Young cosmopolitans and environmental politics: how postmaterialist values inform and shape youth engagement in environmental politics
Young cosmopolitans and environmental politics: how postmaterialist values inform and shape youth engagement in environmental politics
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DOI：
10.1080/13676261.2021.1994131
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发表时间：
2021-11-18
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Nunes, Ana
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Henn, Matt;Sloam, James;Nunes, Ana
当今许多年轻人都积极参与政治，并且越来越支持进步的政治事业。这在 2019 年势头强劲的环保运动绿色浪潮中，青年人的领导力最为明显。然而，令人惊讶的是，我们对推动这一动员的价值观知之甚少。在本文中，我们研究了环保行动主义与“年轻的世界主义者”作为政治力量的出现之间的联系。我们利用 2017 年欧洲价值观研究的数据，分析了欧洲 10 个成熟民主国家 1,546 名 18-25 岁年轻人的观点。我们发现后物质主义价值观、世界主义态度和环境政治参与密切相关；年轻的世界主义者在公民和政治上非常活跃；而且，年轻的环保活动家尤其可能是受教育程度较高的女性。相反，欧洲青年中的相当一部分（其中受教育程度较低的男性比例过高）更加唯物主义和民族主义。在讨论中，我们探讨了教育的作用以及重新思考当地气候紧急情况的必要性——将环境威胁与年轻人在日常生活中面临的挑战联系起来。我们还解释了后物质主义价值观在大衰退期间在年轻一代中的持续存在，这表明绿色浪潮将在 COVID-19 之后继续下去。
Many of today's young people are politically engaged and increasingly supportive of progressive political causes. This is most evident in the youth leadership of the Green wave of environmental activism that gathered momentum in 2019. However, we know surprisingly little about the values that drive this mobilisation. In this article, we investigate the link between environmental activism and the emergence of 'young cosmopolitans' as a political force. Using data from the 2017 European Values Study, we analyse the views of 1,546 18-25-year-olds across ten established European democracies. We find that postmaterialist values, cosmopolitan attitudes and engagement in environmental politics are closely connected; young cosmopolitans are very civically and politically active; and, young environmental activists are particularly likely to be female with high educational attainment levels. Conversely, a significant minority of European youth (disproportionately male with lower educational attainment) are more materialist and nationalist. In the discussion, we explore the role of education and the need to re-think the climate emergency locally - connecting threats to the environment to challenges young people face in their everyday lives. We also explain how the persistence of postmaterialist values amongst younger generations through the Great Recession, suggests that the Green wave will continue post COVID-19.