Willing and able: explaining individuals' engagement in environmental policy making

Research on attitudes toward environmental policy making has often overlooked the important role that risks play in forming individual attitudes towards the environment. Similarly, this research often assumes that the factors that affect attitudes are similar across different environmental domains. The purpose of this research is to examine how the factors that affect an individual's willingness to get involved in environmental policy making differ on two environmental issues – nuclear power and drinking water. The study utilises multivariate statistical techniques to explore the relationship that uncertainty, risk, and trust play in an individual's willingness to take action in environmental policy making. The data consist of responses to a national random telephone survey of 403 adults in the United States. The individuals surveyed are more likely to take action on the less avoidable potential threat of nuclear power than they are on drinking water. The respondents believe that the potential harm from nuclear power is greater than that from drinking water. The individuals most likely to take action are those who indicate that they are interested in environmental issues.     

Measuring knowledge of indoor environmental hazards

People spend most of their time indoors, where air pollution levels rival and often exceed those outdoors for a number of important pollutants. Yet, little is known about people’s knowledge of indoor environmental hazards. The purpose of the current study was to construct a measure of indoor environmental knowledge. A set of 78 true/false items were developed with input from a panel of experts. The set of items was truncated with traditional item analyses, resulting in a reliable set of 21 items (α = .79). Concurrent validity was established by a significant correlation between the indoor environmental knowledge (IEK) scale and an established measure of science literacy (r = 0.44, p < .001). Schema theory guided the assumption that the two measures should be related. Convergent validity was established by the significant regression of science literacy, formal education in science and math, and status as an engineering student on IEK scale score, accounting for 25% of the variance in the IEK scale score. Future research avenues are proposed and limitations are discussed.     

The relationship between spatial ability and environmental knowledge

This study examined the relationships between four standardized measures of spatial ability—the Embedded Figures Test (EFT), the Mental Rotations Test (MRT), the Differential Aptitude Spatial Relations subtest (DAT), and the Building Memory Test (BMT)—and two measures of environmental knowledge. Three hundred and fifty-three college undergraduates were administered the EFT, MRT, DAT, BMT and two measures of environmental knowledge-a landmark location (LM) and route knowledge (RK) task. The two environmental knowledge tasks were based on a slide-simulated walk through an unfamiliar urban environment. A principal components analysis of the above six measures produced two factors; one consisting of the four spatial ability tests, and the other the two environmental knowledge tasks. The correlation between the two factors was 0·37, indicating that the spatial ability factor accounted for 13·69% of the variance in the environmental knowledge factor.     

Integrating local and scientific knowledge for environmental management

This paper evaluates the processes and mechanisms available for integrating different types of knowledge for environmental management. Following a review of the challenges associated with knowledge integration, we present a series of questions for identifying, engaging, evaluating and applying different knowledges during project design and delivery. These questions are used as a basis to compare three environmental management projects that aimed to integrate knowledge from different sources in the United Kingdom, Solomon Islands and Australia. Comparative results indicate that integrating different types of knowledge is inherently complex – classification of knowledge is arbitrary and knowledge integration perspectives are qualitatively very different. We argue that there is no single optimum approach for integrating local and scientific knowledge and encourage a shift in science from the development of knowledge integration products to the development of problem-focussed, knowledge integration processes. These processes need to be systematic, reflexive and cyclic so that multiple views and multiple methods are considered in relation to an environmental management problem. The results have implications for the way in which researchers and environmental managers undertake and evaluate knowledge integration projects.     

Managing environmental knowledge through unlearning in Spanish hospitality companies

The Spanish hospitality industry is facing environmental challenges which require organizations and individuals to learn new skills and practices and create new environmental knowledge. Understanding the nature and role of prior knowledge for sustainable development is a necessary step towards understanding if new environmental practices will be adopted successfully. This research focuses on unlearning and its impact on environmental knowledge by carrying out an empirical investigation of the unlearning context in 127 Spanish hospitality companies. The findings indicate that a process for consolidating emergent understandings would appear to be an intermediary step between the forgetting of old knowledge and the application of new environmental knowledge. Consequently, it is important that managers provide an appropriate unlearning context to support the openness of individuals to new ideas and environmental awareness. Otherwise, individuals may be fearful of or confused by the prospect of unlearning old habits and routines.     

