ABSTRACT
Different indicators are used to elucidate and capture all dimensions of social and environmental value. However, techniques such as environmental impact assessments rely on high levels of specialist expertise and can be inaccessible to policymakers. The need for a common assessment framework for decision-makers has led to the development of techniques such as ecosystem services and social return on investment (SROI) assessments, both of which often rely on proxies such as contingent valuation (e.g. willingness to pay), which has been widely critiqued, particularly due to the exclusion of intrinsic worth that is ignored in such monetisation. Empirical research on allotments and urban food networks in Plymouth, England, suggests that a capital-assets framework can attain results that are accessible to policymakers through keystone indicators. These enable policymakers to cross sectors and disciplinary boundaries and can generate values through readily available and not necessarily monetary proxies. This chapter demonstrates this approach and shows how it can incorporate existing empirical material relevant to any specific situation and can also draw on qualitative assessments to provide a richer picture. I argue that it enables values on all key social and environmental dimensions to be made visible and to the depth required in any situation, depending on level of resourcing and policy salience.
