English
Abstract: Why do people declare themselves to be highly concerned by ecology in the long run but vary over time in their commitment to the environmental cause? This article seeks to address this question by revisiting the environmental policy hypothesis. In the wider debate on the disconnect between environmental concern and behaviour between 1971 and 2008 by using the choice and combination of policy instruments as an indicator of evolving relationship between the governing and govenerd. This exploratory approach suggests that environmental behaviour may be increasingly channelled by environmental policies and less so by other forms of individual or collective mobilisation.
Keywords: environmental concern; environmental behaviours; environmental policy; policy instruments; public opinion; European Social Survey.
"Climate Change: a Narrative of the Third Kind in Europe?”, Research Committee on Environment and Society, RC24, Second ISA Forum of Sociology, Buenos Aires (Argentina), August 1-4, 2012.
Abstract: When they are addressing climate change, policymakers take decisions and build discourses in interaction (positive or negative) with citizens. In Europe, public authorities have developed a discourse about “citizenship”: The citizen must be persuaded to convert to domestic low-carbon practices: Soft transports, heating and consuming equipment... This discourse is based on a new grand climate narrative, developed by the IPCC, in which planet is the victim, and human beings are the culprits who must repair the faults committed. More recently, a climate-sceptic counter-story stood up against this discourse and the afferent policies. Our objective consists in describing the sociology of a third kind of narrative, based on the reactions of Europeans to climate change discourse: While accepting the IPCC scenario, this third narrative refuses its conclusions: Instead of making guilty citizens and inciting them to act, it rejects the blame on large institutions, companies or states.
"Short New Ecological Paradigm in 30 European Countries: First Results", Communication at the XVII ISA World Congress, 11-17 July, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Environmental sociology
Jean-Paul Bozonnet - Mail: jeanpaul.bozonnet@sciencespo-grenoble.fr
"Unmaking Europe? Euroscepticism and environmental policies”, Communication at the 13th European Sociological Association Conference, Athens, 29 August-1 September 2047, 34 slides.
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“Ecocentrism's expansion and deinstitutionalization of religions in Europe”, Commmunication at the 34th Conference of the International Society for Science and Religion, Lausanne (Switzerland), 4-7 July 2017.
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“Explaining national activism by national cultures, The hypothesis of hysteresis”, in Telesienne Audrone & Gross Mathias (Ed.), Green European, Environmental behavior and attitudes in Europe in a historical and cross-cultural comparative perspective, Routledge, London & New York, 2017, p. 91-110.
According to literary and popular stereotypes, Northern European countries are expected to be ecologically friendly with a high level of environmental activism, while Mediterranean ones would be less committed, with few militants. The aim of this paper is to verify the existence of national cultures and explain their origin, using the ISSP 2010 data. After reviewing the explanatory variables of environmental commitment such as income, postmaterialism, cognitive mobilization, trust in others and religious affiliation, we find a mysterious and irreducible residue, specific to each country. We propose the hypothesis of hysteresis to explain it, as an indicator of national cultures.
“The cyclical evolution of environmental concern in Europe (1973-2015)”, Third ISA Forum of Sociology, July 10-14, 2016, Vienna (Austria).
When they think about the evolution of environmental concern, many journalists, some politicians and even social scientists are victims of common sense: they spontaneously imagine that environmental worries in Europe affect more and more people since the early seventies, forming a linear increasing curve. This paper denies such a belief, and examining more precisely Eurobarometers’ data, shows rather a cyclical and synchronous evolution of environmental concern in all European countries. Moreover it confirms some hypotheses about the causes of these periodic ups and downs, and especially the basic influence of the economic situation. Finally, it suggests some proposals on the theoretical status of this too mundane concept of environmental concern.
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An inconvenient truth: Lower Classes Reluctance to Environmental Politics and Policies in Europe", Communication to the 12th conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA), Prague, 25-28 August 2015.
Three hypotheses are tested to explain this reluctance: the economic capital, the cultural capital, and the division of labor in globalization. The latter is put forward to explain the reluctance to different kinds or environmental political participation, and to environmental policies. But this reluctance is not taken in account by political or social institutions, and remains a potential narrative.
“Carbon tax and Europeans’ Attitudes Towards Transport Policy Choices”, Communication to the XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology, RC24, Yokohama (Japan), 13-19 July 2014.
"Rationalities and environmental behaviours", Communication to the 11th Conference of the European Sociological Association, RN12 Environment & Society, Torino, 28-31 August 2013.
