9 Climate Change Beliefs and Climate-relevant Behaviour at the Northern US West Coast: A Practice Theoretical Analysis
In: Cultural Dynamics of Climate Change and the Environment in Northern AmericaSearch for other papers by Karin Schürmann in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
It is common to attribute a person’s environmentally and climate friendly behaviour to corresponding beliefs and attitudes. According to this assumption, green behaviour results from green thinking and can be fostered through education. Although many people have a sound knowledge about the causes of climate change as well as other environmental issues and express climate and environmentally-friendly beliefs and attitudes, their actions still speak a different language. It seems plausible to suppose, therefore, that the relation between beliefs, attitudes and behaviour is more complex than assumed commonly.
This article aims to help understand the relationship between environmental and climate-relevant beliefs and behaviour by offering a different perspective. Instead of adhering to a causal relationship between thinking and acting the following study is based on the assumption that human activities strongly depend on the logic of social practices. The paper will give a short introduction to the theory of social practices. Based on these practice theoretical foundations, the second part of the paper will be dedicated to an empirical analysis of climate change beliefs and the practice of mobility as it is carried out in the everyday life of 21 interviewees living in selected urban centres on the Northern US West Coast.