Unravelling reasons for the non-establishment of protected areas: justification regimes and principles of worth in a Swiss national park project

Abstract

This article engages with pragmatic sociology to understand an environmental dispute and its underlying moral issues in a direct-democratic and bottom-up setting. The non-establishment of a planned national park in the Swiss Alps serves as a case study to analyse principles of worth presented in national park negotiations. We point to the complex nature of conservation negotiations and argue that loosely defined ideas of the common good can lead to additional difficulties for a bottom-up project. Moreover, we open up new ground for discussion concerning the interplay of nature conservation and direct democracy.