Place-based behavior and environmental policies

This chapter calls for unraveling the relative impacts of compositional and spatial contextual factors on the environmental behavior of citizens in both urban and rural areas. How does the sorting of similar people in certain areas play a role, and how do external social and environmental factors play a role in explaining regional differences in pro-environmental behavior? When going beyond the neoclassical ‘rational agent’ approach, it is generally accepted that behavior is based on internal factors, such as values and attitudes, as well as external (spatially differentiated) forces. However, it is also noticed that (pro-environmental) values or attitudes do not always result in the expected pro-environmental behavior; we can observe a ‘gap’. One explanation of this gap is the presence of spatial mediators such as trust in the (local) government; being exposed to positive or negative environmental processes such as natural landscapes or sources of (point) pollution; or even spatial constraints, such as limited access to recycling facilities. All of the above require more insights into the causes and consequences of spatial heterogeneous values and behaviors. In other words, there is a great need for more spatially focused research.