Exploring the role of identity, the other and negative attributions in conflict about biodiversity valuation

Abstract Negotiating the many, often conflicting, values of biodiversity held by different stakeholders is a key endeavour in terms of integrating values into policy, co‐producing sustainable knowledge and achieving sustainable solutions. This negotiation is affected by stakeholders' agonistic identification processes, in which they express negative attributions linked to the other groups in relation to nature. Negative attributions are an incremental part of identification processes and stabilise and defend the own nature‐related identity through devaluing other groups relations to nature. Although they might negatively affect deliberative processes, they are currently barely recognised in value integration research. To address this gap, we carried out interviews with experts in the context of the conflict between insect conservation and conventional agriculture in Germany. We based our study in agonistic theory and analysed interviews using qualitative content analysis with a focus on how interviewees expressed negative attributions towards other parties. We focused on articulations of the utilization and wardship human–nature relational models. These cognitive models shape actors' interaction with nature as identity components and contribute to conflict as actors prioritize them differently. We found that experts expressed negative attributions with each model. We highlight the five most salient ones for each model. These attributions found in the data, as for example ‘picture book nature’, ‘business strategy’ or ‘economic priority’, and ‘alienation’, as well as their relationship to the positive identity of the respective groups are explained. While negative attributions can have negative effects on deliberative processes, such processes can be adapted to increase their robustness against a reactivation of negative attributions in value integration processes. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.