Ecological Worldview Research Articles

Regenerative Development as an Integrative Paradigm and Methodology for Landscape Sustainability

Although the integration of sustainability, ecology, and design has been recognized as necessary by scientists and practitioners, most transdisciplinary frameworks are not inclusive of the worldviews, paradigms, aims, processes, and components necessary for sustainability. Landscape sustainability science helps to focus scientist, scholar, practitioner, and stakeholder efforts toward sustainability at a pivotal level; however, collaboration and progress have been slow. Significant potential exists for design to be an integrative and transformational methodology toward landscape sustainability, yet it has not fulfilled this ambitious role. In this paper, we first build a case for regenerative development, a development and design methodology based on an ecological worldview, as an integrative platform for a new paradigm. This new paradigm, which we call regenerative landscape development, has the potential to thoroughly catalyze a shift toward regenerative sustainability. We then detail this new paradigm as a process that could continually enhance the capacities of living systems to increase health, well-being, and happiness. Next, to illustrate regenerative development in practice, we provide brief case studies of projects in Viña del Mar, Chile and Juluchuca, Guerrero, Mexico. Finally, we propose future recommendations and precautions in the construction of regenerative landscape development as a new paradigm. If fully understood, embraced, and realized, regenerative development holds incredible potential for a sustainable future.

ФІЛОСОФСЬКІ ЗАСАДИ ТА СТРУКТУРА ЕКОЛОГІЧНОЇ КУЛЬТУРИ ОСОБИСТОСТІ

The article attempts to identify and characterize the essence and structural components of the ecological culture of the individual on the basis of analysis of existing problems in the field of environmental education and upbringing.There is certain ambiguity regarding the interpretation of the essence and structure of ecological culture in the scientific literature, where the ecological culture of the individual is usually associated with the following aspects: the responsible attitude of person towards nature; the amount of ecological awareness and beliefs; acquiring skills and experience of solving the environmental problems; ecologically competent activity in the natural environment; the need of communication with nature, care of its preservation; care of own health; civic responsibility for the state of the socio-natural environment.Furthermore, nowadays the ecological issues are comprehensively covered by the culture studies in two directions: as a culture of society and as a culture of personality. From the point of view of the former, ecological culture is treated as a social phenomenon and within the framework of the latter approach the ecological culture is considered to be as an integrative personal quality of the individual, which characterizes the activity and behavior in the socio-natural environment.As the study shows the ecological culture of the person is a social and individual quality of the person, which, firstly, reflects the nature of relation to the socio-natural environment; and secondly, it is revealed in value orientations that motivate the environmental activity; thirdly, it is realized in all kinds of knowledge, transformation and preservation of the socio-natural environment and human health; fourth, it is conditioned by the social mechanism of its formation and development.It is formed as a result of the interaction of objective conditions (the system of social institutions, relations and relationships, which put forward certain requirements before the individual) and subjective factors (socially-predetermined incentive forces of the individual). The analysis of scientific-pedagogical literature makes it possible to distinguish the following main indicators of the ecological culture of the individual: the ecological worldview, value reference, cognitive, moral-legal, sensory-volitional and actionable components.

Who cares about the environment?

ABSTRACTEnvironmental behavior substantially differs among individuals depending on their environmental attitudes, connectivity to nature beliefs, and socioeconomic profile. People who adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle and those who are unconcerned about environmental protection represent population segments with diverse characteristics. Consequently, this study aims to identify homogeneous groups based on individuals’ environmental behavior. A total of 400 Greek citizens completed a self-report questionnaire. We used behavioral items adopted from previous studies to measure environmental behavior and background variables to assess the socio-demographic profile of the respondents. Additionally, we used the well-established measures of Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) and New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) to measure people's relatedness with nature and their ecological beliefs separately. Multivariate Cluster Analysis results indicated that participants can be grouped into two broad segments, named moderate eco-friends and non-environmentalists. Individual differences between the clusters were detected with respect to gender, education, connectedness to nature and ecological worldview.

Embodied ecology: The eco-somatics of permaculture

Abstract Embodied ecology is a functional philosophy, a model for how we participate in the choreography of our own experience. Applying ethics and principles to the material nature of the human endeavour, embodied ecology utilizes scientific information and methodology in distinctly subjective, artful ways. In this article I explore the confluence of themes emerging from the practical discipline of permaculture as described by David Holmgren and my own practice of somatics. This didactic scholarship is guided by a unifying ecological world-view: we are living systems.

Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons from Farmers and Peri-Urban Fringe Residents in South Australia

This paper reports on results from two major research projects conducted in South Australia. The first investigates adaptation to climate change in two of the state’s major grain and sheep farming regions, using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The second uses a postal questionnaire and an internet-based survey of residents in the peri-urban fringes of Adelaide, the state capital, to examine knowledge of and attitudes to climate change and resulting adaptations, especially in the context of increasing risk of wildfires. The research on adaptation to climate change in agriculture focused on formal institutions (e.g., government agencies) and communities of practice (e.g., farm systems groups). Both groups noted that farmers autonomously adapt to various risks, including those induced by climate variability. The types and levels of adaptation varied among individuals partly because of barriers to adaptation, which included limited communication and engagement processes established between formal institutions and communities of practice. The paper discusses possibilities for more effective transfers of knowledge and information on climate change among formal institutions, communities of practice, trusted individual advisors and farmers. Research in the peri-urban fringe revealed that actions taken by individuals to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change were linked to the nature of environmental values held (or ecological worldview) and place attachment. Individuals with a strong place attachment to the study area (the Adelaide Hills) who possessed knowledge of and/or beliefs in climate change were most likely to take mitigating actions. This was also linked to previous experience of major risk from wildfires. The paper concludes by discussing prospects for developing co-management for reducing the impact of climate change across multiple groups in rural and peri-urban areas.

Evaluating the Practice and Outcomes of Applying Regenerative Development to a Large-Scale Project in Victoria, Australia

Regenerative development is one of the critical pathways or processes towards an ecological worldview and a built environment in synergy with the natural environment. This vision aims to restore and support environmental, social and economic flows from a systems perspective. While regenerative development has been discussed in theory and applied to some projects, very few studies have analysed the processes that support its emergence. Our study investigates the design process of an ongoing development project, “Seacombe West” in Victoria, Australia. It evaluates the design outputs, using the LENSES Framework (Living Environments in Natural, Social, and Economic Systems) which is specifically designed to facilitate the emergence of regenerative development thinking. The project included a series of four workshops that led to a set of guidelines that in turn were used to design a masterplan. We evaluate the resulting guidelines, the masterplan, and the experience of the participants through an online survey (70% response rate) and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. Our results show that using LENSES encouraged systems thinking and helps facilitate a transdisciplinary approach towards regenerative development. This evaluation provides insights into how regenerative development can emerge in projects and how the potential for net benefit can be embedded.

СОЦИОКУЛЬТУРНЫЙ ПОТЕНЦИАЛ ДИСЦИПЛИНЫ «ИНОСТРАННЫЙ ЯЗЫК» В ПОДГОТОВКЕ БУДУЩИХ ЭКОНОМИСТОВ

The article discusses the role of the discipline “Foreign Language” in the formation of social responsibility and ecological worldview among future economists. Development of а student’s personality occurs in the period of revision of requirements, which modern society establishes for university graduates. The content of educational programs transforms into a complex sys-tem of universal human values and skills required by the world community and determined by its demands. Relying on the re-sults of a sociological survey among students the author concludes on the importance of studying socio-cultural aspects within this academic discipline.

Экологический туризм на урбанизированных территориях

The article substitutes the relevance and priority of ecological tourism development in modern world, describes the theoretical and methodological basis of indicated type of tourism, gives a brief historical review of studying problem. Authors concentrate attention on development of ecological tourism in urbanized areas. Through the example of Donetsk region (Donetsk People's Republic)
 – one of the most urbanized regions of the post-Soviet space – the main problems of ecological tourism development, prospects and potential opportunities for promotion of this direction in market of tourism are identified. The authors identify perspective objects of natural reserve fund for ecological tourism development in the region (using the cases of Amvrosievsky, Novoazovsky, Starobeshevsky, Shakhtersky districts and cities Gorlovka, Donetsk, Enakievo, Makeevka, Snezhnoe, Khartsyzsk), area of which is 3,7 % of common area of the region. The authors analyse the problems of using of these territories due to high population density, strong and negative anthropogenic impact. The authors calculate the quantitative indicators of security of the inhabitants of the region, which on the average is 80 m2 for one person. The specific measures for optimization and raise of efficiency of ecological tourism development in this region are proposed: zoning and monitoring of areas, ecological education and creating ecological worldview in public conscious, real and active involvement locals in tourist activity according to principles of sustainable development. The authors propose route “Green belt of Donbas’s” having a high potential for ecological tourism development in urbanized areas.