In mobilizing citizens in order to implement environmental policies, European governments face two options. Either they encourage people to desire the common good and therefore promote education and communication campaigns to inculcate civic values; or this way is mere illusion and they should merely impose laws with rewards, prohibitions and punishments. This alternative is a traditional debate among sociologists trying to explain the mechanisms underlying environmentally friendly behavior. The discussion divides those who invoke ecological values or motivation to understand the involvement of citizens, while others call instead of the pure individual interest (Diekmann et Schmidt 1998); in short those who refer to a "value-oriented" action (wertrational), against those who call forth a "goal-oriented rational” one (zweckrational)(Weber 2003).
In this paper, we propose to highlight the logic of different types of environmental actions (Stern 2000), both those related to civic commitment in the public sphere (e.g. participation in associations, demonstrations, boycotts...), and those relating the domestic sphere (recycling, friendly transports, energy saving...). Our hypothesis is that environmental behaviors are inherently heterogeneous, but can be explained by rational choice, either “value-oriented” or “goal-oriented”. The two logics apply differently depending on the intensity of the commitment required and the nature of the social field in which they operate. In order to develop our demonstration, we plan to exploit the 2010 ISSP data, from a special survey dedicated to the environment and available now.
"The Environmental Policy Assumption Revisited: Explaining Trends in Environmental Concerns in France between 1971 and 2008", French Politics, April 2013, Vol. 11, Issue 1, p.48-72.
“Has Ecocentrism Already Won in France? Soft Consensus On the Environmentalist Grand Narrative”, Communication at the 9th European Sociological Association Conference, Environment and Society Network, University of Lisbon, 02-05 September 2009.
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“Ecocitizenship and Medias Exposure in Europe", First Forum of Sociology, International Sociological Association (ISA), Barcelona, Spain, September 5 - 8, 2008.
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“How Socialization Makes Environmentalism Happen, Socialization and Environmental Commitment in 19 European Countries”, 8th ESA conference, Glasgow (United-Kingdom), September 3-7, 2007. Powerpoint: 39 diapos.
"Ideas don't fall from the sky" (Mao Ze Dong). So education is the key factor for the spread of environmentalism in Europe. The second less important factors are household income and position in occupational world. These results challenge the 1st hypothesis of postmodernisation (Inglehart). Otherwise, medias don’t seem to matter as much as often supported, and age and gender have not significant importance. All these correlations are true in everyone of the 19 European country surveyed by European Social Survey (2002).
However education does not take effect only by teachers influence and secondary socialization. There is probably peer’s influence in the school institution, and political struggle exposition. But above all, environmental values are also acquired within family institution, .first in interaction with the couple partner, when he (or she) is highly educated, secondly inherited by mother education legacy, when she is highly educated. This hereditary process doesn’t work with father education. It contributes to explain the spread of environmentalism in society, especially with a pawl effect. But this spread is hindered by threshold which fixes an unextendable limit
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"Unequal environmentalism in Europe, Revisiting the Hypotheses of Affluence and Social Classes", Communication to Environment & Society Network, Seventh Conference of the European Sociological Association, Nicholas Copernicus University, Torun, Poland, 9-13 September 2005, 27 p., texte non publié.
Must we be rich to be environmetally friendly? Is the division of labour matters? Are the class belonging ever relevant to explain ideologies? Tell me what is your job, and I'll tell you if you are an environmentalist or not.
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"De-institutionalising Environmentalism, The Shift from Civil Institutions to a Fake State Institutionalisation", in Local Institution Building for the Environment: Perspectives from East and West, (Georgio Osti & Luigi Pellizzoni ed.), International Conference, Gorizia (Italy), September 9-10 2004, ISIG, Instituto de Sociologia Internationale di Gorizia, Univerversity of Trieste, 36 p. (publié sur CDRom, ISBN: 88-89825-01-4).
This paper begins by a presentation of the sociological concepts of institution and desinstitutionalisation, in an individualistic context. Three hypotheses are tested here : first the integration of environmentalism in the policitical system, as well as input as output ; secondly, the waning of environmental commitment inside the civil society, analysed as a des-institutionalisation process ; thirdly, the growing rejection of State constraints and laws in postmodern societies, shows a fake institutionalisation... The evidence is produced by an exploitation of international surveys EVS, ISSP and ESS. Slide show
"(Up and) down with Environmentalist Action, Ageing Ecology in Europe", communication à la 6ème conference de l'ESA (European Sociological Association), Réseau Environnement et Société, Murcie (Espagne), 23-26 septembre 2003, 20 p.
"Natural or economic risk ? Some data about roots of environmental awareness in European opinion", communication à la 52ème conférence de WAPOR (World Association for Public Opinion Research), Paris, Hôtel Lutétia, 4 et 5 septembre 1999.