STRATUM AND SOCIAL BASE CORRELATES OF DIFFERENTIAL ATTITUDES TOWARD COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: COMPETING STRUCTURAL MODELS AND LEADER/NON-LEADER COMPARISONS (INDIANA)

GARY MICHAEL GROSSMAN, Purdue University

Abstract

Since the early 1970's, the condition of the natural environment and the role of the environment movement has been a subject of interest, speculation, and scientific analysis. In this process, a transformation occurred in the social definition of the problem, beginning with a limited notion of "conservation" to a more broadly conceived "environmental" concern indicating its growth as a social problem. While some of the emphasis in natural scientific inquiry has addressed the potentially deteriorating biological condition of the environment, the social dynamics of support for environmental reform and the environmental movement is of greater concern to the social scientist. While the primary impact of current and proposed environmental reform is at the local level, support for or opposition to such changes at the community level have seldom been reported. This study addresses these environmental issues in the context of a community, Tippecanoe County, Indiana. After introducing the issue of the environment generally, the literature from the perspective of the social sciences was reviewed, focusing on environmental issues, leadership and community power studies as reported in the sociological and political literatures, and examining comparisons from poll data showing differences in environmental attitudes at the national versus community levels. Three basic models of analysis were derived from these literatures. A survey questionnaire was developed, one sample of leaders and one sample of non-leaders was interviewed, and the theoretical models were recreated in an empirically testable format. In general, the predicted relationship between socio-economic status and environmental concern was found to have some support, although it was quite weak and restricted to particular kinds of environmental issues and applicable only to community non-leaders. Among overall findings from the study, it was determined that different indicators of environmental concern measure different things; that the more specific an item is, the greater its tendency to represent a response pattern reflecting perceived self-interest as opposed to a more global environmental concern; that education was the primary social determinant of environmental attitudes for leaders and age was the most discriminating factor for non-leaders; and that leaders displayed a firmer grasp of environmental issues and their linkages to self-interest concerns. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Sociology

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