Another Look at Culture and Nature. How Culture Patterns Influence Environmental Orientation among Norwegian Youth.

Abstract

To what extent are young people’s attitudes toward environmental issues part of broader culture patterns? Based on a survey of 3,810 Norwegian young people aged 15-22, four culture profiles were identified through factor analysis. Environmental orientation was measured by means of the New Ecological Paradigm scale, the importance ascribed to sustained economic growth and to fighting pollution, and membership in environmental organizations. Different aspects of environmental orientation turned out to be tied to different culture profiles, and through these profiles also to class and gender. Two extremes emerged. A ’critical’ environmental perspective (resembling a ’deep ecology’ position) was closely tied to a culture profile labelled ’radical counterculture’, which had its basis within the ’humanistic social intermediate strata’. Anti-environmental attitudes were closely tied to a culture profile labelled ’redneck’, based within the manual working class. However, no culture profile emerged as exclusively ’environmentalist’, in that three profiles (all except ’redneck’) were tied to some ’environment friendly’ attitudes. The findings point to the importance of avoiding simplistic interpretations of environmental concern as a unidimensional phenomenon ranging from strong to weak.