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

该项目包括向特拉华大学和北卡罗来纳大学的文化人类学家提供合作赠款。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动。环保主义是在地方、国家和国际层面上组织起来的一场新的社会运动。在民意调查中，大多数人认为自己是环保主义者，这表明环保主义与个人身份认同之间存在联系。该项目将使用参与者观察、半结构化访谈和个人叙述等人种学技术，研究三个面对面的环境组织，一个通过邮件和电话与成员交流的国家环境组织，以及不属于任何群体的公民的随机样本。研究人员将询问一个人的“环保主义者”身份与其观察到的行为和能源消耗之间的关系。将从人种学研究中建立一项全国性调查，以检查身份和行动之间的假设关系。这一研究结果为心理人类学、新的社会运动和作为集体现象的认同形成提供了理论基础。研究结果将对关注环境退化中的行为因素的联邦机构、环境教育工作者和环境行动组织具有实用价值。

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.