Ecological Education as a Factor of Mining Engineer Training

To reduce environmental tension the development of Kuzbass ecological culture is of great importance. Its most significant component is environmental education, in general, and the training of mining engineers with high level of ecological education, in particular. The presence of environmental education in the field of nature management cannot yet become a guarantor of environmental problems solution. It should be embodied in the behavior of a person, in the image of his life, in the system of values, in his ecological worldview. Educational reforms have become a response to the challenges posed by the social-and-economic development to the personality of a specialist, including the personality of a mining engineer in Russia and its regions. To identify the features of environmental education in the transition to the sustainable development it is important to set the main links in the system of continuous education and their peculiarities, which radically change the quality of training of mining engineers and the demand for specialists in the labor market.

Michigan Hunter Education Instructors’ Attitudes, Beliefs and Knowledge toward Environmental and Ecological Systems

Michigan Hunter Education Instructors’ Attitudes, Beliefs and Knowledge toward Environmental and Ecological Systems Michael W. Everett, Matt R. Raven Abstract Departments of natural resources are stressed to adapt to meet current societal and management pressures of the 21st century and ensure the long-term viability of wildlife and wildlife management for future populations. Michigan has gained an elite reputation as a national leader for abundant fishing and hunting opportunities. While the necessary skill-sets and knowledge are changing for new hunters, little research exists on Michigan Hunter Education (MHE) Instructors and their beliefs and knowledge about the environment and ecosystems as it relates to educating future hunters. The purpose of this study was to establish baseline attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge of environmental and ecological systems among a subset of MHE instructors. The survey measured demographics and Michigan Hunter Education instructor ecological world view as defined by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) at the 2015 MHE Academy. This was a descriptive/correlational research study. Socio-demographic variables had limited effect on relationships between environmental concerns and attitudes toward management of ecosystems. Further, MHEinstructors held an anthropocentric worldview and an alternative ecological paradigm.However, there were strong correlations between MHE instructors NEP scores and Scale Items related to understanding the: (a) Reality of limits to growth, (b) Possibility of eco-crisis, and (c) Fragility of nature‟s balance. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jaes.v7n2a1

Examining the Perception of Attendees on Sustainable Efforts Towards Event Greening Using the Values, Beliefs and Norms Theory

The elements of values, beliefs and norms will affect an individual’s perception on certain issues. Understanding the environmental issues based on values will contribute to the ecological view in general. Then, this comprehension will change beliefs and norms. Given the awareness on ecological worldview, changes in norms would encourage people to be more pro-environmental. Norms are those actions articulated from the values and beliefs assimilated from theories and practices which is later executed based on selected preferences by an individual. These norms will be emulated into action in an individual’s daily lives as a result of the combined and improved or adjusted values, beliefs and norms they have acquired from various sources. Ultimately, forming of a perception comes from the values, beliefs and norms of individuals. The combined elements of values, beliefs and norms will help the researcher to form a general perception on sustainable efforts towards event greening from the perspective of the event attendees. In this research, the focus is on event management and the efforts from event organizers to implement sustainable practices. The researchers wants to investigate from the perspective of event attendees. This research aims to explore the values, beliefs and norms theory on event attendees that influence their ecological worldview and pro-environmental personal norms and the effect that these dimensions have to uncover issues that will influence their perception on sustainable practices at events. The research findings are critical for the researcher to evaluate the situation and recommend appropriate green event management guidelines for event organizers to remain competitive by implementing sustainable practices for long-term survival in the event industry. The research methodology is a quantitative method using survey and the data is analyzed using the Multiple Linear Regression analysis This is the result from the pilot study of this research. The analysis indicated that, Values have a significant influence toward Perception, except for the Beliefs and Norms.

