Nicholas L. Padilla

Researchers, policy- and decision-makers, and planners have historically focused on the monetary value of parks and green spaces (either as costs or potential sale value). In this article, we argue that researchers, practitioners, and policymakers need to consider and investigate the non-economic values of parks and green spaces to more fully understand the worth of these spaces. We apply the total economic value framework (TEVF) to parks and green spaces in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to assess how use values and non-use values shape how people value local green spaces. This methodology provides a more comprehensive value of park spaces beyond the economic value which, in most cases, undervalues natural spaces. Our research indicates that, in the case of Kalamazoo, Michigan, parks and green spaces are worth more than the monetary value of their property to people. Non-use, existence, and bequest values all load strongly in our analysis, and these results indicate that people in the Kalamazoo area believe the worth of their park spaces extends well beyond the purely economic realm. We further argue that TEVF is an effective tool for park managers to incorporate diverse value systems and perceptions to quantify the importance of these values.

Indigenous movements in southwestern Colombia have shifted their focus from their original goals of asserting indigenous identities, reclaiming land, and uniting the country’s diverse indigenous communities. The Autonomous Indigenous Intercultural University (UAIIN) reasserts indigenous identities by appropriating a western educational model but returning education to processes of cultural reproduction among peers, by requiring all students to engage in community investigation and popular education within their own communities. In this paper, I argue that the UAIIN strives to be a pluriversity that builds on the diversity of its participants in order to foster thinking-feeling students who engage Mother Earth through deep and spiritual connections. These efforts are contradicted, however, by the UAIIN’s administration’s desire to meet the Colombian Ministry of Education’s requirements for universities and to gain official recognition for its degree programmes. In practice, the UAIIN is a pluriversity within a university. Through its pedagogy, the UAIIN seeks to build indigenous solidarity across cultural difference, connects students to Mother Earth through action-oriented education, and strategically universalizes a pan-indigenous national identity.

Using a stakeholder debate based on a real-world case of regional construction – that of Turkey's application to join the European Union – improved students' critical thinking in an introductory world regional geography course. Such courses are a staple offering among US geography departments, and often the only exposure of non-majors to geographic thinking. A stakeholder debate highlighting regional construction, using structured learning activities and reflection on their own thinking, improved students' critical thinking. We describe the stakeholder debate and its revision after one semester, and provide data from assessment and thematic coding of students' reflection papers.