IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v86y2005i4p874-897.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using Theory to Understand Public Support for Collective Actions that Impact the Environment: Alleviating Water Supply Problems in a Nonarid Biome

Author

Listed:
  • Aaron S. Routhe
  • Robert Emmet Jones
  • David L. Feldman

Abstract

Objectives. There is increasing public debate over how to meet future water supply needs in historically water‐abundant areas such as the American southeast. Citizens, policymakers, and others are struggling to find ways to meet these needs and to design political strategies for implementing them. This article examines water supply problems facing many communities in the southeast and how social theory can be used to better understand public support for collective actions designed to alleviate them. It presents a framework synthesizing recent work of Dunlap and Jones on the conceptual foundations of environmental concern research with Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action in order to understand public support for building a dam to meet local water supply needs. Methods. The linkages postulated by the model were empirically tested using mail‐survey data obtained from a random sample of 433 adult residents of Cumberland County, Tennessee. Results. Results demonstrate that public support for building the dam is weak. Conclusion. Knowledge of public beliefs, norms, and attitudes about its construction and potential impact, however, can provide policymakers, natural resource professionals, and local stakeholder groups with a solid understanding of why residents support, oppose, or are unsure about building a dam to alleviate water supply problems in this county.

Suggested Citation

  • Aaron S. Routhe & Robert Emmet Jones & David L. Feldman, 2005. "Using Theory to Understand Public Support for Collective Actions that Impact the Environment: Alleviating Water Supply Problems in a Nonarid Biome," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(4), pages 874-897, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:86:y:2005:i:4:p:874-897
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00361.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00361.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00361.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tobin N. Walton & Robert Emmet Jones, 2022. "An Information-Theoretic Approach to Modeling the Major Drivers of Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Jason Evans & Jon Calabria & Tatiana Borisova & Diane Boellstorf & Nicki Sochacka & Michael Smolen & Robert Mahler & L. Risse, 2015. "Effects of local drought condition on public opinions about water supply and future climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 193-207, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:86:y:2005:i:4:p:874-897. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.