Search results
1 – 10 of 390Youths are known as a challenging group to be engaged in environmental programs due to their fickle characteristic. This study would like to offer Global South and developing…
Abstract
Purpose
Youths are known as a challenging group to be engaged in environmental programs due to their fickle characteristic. This study would like to offer Global South and developing countries' perspectives by using Indonesia as a case study. This study gives a lesson about the top-down approach in Indonesia's proenvironmental program and its trajectories toward youth participation.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a case study approach, this article tries to deeply understand the issues happening in Indonesia, particularly among the young people living in several cities in Indonesia. The author was helped by the first participant, a student with experience with air pollution campaigns. Using snowball approach, the authors was helped by the first participant to contact with her friends from different cities to join as the participant in this research. To obtain their dynamic perspectives, the researcher conducted three focus group discussions via Zoom, each with a duration of 1.5–2 h. The researcher asked for their written permission to be participants through WhatsApp text and then verbally via Zoom video call. This research was done during the lockdown status of COVID-19 pandemic; thus, it was advised to do every research activity online. Based on their experience, the participants were divided into three groups: volunteers, influencers and university students aged 18–21. These Focus Group Discussion (FGD) results were transcribed and coded into behavior, peer support and knowledge by the author.
Findings
This study found that youths in Indonesia are concerned about the community's perspective on the environment; thus, their behavior will mirror others as part of a collectivist society. Parents, friends and the community are their role models when practicing proenvironmental behavior. Next, environmental education should be embedded in school curricula and religious centers. In addition, they should apply an open and democratic approach to reach youths' participation effectively. Programs and curricula with a top-down approach should be avoided to maintain sustainable actions. Last, there is an urgent need to develop citizens' literacy about environmental issues because it will highly influence young generations.
Research limitations/implications
There should be more discussion on developing environmental knowledge for citizens at large. First, the next research should focus on the curricula development in formal and nonformal organisations, focusing on youths' voices during the process. In a proenvironmental program, honoring and prioritizing youth voices is central to youth work. Second, there should be further research on using a democratic approach for building conversation and discussion on environmental issues rather than a top-down approach. Further, researchers must focus on Indonesians' literacy in general, especially older and mature citizens, since their perspective will affect youths' behavior in the long term. These positive attitudes cannot be perceived and sustained if the community comments negatively toward proenvironmental behavior. Last, there is a lack of exploration to the influencers group to show their differences with other groups. Other researchers could further explore this in the future.
Practical implications
Multiple approaches must be used continuously to ask and seek youths' opinions, listen to what youths want and then prioritize them in the program. Rather than using programmatic design and delivery to shape social attitudes and behavior, campaigners should discuss with youths and influencers on creating their campaigns rather than maintain the program's sustainability. Environmental campaign messages should integrate with creative storytelling to build engagement with young people. By implementing this, youths could share their expressions using photography, narration, music, etc.
Originality/value
Indonesia becomes a significant case study for this research due to its political and cultural system. Indonesia is known as a paternalistic and corporatist country where the practice of citizenship is challenged by the issue of power dynamics and imbalance. Therefore, a top-down communication is a common practice to create a quick-fix solution to foster productivity. Further, Indonesia has an environmental problem which made it vital for climate study. Globally, Indonesia ranks third in greenhouse gas emission after China and India. Recently, its capital city, Jakarta, is ranked as the worst-polluted city in the world.
Details
Keywords
Identifying the best predictors of environmental citizenship behavior (ECB) has been a major concern of both researchers and educators aimed at protecting environmental quality…
Abstract
Purpose
Identifying the best predictors of environmental citizenship behavior (ECB) has been a major concern of both researchers and educators aimed at protecting environmental quality and sustain person-environment transactions. This study aims to examine the unique contribution of personality traits and self-efficacy beliefs to the ECB of university youth in Sri Lanka.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research approach used. The internet-based survey method was used to collect data from undergraduates studying at six state universities and two nonstate universities. The measurement items of five personality traits, ECB and academic self-efficacy were adopted on established scales from the literature.
Findings
Multiple regression results revealed that the personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience, as well as academic self-efficacy, are significant predictors of ECB. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience significantly influenced academic self-efficacy. Model 6 of the PROCESS macro results indicated that academic self-efficacy partially mediated the contribution of extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience traits to ECB.
Practical implications
These findings have broad implications for interventions aimed at enhancing youth environmental behavior. Whereas personality traits represent stable individual characteristics that mostly derive from individual hereditary endowment.
Originality/value
The study showed a holistic approach in explaining ECB that combined both personality traits and self-efficacy beliefs, indicating that they are interrelated and should not be treated in isolation.
Details
Keywords
Gizem Arat, Suna Eryigit-Madzwamuse and Angie Hart
In this study, the authors investigated ways to cultivate resilience through a social justice lens among ethnic minorities against COVID-19 in Hong Kong.
