sustainability and the citizen
TRANSCRIPT
CPT737: Sustainability in Practice
Lecture 2: Ethics and Environmental Citizenship
Richard Cowell
This week:
Looking at two theoretical perspectives on our personal environmental responsibilities: ideas of ‘citizenship’ from political theory, and environmental ethics from moral philosophy
Methodological: explaining focus groups
Practical: focus groups discussion – ‘do you consider yourself an environmentalist?’
ENVIRONMENTAL
CITIZENSHIP
Why has ‘citizenship’ become a buzzword?
‘Citizenship’ is concerned with the duties and responsibilities that bind us to society
Key component of 3rd Way ideology – the state will help those that take responsibility for helping themselves
Concern about declining electoral turnout, and of social cohesion in the face of increasing immigration
Functional arguments in the environmental sphere, stemming back to This Common Inheritance (1990), in the ideological context of neo-liberalism
Defining environmental citizenship
Environmental citizenship is difficult to define precisely (see Dobson, Bell)
It means people acting sustainably (driving less, recycling, etc) but also makes assumptions about values and attitudes
Citizenship is concerned with the relationship between individuals and society, and implies a duty to act in ways which support the common good
What makes environmental citizenship different?
For Dobson, the basis of duty is impact
Therefore, environmental citizenship should be ‘cosmopolitan’, rather than be restricted to membership of a nation state …
… and incorporates actions in our private lives, as well as in the public sphere
What do we mean by ‘ethics’?
A branch of philosophy ‘involving the systematic study and evaluation of … normative judgements’ (Desjardins 2001, 19)
i.e. judgements about what is good/bad or right/wrong
Ethics can raise questions about the ways we live our lives, our choices, etc
In class exercise
What do you feel about the Singer reading?
Do you agree or disagree with it?
Does it encourage you to think differently about your life and actions? Why, or why not?
Any terms you didn’t understand?
Discuss for ten minutes; feed back to class
Key points from the Singer reading
The consequences of not doing what we could to help the world’s poorest is not very different from murder
We need to act in accordance with the duty to save life wherever we can – we have an obligation to act in ways that would help
Singer’s philosophical framework is utilitarian, consequentialist and impartial
Key debates
POWER How powerful is ethical reasoning in changing behaviour? It assumes that people respond to detached, rational logic
GEOGRAPHY It requires us to think at unfamiliar scales, looking at global consequences not favouring local relations
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES CONFLICT Even well-defended ethical principles can conflict. Can there be universal systems of value?
Focus groups as a research method
Definition: a loosely structured discussion with a group of people, on a specific topic, run by a moderator
Advantages: Efficiency Authentic capturing of opinion formation Obtain a range of perspectives, including
from interactions More power to interviewees
Practical considerations
Taking notes and recording is trickier; can be useful to have two people
How many groups?
How big should the groups be?
Role of the moderator; scope to cover two to six topic headings an hour
Disadvantages of focus groups:
The researcher has less control
Data more difficult to process and analyse
Organisational difficulties
Dealing with difficult individuals
Not appropriate for all questions (causal questions) or all subjects (e.g. sensitive issues)
Tendency towards consensus?