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

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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.