Forestry, the Arts and Value as Use

Draws upon an article by philosophers Valerie & Richard Routley that appeared in the Australian Quarterly 30 years ago to examine present-day proposals of a method for valuing community assets. The Routley's argued that public assets, in that case pine forests, were being valued according t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AQ (Balmain, N.S.W.) N.S.W.), 2003-01, Vol.75 (1), p.13-40
Main Author: Hyde, Dominic
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arts
Assessed values
Assets
Australia
Australia: Buildings
Commercial forests
Corporate power
Cultural institutions
Cultural values
Culture
Economic value
Forestry
Globalization
Government
Plantation forestry
Public forests
Public Goods
The Policy Process
Value (Economics)
Values
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Summary:Draws upon an article by philosophers Valerie & Richard Routley that appeared in the Australian Quarterly 30 years ago to examine present-day proposals of a method for valuing community assets. The Routley's argued that public assets, in that case pine forests, were being valued according to a criteria based on a flawed ideology that ignored non-commodity values. It is contended that the current government continues to consider value as synonymous with use by attempting to measure the value of cultural institutions by volume of use. Using that criterion, the National Library has less value than a popular Canberra bar. Objections to the "value as use" account include its failure to consider potential users, & the societal benefits of use by a few, as in the case of persons who use cultural institutions to broaden their understanding of history, which in turn influences their input into policy or good governance. It is concluded that a naive conception of value must not be the basis for the levels of government support offered to cultural institutions. J. Lindroth
ISSN:1443-3605