Individual and Structural Determinants of Environmental Practice (Ashgate Studies in Environmental Policy and Practice)

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There has been a growing awareness that a better understanding of human activities and the behavioural components of environmental problems is needed. This volume brings together psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, environmental economists, lawyers and management experts to identify and examine the rules and motives that govern the environmental behaviour of individuals, households, organizations and society as a whole. Illustrated with case studies from Scandinavia, it shows how behaviours with negative or positive environmental effects are often performed without such consequences in mind. The book discusses how change towards positive environmental behaviour often conflicts with deep-rooted habits and that individual's behavioural change is also greatly determined by whether others also change their behaviour. It explores the importance for environmental practice of different everyday contexts, such as individual's outlook, gender, surrounding physical infrastructure etc and how these various contexts vary between different types of environmental practice. The book also addresses how green identities are formed among consumers, providers or public services (such as electricity and waste) and the private sector (focussing in particular of the oil industry). It emphasises the importance of structural factors in society in shaping long term patterns of environmental behaviour and also presents a historical account of the introduction and expansion of various infrasystems, such as lighting and transportation, showing how they go through phases, interplay with each other and effect settlement patterns, thus making a vast and long-standing impact on society and the environment. By presenting this multi-disciplinary analysis, the volume provides a comprehensive understanding of how behavioural change in relation to the environment can come about and how this can be integrated in the political framework.