Green cities and ivory towers: how do higher education sustainability initiatives shape millennials’ consumption practices?
Green cities and ivory towers: how do higher education sustainability initiatives shape millennials’ consumption practices?
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绿色城市和象牙塔：高等教育可持续发展举措如何塑造千禧一代的消费实践？
DOI：
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发表时间：
2016
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Marie Tysman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
E. Schoolman;Michael Shriberg;Sarah Schwimmer;Marie Tysman
受过大学教育的千禧一代喜欢充满活力、适合步行、拥有良好公共交通的社区，这有助于推动美国许多城市的经济复苏。与此同时，高等教育机构正在努力通过鼓励学生将环境责任原则纳入个人消费实践，为可持续社会做出贡献。关于千禧一代（1982年以后出生的一代）向城市迁移的流行文章经常赞美那些不围绕汽车设计的城市所带来的环境效益。然而，很少有研究探讨IHE塑造学生消费习惯的努力可能会如何影响许多千禧一代选择生活和工作的城市地区的可持续性。在本文中，我们使用调查和定性数据的本科生在一所大型公立大学比较千禧一代的承诺，以不同形式的可持续消费，他们对特定的城市形式的偏好。我们发现，学生在成年后实践可持续消费的承诺在对城市地区的全球生态足迹至关重要的一个领域是最弱的：食物是如何生产和消费的。我们还发现，IHE对学生的态度和任何形式的可持续消费相关的做法的影响的证据是令人惊讶的缺乏。我们的结论是，IHE尚未充分发挥其潜力，准备千禧一代成为对环境负责的可持续城市的公民，特别是在参与食品系统方面。
College-educated millennials, motivated by a preference for vibrant, walkable neighborhoods with access to good public transportation, are helping to drive an economic resurgence in many American cities. At the same time, institutions of higher education (IHEs) are seeking to contribute to sustainable societies by encouraging students to incorporate principles of environmental responsibility into personal consumption practices. Popular writing on the urban migration of millennials—the generation born after 1982—has frequently celebrated the presumed environmental benefits of cities not designed around the automobile. Yet, little research has examined how, if at all, IHE efforts to shape student consumption practices may impact the sustainability of urban areas where many millennials are choosing to live and work. In this paper, we use survey and qualitative data on undergraduates at a large, public university to compare millennials’ commitment to different forms of sustainable consumption to their preference for particular urban forms. We find that student commitment to practicing sustainable consumption in their adult lives is weakest in an area crucial to the global ecological footprint of urban areas: how food is produced and consumed. We also find that evidence for IHE impact on student attitudes and practices related to any form of sustainable consumption is surprisingly lacking. We conclude by suggesting that IHEs have not yet realized their full potential to prepare millennials to be environmentally responsible citizens of sustainable cities, particularly where participation in food systems is concerned.