Social representations of governance for change towards sustainability: perspectives of sustainability advocates |
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Authors: | Anke Fischer Wouter Spekkink Christine Polzin Alberto Díaz-Ayude Ambra Brizi Irina Macsinga |
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Institution: | 1. Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences, James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, UKanke.fischer@hutton.ac.uk;3. Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands;4. Department of Environmental Politics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany;5. People-Environment Research Group, Faculty of Educational Studies, University of A Coru?a, Spain;6. Roma Tre, Department of Education, University of Rome, Italy;7. Department of Psychology, West University of Timi?oara, Romania |
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Abstract: | There is a substantial body of literature on public understandings of large-scale ‘environmental’ phenomena such as climate change and resource degradation. At the same time, political science and economics analyse the governance arrangements to deal with such issues. These realms of research rarely meet: there has been little research into people’s understandings of the governance of environmental change. This study adds a psychological perspective to governance research by investigating social representations of governance that promotes societal change towards sustainability, and related practices. It examines data from qualitative interviews with sustainability-interested people in seven European countries (n = 105). The analysis identified building blocks of representations suitable as an analytical framework for future research on governance representations. The diversity of their content reflected a range of pathways to societal change. Representations often seemed to have a creative function as a guiding vision for individuals’ own practices, but their wider transformative potential was constrained. |
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Keywords: | Community initiatives environmental governance grassroots practices social psychology transition management |
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