• Prospective
    Students
  • Current
    Students
  • Alumni
  • Research
  • News &
    Events
  • About Royal
    Roads
Main menu
  • Prospective Students
  • Current Students
  • Alumni
  • Research
  • News & Events
  • About Royal Roads
 
    • Admin Login
    View Item 
    •   VIURRSpace Home
    • RRU
    • Student Research Collection
    • Dissertations & Theses @ RRU
    • View Item
    •   VIURRSpace Home
    • RRU
    • Student Research Collection
    • Dissertations & Theses @ RRU
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    “There’s a lot of deep:” exploring worldviews, emotions, and denial around political action for climate change

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Knapp_royalroads_1313O_10503.pdf (587.1Kb)
    Date
    2018-01-31
    Author
    Knapp, Ashley
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Subject
    Civic engagement; Ecopsychology; Individualism; Political action; Psychoanalytically informed methods; Worldviews
    Abstract
    This study explores the cognitive and emotional complications – worldviews, denial, and emotional responses – that prevent concerned citizens from engaging collectively for structural solutions to climate change. Using psychoanalytically informed methods, I conducted two interviews with five environmentally-conscious adults in Vancouver, BC. The first interview used a biographical narrative interview method (BNIM), while the second interview used a qualitative semi-structured method. Participants’ pro-environmental actions focused on individual lifestyle changes or persuading others, with worldview assumptions of individualism, Enlightenment reasoning, selective systemic thinking, and negative social norms. By wavering between overconfidence and under-confidence in the power of individual actions, participants expressed some denial. Participants also felt overwhelmed, were frustrated, and experienced loss. These factors limited their desire and ability to engage collectively. For environmental communicators, these findings can inform a new strategy that focuses on empowering citizens to confront their emotions and assumptions in order to engage collectively for systemic solutions.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10613/5449
    http://dx.doi.org/10.25316/IR-398
    Collections
    • Dissertations & Theses @ RRU
    • MA Environmental Education and Communication Theses

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Bud to blossom : an intuitive, auto-phenomenological inquiry into maturation and transformation through vision fasting 

      Young, Jason (2018-08-14)
      This thesis examines the effect of a vision fast experience on worldview from an auto-phenomenological perspective. Using an intuitive inquiry methodology, the study is conducted through five iterative cycles of hermeneutic ...
    • Thumbnail

      Stories of Arctic wonder :
 exploring transformative environmental education 

      Wyatt, Sarah Lilith Smith (2018-04-11)
      This paper explores the experience of ten Canadian youth participants from the 2009 Arctic expedition with Students on Ice, an environmental education organization with a mandate of transformation. Through semi-structured ...
    • Thumbnail

      Hitching my head to my heart : a lived experience study of ecological embodied cognition 

      Suhr, Nicol Rebecca (2013-09-24)
      In this autoethnographic personal narrative, I share my multifaceted journey of developing ecological embodied cognition in the context of climate change, specifically in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. ...

    Browse

    All of VIURRSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Admin LoginRegister
    back to top  
    Royal Roads University
    Our Location
    2005 Sooke Road
    Victoria, BC V9B 5Y2
    Canada
    •   Campus Map
    Get in Touch
    •   Phone: 250.391.2511
    •   Toll-free: 1.800.788.8028
    •   Email Us
    •   Directories
    @RoyalRoadsRRU FacebookRRU LinkedInRRU YouTubeRRU Pinterest
    • Contact Us
    • Send Feedback
    • Website Feedback
    • Privacy Policy
    • Academic Regulations
    • Copyright
    • Sitemap
    • ©2017 Royal Roads University
     
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV