Collaborative Research: Identity and Environmental Action: The U.S. Environmental Movement as a Context of Behavioral Change

该项目由特拉华大学和北卡罗来纳大学的文化人类学家合作资助。研究人员将通过研究美国的环境运动来研究集体文化形式如何影响个人行为。环境保护主义是在地方、国家和国际层面组织起来的一种新的社会运动。在民意调查中，大多数人认为自己是“环保主义者”，这表明环保主义和个人身份之间存在联系。该项目将采用参与式观察、半结构化访谈和个人叙述等民族志技术，研究三个面对面的环境团体、一个通过邮件和电话与成员沟通的国家环境组织，以及一个不属于任何团体的公民随机样本。研究人员将询问一个人作为“环保主义者”的身份与他们观察到的行为和能源使用之间的关系。一项全国性的调查将建立在民族志研究的基础上，以检验身份与行动之间的假设关系。研究结果有望推动心理人类学、新社会运动和集体现象认同形成的理论发展。研究结果将对研究环境退化行为因素的联邦机构、环境教育者和环境行动团体具有实用价值。

This project consists of collaborative grants to cultural anthropologists at the Universities of Delaware and North Carolina. The researchers will study how collective cultural forms influence individual action by studying the environmental movement in the US. Environmentalism is a new social movement organized at local, national and international levels. Majorities in opinion polls identify themselves as `environmentalists`, suggesting a link between environmentalism and personal identity. Using ethnographic techniques of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and personal narratives, the project will study three face-to-face environmental groups, one national environmental organization that communicates with members through mail and telephone, and a random sample of citizens not belonging to any group. The researchers will ask how an individual's identity as an `environmentalist` relates to their observed behavior and energy use. A national survey will be built from the ethnographic research to check for the hypothesized relations between identity and action. The results promise to advance theory in psychological anthropology, new social movements and identity formation as collective phenomenon. The results will be of practical value to federal agencies concerned with behavioral factors in environmental degradation, to environmental educators, and to environmental action groups.