IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v2y2010i4p1055-1079d8010.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ecological Citizens: Identifying Values and Beliefs that Support Individual Environmental Responsibility among Swedes

Author

Listed:
  • Sverker C. Jagers

    (Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 711, SE 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden)

  • Simon Matti

    (Division of Political Science, Luleå University of Technology, SE 971 87 Luleå, Sweden)

Abstract

As it has been suggested that involvement of individuals in environmental work is necessary for halting environmental degradation, one focus for contemporary environmental policy and political theory is the need for comprehensive individual lifestyle changes. Ecological Citizenship (EC) has been suggested within the field of political theory as an approach to realize personal responsibility for the environment. However, empirical research on whether EC can serve this purpose is still lacking. Based on a survey sent to 4,000 Swedish households, this paper makes the theory of EC empirically operational and explores whether, and to what extent, people in general hold values and beliefs in line with what is expected of EC, in order to shed light on the feasibility of cultivating ecological citizens in Sweden. The study concludes that a significant proportion of the respondents do demonstrate a value base consistent with EC, i.e. , non-territorial altruism and the primacy of social justice. While additional tests and studies are needed, the results support the use of EC as a theoretical model for behavioral change.

Suggested Citation

  • Sverker C. Jagers & Simon Matti, 2010. "Ecological Citizens: Identifying Values and Beliefs that Support Individual Environmental Responsibility among Swedes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-25, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:2:y:2010:i:4:p:1055-1079:d:8010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/4/1055/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/4/1055/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Yiannis Georgiou & Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis & Demetra Hadjichambi, 2021. "Teachers’ Perceptions on Environmental Citizenship: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-29, March.
    2. Sverker C. Jagers & Erick Lachapelle & Johan Martinsson & Simon Matti, 2021. "Bridging the ideological gap? How fairness perceptions mediate the effect of revenue recycling on public support for carbon taxes in the United States, Canada and Germany," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(5), pages 529-554, September.
    3. Caterina Giannetti & Pietro Guarnieri & Tommaso Luzzati, 2021. "Pro-environmental attitude and behaviours: an investigation on the role of pro-sociality," Discussion Papers 2021/269, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Libin Chen & Qi Wu & Lin Jiang, 2022. "Impact of Environmental Concern on Ecological Purchasing Behavior: The Moderating Effect of Prosociality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis & Demetra Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, 2020. "Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (ECQ): The Development and Validation of an Evaluation Instrument for Secondary School Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-12, January.
    6. Erin Miller Hamilton & Apoorva Rane, 2022. "Speaking Their Language: Does Environmental Signage Align to Personal Dimensions of Environmentally Responsible Behavior in Undergraduate Residence Halls?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-23, February.
    7. Piyapong Janmaimool & Surapong Chudech, 2020. "Effect of Domestic and Global Environmental Events on Environmental Concern and Environmental Responsibility among University Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-20, February.
    8. Niklas Harring & Sverker C. Jagers & Simon Matti, 2017. "Public Support for Pro-Environmental Policy Measures: Examining the Impact of Personal Values and Ideology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Hunter, Erik & Röös, Elin, 2016. "Fear of climate change consequences and predictors of intentions to alter meat consumption," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 151-160.
    10. M Ángeles de las Heras Pérez & Bartolomé Vázquez Bernal & Rocío Jiménez Palacios & Roque Jiménez Pérez, 2021. "Environmental Citizenship Education through the Doñana, Biodiversity and Culture Program," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-16, March.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:2:y:2010:i:4:p:1055-1079:d:8010. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.