More than the money...

Ostrom seemed to give credence to values-based considerations, but with a caveat.  My perception is that great weight can be placed on the approach if needed as a tiebreaker.  If no other measure can make a decision for a committee, if all economic measures indicate a balance between accepting a project and not, then values can be used to make the decision.  This seems to take the wind out of values-based thinking, placing it more as an afterthought rather than a controlling factor.  

Does this all-still work in today's society?  For example,  on one hand we may have people from an oil company talking to first nations. They are speaking a different language.  Whereas the exec may be able to code the language of the FN individual to something they can understand and place a quantitative, monetary value on, the FN individual may have a more difficult time taking the monetary understanding from the oil exec and place a value that they can understand on it.  

Sure, there is a sense that one can bring these externalities into the equation with the inclusion of values-based decision-making, but they are vulnerable to misinterpretation and misappropriation.  

I guess ultimately, we need to have an inclusion of values-based impacts in decision making as they are the true test of the system.  The sole inclusion of quantitative and economic measures limits the scope of decision makers, predisposing their decision making to those that present information in a specific manner.  There is more than merely money that drives the world.  What should also be included are facets that look at culture, spirituality, and identity.  There are many different perceptions of what has value, of what should be valued, which must be considered in any environmental decision making.