Revisiting Environmental Citizenship

Abstract

This study proposes, from a cross-national perspective, a model of environmental citizenship that includes predictors at the individual and contextual levels. The model is based on multiple theoretical considerations from environmental sociology, media studies, and economics. The study, based on secondary data, reports that at the individual level, media use, environmental concern, and postmaterialism positively predict environmental citizenship. However, the data also allow to test whether the effects of these variables vary depending on social and environmental contexts. Beyond the individual level, results show that, overall, the effect of environmental concern is stronger in countries with better environment quality. The results also show that economic development at the country level positively explains a stronger effect of postmaterialism on environmental citizenship than in less developed countries. The study shows that environmental citizenship is stronger in countries with lower levels of environment quality, and in countries with less developed media systems.

The Influence of Media Usage on Iranian Students’ Pro-Environmental Behaviors: An Application of the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior

“…Media use helps the audience to obtain information about environmental issues, and based on this information, they can decide to behave in an environmentally friendly manner and take steps towards protecting the environment [65,85]. The more people read or watch about environmental issues, the more likely they will be to get engaged with environmental activities [37,77]. In line with previous studies, the results showed that media use has a positive impact on environmental knowledge [96,97].…”

“…When people have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the adverse effects of climate change and global warming, they may accept PEBs [74]. Scholars believe that the use of media can facilitate environmentalism [75][76][77], since it provides people with a sense of reality about natural environments that they may not have directly experienced and enables them to monitor the state of the environment [39,78]. These cognitive resources serve as a prelude to increase environmental concerns and initiate environmental protective behaviors [39,79,80].…”

Teachers’ Perceptions on Environmental Citizenship: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…For instance, it has been argued that environmental citizenship encompasses ecological literacy with a focus on the understanding of socioecological issues [23,24], the rights and the obligations of citizens within political communities [25,26], awareness of personal values with respect to the environment and the ability to connect these values with knowledge and skills to take environmentally-oriented decisions [4,27], as well as civic engagement and participation to address environmental problems [28,29]. In its essence, environmental citizenship has emerged as an umbrella concept which includes an amalgam of characteristics, such as the skills, knowledge, attitudes, values and beliefs required to address environmental problems [30], as well as the competences needed for civic engagement and active participation in societies [20].…”

Values, Beliefs and Environmental Citizenship

“…so that we can achieve global sustainability goals. Environmental Citizenship is an umbrella term that encompasses an array of characteristics such as the skills, knowledge, attitudes, values and beliefs needed to address environmental problems (Takahashi et al 2017). Thus, educating European society to become Environmental Citizens is a crucial step that needs to be taken quickly, systematically and with a strong evidence basis for actions.…”