"Traditional valuation approaches are increasingly recognised as being insufficient to address the wicked valuation problems of the diverse peoples and groups that inhabit the globe from North, South, East to West. This book demonstrates the limitations of science and, in particular economics, as the foundation on which valuations are traditionally based. It demonstrates the importance of and provides justification for the personal, cultural values and norms which underpin our assessment of "value", and the fact that these vary across the world. In Wicked Valuations Michael McDermott develops a means of engaging with highly complex valuation problems. His autoethnography provides a lens to draw on knowledge and experience from his 40 years in land valuation in Africa and the Asia-Pacific, whilst documentary analysis is used to draw in the views of other valuation practitioners and scholars who are becoming increasingly aware of the need to develop ways to adapt land valuation processes to the complexity of our contemporary landscapes. These two threads are woven together as McDermott discusses his professional career in valuing real property rights, and the effects such rights have had on the peoples in countries across six continents. Drawing on lessons that emerge from this reflective journey, the book develops and pilots a tool which is specifically designed to address wicked valuation problems through engagement with small groups, particularly, but not exclusively, value juries. This transdisciplinary work seeks to provide a fundamental challenge to how value is understood, measured, and practised and should be read by all those with an interest in valuation and real property rights, social problems, globalisation, and development studies."
