technology and Society Department, Technical University of Munich. At the intersection of STS and the sociology of emotions, his research focuses on the transformation of the study and conservation of nature in the cases of ecosystem services, biodiversity offsetting and ecological infrastructures. He is also interested in research policy and science communication, in particular in European contexts.