(Dis)agreement over what? The challenge of quantifying environmental worldviews

Abstract

Ever since environmentalism emerged as a social movement, researchers have been trying to quantify the attitudes underlying environmental concern. From the 1970s through the early 2000s, the practice of measuring environmental attitudes was dominated by the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) Scale, which assesses only a narrow dimension of environmental thought. While the NEP remains in use, especially internationally, other scales have since been introduced in part to make up for its methodological and theoretical issues. Survey research has also evolved since the time the NEP was debuted, employing increasingly sophisticated technologies and mixed methodologies. Of what use are NEP-type attitude surveys in the context of contemporary environmental thought and politics? This paper chronicles the history of the quantification of environmentalism, focusing on the NEP and discussing its merits and drawbacks. It proceeds to evaluate alternative metrics, paying special attention to the social context in which they emerged. It concludes by offering ways in which researchers can embrace the fluidity of environmental concern, and think creatively more about what methodologies they might employ to capture it in the future.