Pro-environmental behaviors, belief in individual responsibility to protect the environment, and social class: a qualitative exploration

Jesse Christopher Mendiola

Research points to the implications and limits of individual-level solutions to environmental problems. These individual-level strategies are labeled Pro-Environmental Behaviors (PEBs), and can range from buying ‘green’ products to recycling. Critics of PEBs associate the rise in adoption of these activities with the de-politicization of the environmental movement. Supporters suggest these strategies are valuable because the aggregation of these individual-level solutions can improve the health of the environment. Setting this debate aside, we know that PEBs are one environmental strategy among many to help the environment, and are motivated by attitudes, behaviors, and identity construction. However, research has not adequately analyzed the relationships among social class, engagement in PEBs, and perceptions of the efficacy of PEBs. This is important because the ability to engage with PEBs, and the perception of the efficacy of PEBs relates to one’s social class standing, which exposes an array of inequality issues, highlights the limitations of individual agency in solving environmental problems, and shows the influence of structure on people’s environmental responsibility. Using analyses of interview data collected from Washington State residents, I ask: How is social class related to people’s experience of the individualization of environmental responsibility? And to what extent do people, across different social classes, believe that their individual choices and behaviors make a significant difference in solving environmental problems? The findings suggest that the problem with PEBs is that the kinds of PEBs individuals choose to and can practice relate to their position in the social hierarchy. Further, I find that perceptions about the efficacy of individual-level environmental behaviors may be “classed.” For example, intervening variables that highlight the relationship between PEBs and social class are education, time limitations, financial constraints, moral reasons, exercise of environmental imagination, and parental obligations. This analysis and the findings that emerged shed light on how social class relates to people’s experience with engagement in PEBs and their perceptions of an environmental ideology that places individuals at the center of environmental problems and environmental solutions. In this way, I suggest that PEBs may be exacerbating existing inequalities. Limitations and future research are also discussed.

Pro-environmental behaviors, belief in individual responsibility to protect the environment, and social class: a qualitative exploration

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