A note on attitudes and knowledge concerning environmental issues in Sweden

As part of a larger research effort, the empirical basis for this note is responses to four out of many questions in a mailed survey, which primarily focused on national environmental objectives in Sweden. The results show that out of eight broad areas for use of tax money, five-including environment-are rated as important by over 90% of the respondents. Respondents appear to be less willing to discriminate between different issues covered by national environmental objectives, as all of these are rated as important by more than 80% of the respondents. The function of the ozone layer is an example of an environmental issue where the knowledge among people is relatively high, while this is not the case when it comes to the amount of pesticides used in agriculture. The results also show less support for actions at the individual level to improve the environment, as compared to support for actions taken by society at large through, e.g., technological improvement or policy intervention.     

Critical engagement,activist/academic subjectivities and organic agri-food research in Uganda

This paper provides a reflexive account of engagement in activist/academic organic agri-food research in Uganda. I argue that critical engagement across the third space – between and across activist and academic subjectivities – enables a re-thinking of the subjectivities of activist/academics and research participants and the place of research in social change and theory building. I demonstrate some of the multiple ways of enacting activism within the academy by reflecting on my critical engagement with the Katuulo Organic Pineapple Cooperative in Uganda, whose members grow certified organic pineapples for sale on the international market. While there is a growing interest in critical activist research, its agenda is also constrained by the corporatist turn in universities. As such, the subjectivities, methods and theory building of activist/academics in agri-food (and other) research represents part of the resistance to normalised ways of doing and being in contemporary neo-liberal universities.     

Mass media and environmental knowledge of secondary school students in Hong Kong

A postal survey on a random cluster sample of 1032 secondary school students in Hong Kong was conducted to investigate what and how much students know about the environment and how their knowledge is related to use of mass media. Results indicated that students were very knowledgeable on general and local environmental issues. The average score for environmental knowledge was 60.7 on a 100-point scale. There was some indications that students' environmental knowledge was shaped and limited by the reporting of environmental news in Hong Kong. Television news viewership had positive correlation with students' environmental knowledge while Chinese newspaper readership had a positive but weak correlation. Male students and students in higher forms were more knowledgeable about the environment. The study established a comprehensive measure for both general and local environmental knowledge with an acceptable level of internal consistency for subsequent studies.     

Utilization of environmental knowledge for watershed management in Northern Michigan

The Northern Michigan Environmental Research Program was conducted by the University of Michigan's Biological Station and Institute for Social Research to obtain information about the aquatic and human resources of water-rich, resort-oriented northern lower Michigan. Results of the study were directed toward long-term environmental management. Multiple methods were used to communicate study results, including self-contained information briefs, regular contacts and seminars with community leaders and public officials, and mass media. Selected illustrations of project data applied to environmental management problems are cited, e.g., curtailment of nutrient loadings, wetlands protection, improved effectiveness of riparian organizations, and highway planning. A series of shortLakeland Reports, designed to present factual information, general environmental principles, and action implications to a lay audience, proved to be effective. However, it became apparent that environmental decisions were not strongly affected by reports alone. Instead, several mutually reinforcing channels of communication must be employed to develop a climate of receptiveness and understanding to insure environmentally sound decisions.     

Environmental research in the environmental policy cycle

A recent article in this journal put forward an environmental research policy, organized around the environmental policy cycle The research policy concerned is flawed by a bias generally occurring in the philosophy of science, i e., the inability to include the normative science disciplines in the science and research concepts. This inability results in a biased environmental research effort. Almost all attention goes to physical science research in the problem-identification phase of the environmental policy cycle. Practice shows that it is wise to be more open-minded It may be more efficient to employ normative science research, directly productive for solving environmental problems, than to be able to identify these problems better and better This article describes and underpins a more comprehensive approach to environmental research and exemplifies typical research questions.     