THE ECOLOGICAL WORLDVIEWS AND LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

This research aims to explore the tendency of the New Ecological Paradigm and environmental concerns on local environmental issues of secondary school teachers. Two hundred seventy teachers were selected by stratified random and cluster sampling from 13 schools to participate in the survey. The seven teachers were interviewed on their concepts and beliefs on the ecological worldviews and local environmental concerns. The results of the research include: With high pro-environmental beliefs, most of the teachers expressed their concerns about the environment. However, teachers believe that “Human will eventually learn enough about how nature works to be able to control it,” which is labeled as anti-NEP item. It seems that teachers mostly notice to “human learn” not to “human control”. It also seems that teacher’ environmental worldviews may be affected by their career training. The results of the research provide some implication for strengthening teachers’ environmental endorsement and therefore to affect people’s environmental ethics and friendly behaviors. Keywords: environmental education, local environmental concerns, new ecological paradigm survey.

More than Stories, More than Myths: Animal/Human/Nature(s) in Traditional Ecological Worldviews

Reason and rationality, upon which modern, westernized, societies have been founded, have powerfully characterized the nature of human relations with other species and with the natural world. However, countless indigenous and traditional worldviews tell of a very different reality in which humans, conceived of as instinctual and intuitive, are a part of a complex web of ecological relationships. Other species, elements of the natural world, and people are active participants in relations overflowing with communications, interactions sometimes recorded in ethnographies, or as ‘myths’ and ‘stories’. The present article draws upon a range of traditions to explore the biases which shape how indigenous and traditional life-ways are represented in westernized contexts; the phenomenon of receiving direct insight or intuitive knowing from more-than-human worlds; and the numerous valuable understandings regarding the nature of the human being, other species, and how to live well, that are offered by a deeper comprehension of different worldviews. I also argue that the various capacities for instinctual and intuitive knowledge which accompanies these life-ways are endemic to the human species yet overlooked, the correction of which might work to usefully recalibrate our ethical relations with each other, and with other life on earth.

Investigating Orchard Men's Behavioral Intentions of Dashtestan County toward Water Conservation Using Stern Value-Belief-Norm Theory

Investigating Orchard Men's Behavioral Intentions of Dashtestan County toward Water Conservation Using Stern Value-Belief-Norm Theory

Multi-Product Category Choices Labeled for Ecological Footprints: Exploring Psychographics and Evolved Psychological Biases for Characterizing Latent Consumer Classes

This paper explores psychographics and evolved psychological biases to characterize consumer segments regarding pro-environmental choices. Based on survey-evidence from Germany, we analyze consumer preferences for two product categories, a food-staple and a non-food staple, labeled for carbon and water footprints. Latent class analysis is employed to identify and characterize distinct consumer segments as a function of consumers' ‘ecological worldview’, consumer involvement, motivation to attend to product label information, personal values, as well as consumers' environmental group membership and donation behavior. Results suggest that latent segments of ecologically-oriented consumers can be differentiated from price-sensitive segments, with the former appearing less prone to certain evolved psychological biases compared to the latter segments. In contrast to previous work on self-reported ecologically conscious behavior, our results highlight the role of personal values, in particular that of personal health. This is found to be valued less by ecologically-oriented consumers, indicating that such individuals may have a strong communal focus in their value orientation. In terms of policy implications, our findings suggest that sustainability labels can provide valuable and interpretable information to consumers, yet more effective intervention efforts may require a stronger focus on targeted information provision with regard to carbon rather than water footprints.

Mountain-bodies, experiential wisdom: the Kallawaya cosmovisión and climate change adaptation

In an era of climate catastrophe, it is critical to engage with adaptation. However, it is equally necessary to examine the ways in which climate change adaptation is deployed in development practice. This paper will first outline the constellation of international and national climate realities, and their itinerant policies, that inform Bolivia’s climate politics. After setting the stage for climate change in the region, this paper will examine the Kallawaya cosmovisión. Then, using political ontologies as a conceptual springboard, this paper will look at the various frictions and resonances that exist between these ecological world views.

