37 research outputs found
Social Identity and Risk Perception Explain Participation in the Swiss Youth Climate Strikes
No full textSince late 2018, young people around the world have united to demand greater action on climate change. Aside from their stated concerns and demands, however, very little is known about why young people have been joining this growing movement. Using a large sample (N = 4057) of people in Switzerland aged between 14 and 25, we show that social identity is most strongly associated with participation, followed by beliefs about the effectiveness of youth strikes, level of education, and worry about climate change. Our findings affirm the relevance of both climate change risk perceptions and social identity-related processes for collective climate change action, and pave the way for promising opportunities in theory development and integration. The study also provides lessons for those who seek to maintain and increase collective action on climate change: concern about climate change is an important motivating factor, but social identity processes are at least as relevant for young people’s participation
Public Understanding of Climate Change as a Social Dilemma
No full textClimate change is often referred to as one of the most complicated challenges facing humanity, characterised in various literatures as a social dilemma operating at multiple scales (individual, national, international). The present study considers the ways in which members of the public interpret climate change in these terms, drawing on data from multiple datasets, both qualitative and quantitative, from 1997 to 2011. As well as drawing out the nuances in participants‘ perspectives on the social and societal dilemmas inherent to climate change, the present study also highlights the rejoinders and resolutions proposed by people to these dilemmas. It is suggested that recognition of the ways people find to navigate these difficult issues offers some cause for optimism regarding the public‘s conceptualisation of, and response to, climate change.This article is available at www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainabilit
Climate change discourses in use by the UK public: commonalities and variations over a fifteen year period
No full textThe ways in which climate change is understood by members of the UK public, are considered across a fifteen year period spanning 1997-2011. Qualitative datasets from six separate projects are analysed to trace commonalities and variation over time in the conceptualisation of climate change as a physical, social and personal phenomenon. Ways of understanding are presented as a series of discourses. These relate to people’s appraisal of climate science, the apprehension of climate change through informal evidence, and how climate is seen in relation to natural systems; as well as the means by which climate change is contextualised to social systems, to cultural and historical conditions, and with respect to daily life. Climate discourses across all domains are found to be relatively stable over time, though with subtle shifts in meaning and emphasis. Emergent trends include recent evidence of climate ‘fatigue’ and an increased tendency to question the anthropogenic component to climate change, but also the view that action on climate change has become normalised in recent years. Survey data are also used to explore the prevalence of identified ways of understanding, and to examine longitudinal changes in these. There is some evidence of decline in climate change concern and increase in scepticism over the past decade, though these trends are not pronounced. Cold weather events from 2009/2010 are interpreted by people as evidence of the veracity of climate change (more so than as disconfirming it). Cultural worldviews are found to underlie perceptions.
Findings are interpreted in the context of cultural theoretical and discursive frameworks. These present the opportunity to explain the recurrent, patterned and socially-shared nature of public perspectives, and the ways in which these are used both to understand climate change and to account for the actions of oneself and others.
The development of combined secondary and longitudinal qualitative analytic techniques is a central methodological concern of the thesis. The advantages and drawbacks, practicalities, and epistemological considerations of such an approach, are outlined in detail
Effects of personal carbon allowances on decision-making: evidence from an experimental simulation
No full textBehavioural influences of personal carbon trading (PCT) beyond those anticipated by pure price effects have been a theoretically attractive, yet empirically elusive, feature of such schemes. Computer-based simulation is used to examine the effects of participants' decisions on their personal carbon allocations within a PCT context. Evidence is presented about participants' tendencies to make more energy-conserving decisions as a consequence of attending to a restrictive and diminishing carbon allowance—independent of other financial and carbon cost information provided—suggesting that a form of ‘carbon budgeting’ is occurring. Further measurements indicate that the extent of carbon reduction achieved within the simulated PCT framework varies according to pro-environmental attitudes. Evidence is also presented that the size of participants' footprints correlates inversely with support for PCT; and that proenvironmental attitudes correlate positively with support for PCT. The advantages and drawbacks of using simulations for examining behavioural responses to PCT are discussed
A comparison of student attitudes and intentions at the start and end of their BPharm degree programme
No full textStudents’ reasons for choosing pharmacy as a course of study and career, together with professional and educational perspectives, were evaluated by survey and compared longitudinally between the start and end of a New Zealand BPharm degree. In contrast with a number of studies in medical education, findings indicate persistence of patient-oriented, altruistic and empathetic attitude across years of study. Entrepreneurial intentions remain high, especially among male students. It is suggested that integration of science and communication aspects during later years of study, together with recognition of pharmacy’s scope of career pathways may help to engender commitment and optimism towards a pharmacy career
Peer Assisted Learning in an Undergraduate Hospitality Course: Second Year Students Supporting First Year Students in Group Learning
No full textThe paper describes the implementation of a Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) programme on the
Management Foundation Course in the School of Service Industries at Bournemouth University. PAL
is a specialised form of mentoring whereby trained second year students - Student Leaders - run study
support for first year students. The emphasis is on the acquisition by first years of a deeper