The rise and fall of new knowledge interests in the Dutch environmental movement

Summary Since the late 1960s concern about the pollution of our physical environment has grown into a social and political issue. In this process of increasing awareness, environmental activists have played a catalysing role in most Western countries. Moreover the environmentalists formulated an alternative set of ideas and strategies concerning the production and use of knowledge. These new knowledge interests were organised around three dimensions: cosmology, technology, and the organisation of knowledge production. On the basis of a case-study of Dutch environmentalism this paper tries to demonstrate how the articulation of these new knowledge interests of international scope actually occurred in the particular Dutch national setting. The analysis shows that many of the ideas brought forward in the course of time by Dutch environmentalists have been imported from abroad, especially from the United States, Great Britain and West Germany. However, the specific ways in which Dutch environmentalists have defined the content of their own knowledge interests have depended very much on the particularities of the political culture and socio-economic climate of the Netherlands, as well as the internal dynamics within the various environmental groups themselves.Dr Jacqueline Cramer was until very recently a member of staff in the Department of Science Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam. She has now moved to the TNO Centre for Technology and Policy Studies, P.O. Box 541, 7300 AM, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. This paper forms part of a comparative study of the development of environmentalism in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands carried out in association with Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison of the University of Lund, Sweden.)     

The big five personality traits and environmental engagement: Associations at the individual and societal level

This study compared the person and national-level personality correlates of environmental engagement. Associations between specific personality traits and environmental concern have been observed in a number of studies, but few have examined associations between the Big Five personality traits and environmental engagement. Associations at the individual-level were examined with the environmental value ‘protecting the environment’ (Study 1) and retrospective self-reports of electricity conservation behaviour (Study 2) in national probability samples. Country-level indices of sustainability, environmental attitudes, and harmony values were related to aggregate personality traits with data across nations (Study 3). Across both persons and nations, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience were the traits most strongly linked to environmental engagement. These findings provide insight into the ways in which stable regularities in overall behavioural patterns are linked to more specific aspects of conservation behaviour and attitudes both in persons and across entire societies. Theoretical explanations for the findings are proposed.     

Vernacular knowledge and environmental law: cause and cure for regulatory failure

The Australian environment and agriculture is suffering from land degradation and declining biodiversity. Laws protecting native vegetation are aimed at addressing these problems but have been resisted by farmers, compromising the social agreement necessary for regulatory success. A case study drawing on farmer interviews in central northern New South Wales reveals that the laws are considered to be under-achieving environmental outcomes since they are ill-suited to local conditions. The low feasibility of the rules is also undermining rule and state legitimacy. Regulatory resistance is due to the lack of recognition of place-specifics by government and laws that impose universal requirements. There is an epistemic distance between the bureaucratic knowledge held by government and the vernacular knowledge (place-based knowledge) of heterogeneous environments held by farmers. Incorporating vernacular knowledge so that laws are more geographically sympathetic may close vernacular disjunctures and cure regulatory failure.     

Reflections on Foucauldian discourse analysis in planning and environmental policy research

Discourse analysis is becoming an increasingly common approach in planning and environmental policy research. This paper asserts that the generic treatment of discourse analysis obscures distinct approaches in which ‘discourses’ can combine different elements of text, systems of thought and action. Textually oriented approaches have been more prevalent during the 1990s, but this paper explores a different approach, grounded in the theory of Michel Foucault, which broadens discourse to embrace social action. Comparing and contrasting two studies that have utilized this approach, the paper suggests that there is considerable room for variation concerning the subjects of study, the institutional scale of analyses, the methods of investigation and process of analysis. Nevertheless, this paper identifies certain core elements of a Foucauldian discourse analytic approach. The paper concludes that this emerging approach to discourse analysis promises considerable insights if applied more widely in planning and environmental research. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An overview of Turkish research and education in environmental social science

The article presents an overview of environmental psychology research and education in Turkey within the general context of environmental social science. Brief accounts of the context, issues, ideas and methods of research are provided. Reference is made to relevant key research centres and education programmes. The findings of a survey that aimed to reveal the potential and orientations of such research in Turkey are used to support the arguments.The recent environmental social research reviewed indicates conflicting attitudes to the environment as a consequence of the joint existence of Eastern and Western life styles; contradictory conceptualizations of concepts such as crowding, complexity and privacy in comparison to the findings of Western studies, lack of specialization in use of space in the Western sense and a highly male and adult centred place use.A call is made for international collaboration with the developing and industrialized nations for joint work on theoretical and empirical issues in the field of environmental social sciences.