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Accepted Paper:

Post-materialism and the fetishism of the environmental consciousness  
Marina Requena Mora (ICTA UAB) Dan Brockington (University of Sheffield)

Paper short abstract:

Despite the rise of environmentalism, the pace of ecological degradation has increased. If environmentalism is a broader force, then why is its influence so slight? We argue that environmental concern is a product of economic growth but at the same time alienated from economic growth consequences.

Paper long abstract:

This paper challenges the view that economic growth raises environmental consciousness as postulated in Inglehart's post-materialist thesis. Instead, we argue that we have to be attentive to the types of environmentalism different economic regimes engender. We analyse two types of evidence— surveys and environmental indicators. This study uses dynamic regressions and a Vector autoregressive model to analyse influencing factors of the changes in the environmental concerns. Analyses of surveys suggest that particular forms of environmental consciousness are a product of economic growth. And, conversely, that these forms decline during economic downturns. However, the analyses of environmental indicators suggest that the heightened environmental consciousness that economic growth is not particularly good for the environment. We argue that the type of environmental consciousness that is derived from the post-materialist thesis is intermeshed with commodity fetishism such that people separate their consumerist lifestyles from the environmental impact of these lifestyles. Environmental concern is alienated from the consequences of economic growth

Panel P30
Development perspectives on transforming economies for nature, climate, and society
  Session 1 Wednesday 6 July, 2022, -