FOREST VALUE DICTIONARY – BY DAVID N. BENGSTON & ZHI XU (FREE)

 

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Forest Value Dictionary (ZIP file – 4K)

 

DESCRIPTION

The Forest Value Dictionary is composed of 612 words and phrases. It is a classification system that identifies four broad categories of forest values: economic/utilitarian, life support, aesthetic, and moral/spiritual values. The dictionary can be modified for use with other subjects. In 2017 it was modified for a study on marine issues by Peter J. Jacques and Rafaella Lobo, SOFIA’S choices: Discourses, values, and norms of the World Ocean Regime. It was originally developed and used to empirically analyze the evolution of forest values in the United States from 1982 through 1993 (Bengston & Xu, 1995)

 

The table below provides for each of the four categories, sample words and phrases and well as the number of entries.

 

For an excellent presentation on how to build and validate a domain specific categorization system, we strongly recommend the reading of Bergston & Xu (1995, see below).

 

WORDSTAT SPECIFIC INSTRUCTION

In order to apply this dictionary, you will need to enable the “Accept Numeric Characters” option since some entries contain numbers (like CO2). The hyphen should also be included in the list of valid characters.

 

© All rights reserved Provalis Research 2024

 

 

SELECTED REFERENCES

  • Bengston, D, & Xu, Z. (1995). Changing national forest values: A content analysis St. Paul, Minn.: North Central Forest Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
  • Xu, Z. and D. Bengston (1997) Trends in national forest values among forestry professionals, environmentalists, and the news media, 1982-1993. Society and Natural Resources 10: 43-59.

 

CATEGORIES AND SAMPLE WORDS
CATEGORY EXAMPLES ENTRIES
ECONOMIC/UTILITARIAN VALUE EXPRESSIONS 110
commodities, exports, industrial forestry, logging, lumber product, profitable, supply, timber shortage, tree plantation, willing to pay
LIFE SUPPORT VALUE EXPRESSIONS 278
absorption of pollutants, acid rain, air quality, biodiversity, carbon storage, climate change, damaging steam, ecosystem, erosion, extinct species, habitat, ozone layer
AESTHETIC VALUE EXPRESSIONS 139
awesome, elegant, evocative, exquisite, glorious, luxuriant, natural setting, ornament, panoramic, scenic beauty, sensual, splendor, sumptuous, superb
MORAL/SPIRITUAL VALUE EXPRESSIONS 85
ancient tree, consecration, eden, environmental ethics, heritage, immortal, irreplaceable, legacy, morality, posterity, profaning, sacred, transcendental