Interfakultäre Koordinationsstelle für Allgemeine Ökologie (IKAÖ)

Forschung

Impediments to Change

Ruth Kaufmann-Hayoz, Prof. Dr.
Wolfgang Gessner, dipl. Psych.
Susanne Bruppacher, lic. phil. hist.
Silvia Ulli-Beer, lic. rer. pol.
Matthias Vatter, stud. phil. hist.
Urs Wittwer, stud. phil. hist.

"We hope to contribute to overcoming the barriers which constrain the individual willingness to behave in an environmentally responsible way." Ruth Kaufmann-Hayoz

Goals

Our aim in this project is threefold:

First, we are analyzing, structuring and evaluating concepts and theories of action which are of importance in the context of individual environmentally responsible behavior.
Second, we want to find out, which positive and negative experiences individuals make, when they try to modify their environmental behavior, as well as the results they achieve. For this purpose we have decided to work with people who participate in the program of "Global Action Plan" (GAP).
Third, we aim to reveal what kind of measures communities can undertake in order to improve the preconditions for environmentally responsible behavior of the citizens.

Questions

In our project we are asking the following questions:

Which concepts and theories of action have proved to be relevant for explaining individual environmental behavior? Are there other approaches and concepts which could also be applied?
Which characteristics of communities and which measures facilitate or inhibit the realization of environment-oriented intentions of individuals?
Which preconditions in the social environment facilitate or inhibit the realization of environment-oriented intentions of individuals? How do the different preconditions interact with each other?

Methods

We are reviewing the scientific literature with respect to significant concepts and theories of action. This will allow us to look at environmentally responsible behavior in the overall context of human behavior. Based on this evaluation we are formulating hypotheses about factors that facilitate or inhibit environmentally responsible behavior.

By means of a questionnaire we will survey Key Concepts of environmentally responsible behavior. The questionnaire will be sent to all households in the German speaking part of Switzerland which start the GAP program between September 1997 and September 1998.

At a "Zukunftswerkstatt" we will reveal specific constraints, encountered by GAP participants when they try to modify their environmental behavior, and - at the same time - we will gain insights into their ideas and experiences about how these constraints can be overcome. Finally, Interviews with GAP participants and other members of different communities will finally enable us to give depth and greater precision to the results from the previous research.

Susanne Bruppacher
Interfakultäre Koordinationsstelle für Allgemeine Ökologie