Ethics, Policy and Environment Vol. 14, No. 3, October 2011, 313–327 SYMPOSIUM ON ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES, BY JOHN O’NEILL, ALAN HOLLAND AND ANDREW LIGHT (ROUTLEDGE PRESS, 2008) The Social Dimension of Pluralism: Democratic Procedures and Substantial Constraints KARSTEN KLINT JENSEN, CHRISTIAN GAMBORG, & PETER SANDØE Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Introduction In Environmental values, John O’Neill, Alan Holland and Andrew Light present a pluralist account of environmental values. What is particularly stimulating about their account is that, from the very beginning of the book, the authors connect discussions of the environment and values to the context of public policy and related public controversies. Thus, after giving examples of public controversies relating to environmental and nature management policies, the authors clearly describe how values may conflict in complex ways where such policy issues are concerned: The policy maker is often faced, not with a clear-cut decision between protection and damage, but with the distribution of different kinds of damage and benefit across different dimensions of value. Moreover, there is a conflict between the avoidance of environmental damage, and other social, economic and cultural objectives. These include not only direct conflicts, say, between the economic benefits of a road development and the environmental damage it will cause, but also indirect conflicts in terms of the opportunity costs of environmental projects, that is, the resources employed that could have been employed for other projects, both environmental and non-environmental. (O’Neill, Holland & Light, 2008, p. 4) Two general observations are, it seems, being made here. The first is that there are several dimensions of value relating to the environment, and these may come into conflict. The second is that a wide range of other social objectives exist, and these may come into conflict both with environmental values and each other. Correspondence Address: Karsten Klint Jensen, Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C., Denmark. Email: kkj@foi.dk 2155-0085 Print/2155-0093 Online/11/030313–15 ß 2011 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2011.605860