What are anthropocentric, biocentric, ecocentric and pluricentric worldviews?

The literature on nature’s values classifies worldviews in many ways. Anthropocentric worldviews on one side, bio- and ecocentric worldviews on the other, are the most common in both academic literature and policy documents. Each has its own value orientation, with considerable variation and overlap within and among them.

These worldviews come from the IPBES methodological assessment of the diverse values and valuation of nature, approved in July 2022 after four years of work by 82 experts drawing on more than 13,000 references.

How do worldviews translate into ways of living with nature?

IPBES describes four ways of living: living from nature, as a source of resources; living in nature, as a landscape people belong to; living with nature, alongside species and habitats; and living as nature, when “the river is part of us”. It groups them into three families of worldviews. The Canadian researcher Nicole Huybens separates biocentrism from ecocentrism, which gives four relationships with nature, each defined by what it values. These four relationships are the basis of our imaginaries fresk.

Why do imaginaries matter for how we live?

For John Thompson, the social imaginary is “the creative and symbolic dimension of the social world, the dimension through which human beings create their ways of living together and their ways of representing their collective life”. An imaginary is a set of representations guided by values: it translates into everyday choices, what we agree to share, what we want to protect, what we pass on.

Depending on how we see nature, we perceive either a crisis of resources or a crisis of relationships. A crisis of resources calls for limits: staying within planetary boundaries and leaving the lightest footprint. A crisis of relationships calls for mutually beneficial ties, because the potential of life is immense: respecting ourselves and others, to live well together on Earth. The first produces imaginaries of restriction, about what we will lose; the second produces imaginaries of prosperity, about what we will all gain.

Cultural expression shapes how we see nature and which landscapes or animals we value. Museums show how human relationships with nature have changed over centuries. Wildlife film-making has changed our perception of nature, and so have documentaries such as Kiss the Ground and films such as Avatar or Disney’s Strange World. What we wear, eat and do has always revealed our values and aspirations, especially in times of upheaval.

How does the imaginaries fresk work?

Opening up imaginaries to other ways of making society, among humans and with nonhumans: this is what the imaginaries fresk sets out to do. The workshop runs in three hours, on a theme the group chooses, such as living, eating or dressing in 2050.

“John Dewey defines imagination as the possibility of looking at things as if they could be other.” Sharing individual visions with the group shows how many ways of living on Earth remain to explore. Recognized by the French ecological transition agency (ADEME) and the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), the fresk has been run with La Poste, with seventy business leaders of the Convention des Entreprises pour le Climat in Normandy, with the OFB and at Biomim’Expo.

How do imaginaries shape business models?

Each relationship with nature calls for its own business model: the classic business model canvas for anthropocentrism, the nonprofit canvas for biocentrism, the circular business model for ecocentrism, and the regenerative business model canvas for multicentrism. Our Regenerative Business Model Canvas gives this fourth relationship a business form: a coalition of partners designs, around one product, an offer that increases the capacity of life, human and non-human, to prosper.

Our Capacity Score reads the same progression in companies, on four levels: Limit, Reduce, Restore and Regenerate. At each stage, a different relationship with nature is called upon, and the last stage brings the previous ones together, with one shift more: the business itself contributes to the capacity of life to prosper.

Sources: IPBES, Methodological Assessment Report on the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature (2022) · Nicole Huybens · Hargrove (1992) · Norton (1984) · Deb et al. (2010) · Bannon (2014) · Plumwood (1993) · Callicott (1989) · Taylor et al. (2020) · Gould et al. (2019) · Matthews (1994) · Saxena et al. (2018) · Lucero (2018) · John Thompson · John Dewey.