Data from: Relational values of nature in empirical research: A systematic review

In the past five years, scholarly and policy attention to relational
values, a concept that articulates plural values of nature, has grown
steadily. To date, there are no published syntheses of empirical research
that explicitly address relational values. We perform a systematic
literature review of n = 72 empirical studies of relational values to
summarize the state of current research and to identify opportunities for
future research and conceptual development. In our analysis, we categorize
what authors identify as relational values and summarize study
characteristics (e.g., study location, methods approach.) Authors
collectively report n = 312 unique relational values. Categories of
identity, social cohesion, livelihoods, connection to place/human-nature
connection, and religion are most common. Scholarship that
explicitly addresses relational values has increased since 2017 and
exhibits substantial diversity: in how relational values are
conceptualized (or not); in disciplinary associations; in geographical
location; and in data collection methods. We find that most empirical
research on relational values does not justify how its results reflect
characteristics that establish the relational values concept as unique
from other environmental values concepts. As a result, diverse
interpretations of the relational values concept pose the risk of the
relational values concept being so broad and inclusive that it becomes
meaningless, or at least meaning-light.