understanding of course subject matter and the development of critical thinking skills. Student
Leaders do not teach and have no specific knowledge to impart, but instead facilitate group discussion
among first years through the use of process-oriented techniques. PAL is contextualised to Service
Industries by its emphasis on assistance with difficult course components. The evidence base of PAL
is discussed as are the research aims of the PAL Project
Public perceptions of climate change in Wales: Summary findings of a survey of the Welsh public conducted during November and December 2012
No full textClimate change presents a formidable challenge to societies across the globe. The infrastructure, economy, natural environment, and health and wellbeing of people in Wales are each expected to be affected by climate change in the coming years. In its policies, the Welsh Government has asserted its commitment to urgent and sustained action to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Whilst the case for action on mitigation remains, there is also a clear need to develop effective adaptation approaches in anticipation of consequences, which have become unavoidable in Wales and elsewhere. However, mitigation and adaptation efforts are unlikely to be fully effective without significant awareness, engagement and buy-in from the population of Wales as a whole. This report examines public perceptions of climate change in Wales at the end of the year 2012, using a nationally representative survey (n=1,001) of the Welsh public. The main aims of the survey were to examine people’s views regarding the reality of and human contribution to climate change, their concerns about the impacts of climate change, perspectives on climate change adaptation, and attitudes towards policy and behaviour change. As this survey was conducted at the end of a year when Wales experienced serious levels of high rainfall and associated flooding, the link between people’s experience of flooding and climate change perceptions is also explored, including by the use of an additional oversample in a heavily affected part of Wales (n=100)
Policy attribute framing: A comparison between three policy instruments for personal emissions reduction
No full textA comparative experiment in the UK examined people's willingness to change energy consumption behavior under three different policy framings: energy tax, carbon tax, and personal carbon allowances (PCA). PCA is a downstream cap-and-trade policy proposed in the UK, in which emission rights are allocated to individuals. We hypothesized that due to economic, pro-environmental and mental accounting drivers PCA would have greater potential to deliver emissions reduction than taxation. Participants (n = 1,096) received one version of a survey with the same energy-behavior–related questions and identical incurred costs under one of the following framings: energy tax (where carbon was not mentioned), carbon tax, and PCA. Results suggest that policies that draw people's attention to carbon (PCA and carbon taxation) could have greater impact on their stated willingness to reduce energy consumption, and on the reduction amounts prompted, than would a non-overt price signal (energy tax). There is mixed evidence, however, as to whether PCA or carbon taxation would produce the largest energy demand reductions. Some indication was found for a spillover toward wider carbon conservation under the PCA framing. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Stability and Change in British Public Discourses about Climate Change between 1997 and 2010
No full textPublic understanding of climate change has been a topic of environmental social sciences research since the early 1990s. To date, temporal change in climate change understanding has been approached almost exclusively using quantitative, survey-based methodologies, which indicate that people's responses on a limited number of measures have indeed altered in response to changing circumstances. However, quantitative longitudinal evidence can be criticised for presenting an overly simplistic view of people's beliefs and values. The current study is the first to explore changes in public understanding over an extended time period using in-depth qualitative methods. The study utilises a novel longitudinal methodology to explore changes in discourses across six separate datasets collected over the period 1997-2010, comprising a total of 208 public participants from across Great Britain. We find for the first time that discourses regarding the relevance of climate change to everyday life, and concerning rationales for personal action have exhibited subtle but important shifts over this period. By contrast, other aspects of public understanding have exhibited considerable stability over time, particularly with respect to ethical principles concerning stewardship of nature, justice and fairness. We conclude by distinguishing between three scales of change in public understanding of climate change: relatively short-lived movements in attitudes as revealed by survey data and influenced by transitory phenomena; slower shifts in public discourses that track changing cultural contexts; and enduring ways of understanding climate change that are tied to longer-term ethical foundations
Impacts of adaptation and responsibility framings on attitudes towards climate change mitigation
No full textIt is likely that climate change communications and media coverage will increasingly stress the importance of adaptation, yet little is known about whether or how this may affect attitudes towards mitigation. Despite concerns that communicating adaptation could undermine public support for mitigation, previous research has found it can have the opposite effect by increasing risk salience. It is also unclear whether people respond differently to information about mitigation and adaptation depending on whether action is framed as an individual or government responsibility. Using an experimental design, this study sought to examine how public attitudes towards mitigation are influenced by varying climate change messages, and how this might interact with prior attitudes to climate change. UK-based participants (N = 800) read one of four texts in a 2 x 2 design comparing adaptation versus mitigation information and personal versus governmental action. No main effect was found for adaptation versus mitigation framing, nor for individual action versus government policy, but we did observe a series of interaction effects with prior attitudes to climate change. Mitigation and adaptation information affected participants’ responses differently depending on their pre-existing levels of concern about climate change, suggesting that mitigation framings may be more engaging for those with high levels of concern, whereas adaptation framings may be more engaging for low-concern individuals. Government mitigation action appears to engender particularly polarised attitudes according to prior concern. Implications for climate change communications are considered