J. Baird Callicott, Science, and the Unstable Foundation of Environmental Ethics

This article analyzes the ideas of American philosopher J. Baird Callicott to shed light on ecological thinking and its inherent commitment to change and the adaptation of US environmental ethics. Callicott is one of the most prominent and longest-serving practitioners of environmental ethics; he is especially known for his support of land ethic, as defined by Aldo Leopold, and ecocentrism, an ethic predicated on the perception of ecosystems as communities. Callicott draws on the works of David Hume, Adam Smith and Charles Darwin to justify a Leopoldian ecocentrism. Extending Hume’s and Smith’s theory of moral sentiments to non-human life and ecosystems, Callicott claims to have continued Darwin’s ethical reflections in The Descent of Man (1871), also taken up by Aldo Leopold after his conversion to the ecological worldview. Callicott argues that the meaning of community can and must be protean, in order to ensure that environmental destruction will not continue unimpeded. Callicott thus calls for a major paradigm shift away from modernity, as defined by the scientific revolution of the 17th century, to a reconstructive postmodernity informed by Darwinism, ecology and the “new” physics spawned by quantum theory. According to Callicott, the only effective way to transcend Cartesian dualism is to bring about a major change in people’s worldview. Short of such a shift in paradigms, the dualities at the root of the environmental crisis will persist. Ironically, one of the main challenges to Callicott’s defense of the land ethic came from within ecology, from what Donald Worster calls the ecology of chaos. If Callicott rescues Leopold’s land ethic from ecological insignificance, this is because of the advent of disturbance ecology in the 1970s and 1980s along with the gradual replacement of the balance-of-nature paradigm by the nature-in-flux paradigm. How can ecosystems be considered communities if they are subject to stochastic and catastrophic change? Distinguishing the scale of non-human change and anthropogenic change, Callicott salvages an ethic whose ecological foundations are precarious and unstable. In doing so, he demonstrates that just as adaptation is part of a natural evolution, it is also the key to intellectual and philosophical evolution. Callicott’s response to disturbance ecology nevertheless highlights the precarious position of environmental philosophers who predicate their moral prescriptions on scientific knowledge, given that the science of ecology is always evolving.

Ecological Worldview among Urban Design Professionals

The built environment is responsible for a large proportion of the global use of energy, natural resources, and emissions. Architects and other urban design professionals are key actors in the building process whose behavior and decisions will influence these impacts. Because environmental attitudes are linked to pro-environmental behavior, this study aims to measure environmental worldview among urban design professionals involved in the architectural competition ‘A New City Center for Kiruna’. The mean score registered for the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale was 3.68 (standard deviation 0.51) and there were no significant differences with regard to age (mean 41.3 years) or gender (64.7% males). The ecological worldview of the participants was similar to most other samples from diverse countries, but a lower score was reported in comparison to environmentalists. The score ranged from 2.53 to 4.67 which shows heterogeneity at an individual level. Thus, future efforts to improve environmental attitudes among urban design professionals are needed.

Variation in public perceptions and attitudes towards terrestrial ecosystems

Biodiversity is a global asset of inestimable value which is threatened by human activities. Biodiversity exists within ecosystems, which enjoy differing levels of conservation. The ways in which humans regard ecosystems can play an important role in identifying strategies to change human behaviour, thereby achieving conservation goals. We investigated how preference, scenic attractiveness, perceptions of biodiversity and conservation value varied between five terrestrial ecosystems in Victoria, Australia (503 respondents). We document, for the first time, distinct ecosystem preferences, with people favouring wet forest, followed by dry forest, arid woodland/shrubland, heathland and then grassland. The ecological worldview of the respondent (i.e., the set of beliefs that guide the way a person interacts with the natural world), their familiarity with the habitat and perceived scenic attractiveness influenced the conservation value assigned by the members of the public to each ecosystem. The conservation and biodiversity value assigned to each ecosystem was higher where people were familiar with the ecosystem, considered it attractive, and held an ecocentric worldview. These aspects may correlate with public attitudes and represent key elements which could be used to engender higher levels of support for less appreciated ecosystems. Enhanced support may then underpin better conservation outcomes.

Seeds of distrust: conflicts over sustainable development in a local fracking policy network in New York State

ABSTRACTPursuing economic, environmental and social sustainability requires networks endowed with persistent relationships between stakeholders. Networks serve as the vehicle to coordinate diverse policy goals among stakeholders. Within the networks, stakeholders inevitably experience some level of distrust due to the complexity and uncertainty of the unstructured problems on the sustainability. However, little is known about why stakeholders often distrust with one another in the networks. By analysing a local fracking policy network in NYS, we suggest that distrust is influenced by incongruent ecological worldviews, policy goals incongruence in the triple bottom line of sustainability, characterization framing, policy communications and knowledge exchange.