Exploring environmental behaviour as the major determinant of ecological citizenship

Abstract

‘Ecological citizenship’, as an emerging dimension of sustainable urbanism, is an under-researched concept within environmental planning and policy agendas. It can be suggested that without residents establishing environmentally responsive living as a lifestyle, the outcome of the sustainable urbanism debate would be inadequate or incomplete. In line with this hypothesis, this study revisits the concept of the Ecological City and its elements. In this context, ecological citizenship is conceptualized as the fifth dimension, following the known dimensions of sustainable urbanism mainly concerned with the physical features of environmental management. Furthermore, environmental behaviour is explored through a literature review. This paper, based on the derived information, constructs a research model advocating that certain general values influence environmental attitudes, namely ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes. These environmental attitudes influence environmental awareness, and as a result of the problem awareness, the individual commits to performing a certain level of environmental behaviour.