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the authors investigated ways to cultivate resilience through a social justice lens among ethnic minorities against COVID-19 in Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative (case study) methodology was adopted to interview 15 social service providers from diverse ethnic backgrounds serving disadvantaged ethnic minority groups (South and Southeast Asian groups from low-income households, foreign domestic workers and asylum seekers/refugees).
Findings
Two major protective factors were identified, contributing to the development of resilience among diverse ethnic groups: (1) individual-based resilience (including being optimistic) and (2) socio-environmental factors (including ongoing support from strong family, peer and religious settings' support, consulates' support, on-going material and nonmaterial donations, support of young volunteers and importance of online connection and communication) using the integration of resilience and social justice frameworks.
Originality/value
This study showed that the protective factors were found to dynamically interact with each other and the environment. The present study recommends additional culturally sensitive service and policy implications for preventing the long-term impact of mass crises among Hong Kong's marginalized minorities.
Details
Keywords
Young people in rural areas often face barriers when accessing participation opportunities in their municipalities. This affects their voices being heard and their ability to…
Abstract
Young people in rural areas often face barriers when accessing participation opportunities in their municipalities. This affects their voices being heard and their ability to create change. Even though almost half the world’s population lives in rural areas, rural young people’s activism is often overlooked in the literature. In addition, when young people’s activism is explored in empirical research, conceptualisations of activism and methods are often not tailored to rural areas. This chapter, thus, adds to our understanding of young people’s activism in rural municipalities by drawing on a mixed methods case study including thirteen focus groups (FGs; n = 35) and a questionnaire (n = 106) with young people aged 13–17, and semi-structured interviews (n = 11) with teachers from one secondary school in a rural municipality in Germany. Five of the FGs were conducted and analysed by Year 10 students, adding unique insights into participants’ experience of activism. In this chapter, activism is conceptualised as one of the multiple dimensions of citizenship. Activism includes demanding systemic change, individually or collectively, which may include refusing to do things, aiming to prevent laws, raising awareness, and making consumer choices. Rather than being full-time activists, the young people in this study were engaged in only a few forms of activism, often carried out ad-hoc, part-time and in connection with other citizenship activities such as volunteering. Spaces for activism included online, the local municipality, everyday spaces such as the supermarket, and school. Participants experienced multiple barriers when engaging in activism including narratives of non-activist young people, age restrictions, power imbalances and few opportunities for creating change, particularly at participants’ school and in their municipalities.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to explore how environmental employment can promote desistance among criminalised children. Research demonstrates that being immersed in and interacting with the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how environmental employment can promote desistance among criminalised children. Research demonstrates that being immersed in and interacting with the natural environment has a positive impact upon well-being and behaviour, including reduced aggressive and violent behaviours. However, how exposure to the natural environment might promote desistance amongst children with persistent criminal involvement is unclear.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines, through semi-structured interviews and participant observations, the experiences of n = 23 criminalised children aged 16–18 employed in outdoor work at a UK social enterprise.
Findings
The findings demonstrate how working in the natural environment can provide a safe space for children, where they can build positive relationships, learn valuable skills and reconnect with the world outside of the high-pressure, conflict-driven spaces in which they typically occupy.
Originality/value
This research highlights the relevance of the setting in which child rehabilitation takes place and the potential role of natural environments in providing places and opportunities which support pro-social identity development and desistance for children.
Details
Keywords
Latika Sharma, Hemantkumar P. Bulsara, Himanshu Bagdi and Mridul Trivedi
This research aims to forecast university students' intentions to contribute to sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) in an emerging market. The study observed the factors influencing…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to forecast university students' intentions to contribute to sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) in an emerging market. The study observed the factors influencing students’ sustainable entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) using an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB).
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted utilising an online questionnaire with a total of 332 college students in Gujarat, India. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The outcome of the present research sanctions that university support strongly impacts perceived behavioural control (PBC) and negatively affects attitudes towards sustainable entrepreneurship (ATT). The findings revealed that environmental concern positively influences students' attitudes and perceived behavioural control towards sustainable entrepreneurship. Whereas sustainable development goals knowledge (SDGK) negatively impacts attitude and PBC. Out of the three key factors of TPB used in the study, only the subjective norm negatively affects SEI among the respondents.
Research limitations/implications
This research may be valuable to academicians and environmental strategists in determining the most essential elements that drive students to create sustainable firms. The findings of this study back up the assumption that TPB adaptation is required when assessing entrepreneurship-specific intents.
Originality/value
The current research aimed to regulate students' entrepreneurial intention (EI) in Gujarat, India, concerning a sustainable enterprise. This research appears to be one of the extremely scarce studies that utilise the extended TPB model to investigate the effect of university support (US), environmental concern (EC) and SDGK in the context of India.
Details
Keywords