2015 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

Frontiers in Environmental Psychology: Views from the Ivory Tower and the Green Tower

Thomas Joseph Doherty, Psy.D.

This presentation provides an orientation to environmental psychology for a general environmental studies audience. It also applies a “frontiers, borders and boundaries” perspective to the field of environmental psychology to reveal diversity amongst its subcultures and discourses. This has implications for understanding differing psychological worldviews regarding humans' place in nature, and competing approaches to solving environmental issues, found in other fields and in society at large.

Approaches within psychology that address human-environment relations, restorative effects of nature, and interventions regarding environmental health, behavior, conservation, and sustainability will be described. These include the traditional environmental psychology of built and natural landscapes, conservation psychology, ecopsychology, etc. Examples of environmental psychology in action include addressing environmental concerns or despair in the general public, facilitating nature based psychotherapies, promoting conservation behaviors in organizations, and developing the theory and research base regarding the psychological impacts of global climate change.

Much like the environmental movement, environmental psychology has expert/scientific subcultures and more grassroots and holistic subcultures, symbolized by the images of the "Ivory Tower" and the "Green Tower." The presenter will share experience and anecdotes from various professional roles in environmental psychology as a clinical psychologist, organizational consultant, educator, journal editor, and leader in professional organizations.

Viewing environmental psychology in terms of "frontiers, borders and boundaries" provides an interesting perspective. The presenter will describe how differing beliefs and worldviews regarding humans' place in nature, as well as competing approaches to solving environmental issues, can be seen as a form of "environmental diversity." Using this "environmental diversity" lens, approaches within psychology can be distinguished using various meta frameworks, for example how they exhibit romantic, modern or postmodern attitudes, or how they exemplify well-known environmental discourses. 

The presenter will further discuss how environmental diversity (i.e., in terms of worldviews) can be seen as intersecting with other forms of multicultural diversity, such as race, ethnicity, class and gender. This provides insights into how inequalities (i.e., in terms of access to healthy green spaces) or other environmental justice issues may or may not be addressed in psychology, and possibly in other areas of environmental studies. 

They're Not Like Us: Identity, Affiliation, and Collaboration in Environmental Justice Conflicts

Sarah Lashley, Ph.D.

Although efforts to manage conflicts in the environmental justice context collaboratively are beginning to emerge, the factors that promote and hinder effective collaboration in cases of environmental justice have not yet been explored. The purpose of this research is to define and understand the roles of identity and affiliation in collaboratively managing conflicts in the environmental justice context.

A comparative case study approach is used to understand the roles of identity and affiliation in creating barriers and bridges to collaboration. Participant observation, interviews, and archival information from government documents, newspapers, and organizational publications and records are used in the case analyses. Cases in New York City and Detroit, Michigan are studied.

Two communities in southeastern Michigan had a common opponent – an aluminum smelter that had closed its facility in one community and relocated it to another.  Both communities had complaints about pollution and were struggling to gain the attention of local, state and national regulators.  Though they had similar goals, residents and organizers from these two communities have not collaborated with each other. Meanwhile, over six hundred miles away in New York City, residents from diverse communities with historically divergent perspectives and interests collaborated to create a shared vision for a new waterfront park space in West Harlem.

Preliminary results suggest that identities and characterizations have the potential to create perceptual boundaries that obstruct visions for the possibility of collaboration. However, the presence of charismatic and credible leaders who seek to understand divergent perspectives, create space for voicing and hearing concerns, and value transparency can facilitate the development of affiliation and shared identities in environmental justice conflict situations. 

The Politics of Environmental Justice and Art: Reading Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun

Lai Ying Yu

In this paper, I examine the role that politically-oriented art can play in creating greater social equity. In particular, I study the use of sentimental affect as a framework for urban environmental justice and consider how sentiment can establish a space for cross-difference sympathies as well as harden or erect new barriers for systemic change. I conclude by suggesting that shifting what we look for in socially oriented art, de-emphasizing sentiment as the basis for social change, may lead to innovative solutions for problems of urban environmental injustice.

I develop my argument through a reading of the classic play by Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (1959). About a working-class black family living in South Side Chicago, the play highlights the ways in which urban segregation stymies generations of hard-won progress. As part of my analysis, I consider contemporary court challenges to urban segregation and the little-known contract sales that contributed to creating the racial boundaries of South Side Chicago. These court cases, like Raisin,emphasized a language of sentiment and moral ethic. The challenges were dismissed, however, because the defendants used a competing language of sentiment for a set of alternative social bonds. I consider these alternative bonds as they were expressed in contemporary urban planning policies.

I believe this presentation is of interest to AESS because my paper is informed by an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating literary analysis with examinations of urban planning and legal discourse. I also think this paper is about the “problem-solving” aspect of AESS because it focuses on how environmental scholars may approach art as a political tool. I think that the presentation fits with the 2015 theme because it is about one artist’s challenge to the racial borders of urban segregation. I think this paper fits into themes of equity and representation.

Crossing the Boundary from Faith to Action

Cybelle T. Shattuck

Awareness of climate change and concerns about impacts on human communities have inspired activity within religious organizations as leaders call on people of faith to conserve resources, build more equitable and resilient communities, and advocate for environmental policies. Efforts to promote a faith-based response to environmental issues are of interest because religion played a significant role in historical periods of social change such abolition of slavery and the US civil rights movement. Previous scholarship has focused on “eco-theologies” through which religious leaders articulate scriptural precepts describing why people of faith should practice environmental ethics, however, there has been no systematic research examining the empirical experiences of faith-based environmental initiatives that do arise. Recent research suggests that theology alone is insufficient to motivate behavior change in faith communities. Consequently, this research seeks to examine the motivations and processes through which people of faith undertake environmental action.

This paper uses data from field research conducted in fifteen faith communities that have developed durable sustainability initiatives with activities focused on: sustainable land stewardship, environmental advocacy, and conservation practices such as recycling, generation of renewable energy, and green building. The research uses an interdisciplinary approach that draws on religious studies and environmental disciplines to examine motivations and processes through which the initiatives emerged and were implemented within the faith communities. Religious studies provides information about beliefs and congregational structures, conservation psychology imparts insights into individual motivations, while social movement and collaborative resource management fields contribute information about factors that affect collective action. The cross-case analysis indicates that personal interests of individual champions, supportive organizational structures, and participatory decision processes are just as important as theology for embedding sustainability in the social norms of religious organizations. 

Environmental Attitudes in Religious Communities: A Case from Multi-ethnic Los Angeles

Dr. Amanda Baugh

A 2014 national survey of over 3,000 Americans found that Hispanic Catholics are twice as likely as white Catholics to be concerned about climate change, just as Black Protestants are more likely to be concerned than white Protestants.[1] One possible explanation for these results is that minority communities express greater concern because they are the first to suffer from catastrophes caused by global warming. But is this reasoning actually expressed in those communities?

In this paper I will share preliminary findings of a research project designed to understand how factors related to religion, race, ethnicity, and class factor into environmental attitudes and behaviors. Drawing from focus groups and survey data in both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking congregations in a multi-ethnic neighborhood in Los Angeles, I will discuss how different community members expressed their relationships with the environment.  My preliminary raw data will offer insight in its own right, but its greater significance is to offer vocabulary and a set of questions that can direct future research about the influence of race, ethnicity, and class on environmental attitudes and behaviors in religious communities.