Why don’t we succeed in translating the high environmental consciousness, documented in numerous population surveys, into environmentally friendly actions? Björn Wendt and Benjamin Görgen, research assistants of ZIN-member Prof. Dr. Matthias Grundmann, address this research gap in their recently published study on the underlying link between environmental consciousness and environmental behavior. The authors focus on knowledge workers in Münster, a group that is expected to have considerable knowledge about current environmental issues due to their own research activities and/or their high level of education.

The study “Der Zusammenhang von Umweltbewusstsein und Umweltverhalten. Eine explorative Studie zu einem Kernproblem der Umweltsoziologie am Beispiel von Wissensarbeiter*innen“ explores, whether this expectation can be verified and if a confirmed high environmental consciousness does indeed translate into corresponding environmentally friendly behavior.

Even though environmental sociologists agree on the relevance of analyzing the link between environmental consciousness and environmental behavior, there is disagreement concerning the general approach of the topic sustainability: so far, there is no specific perspective of a “sociology of sustainability”, instead, different approaches with varying implicit conditions are standing next to each other. Together with other researchers, including ZIN-member Prof. Grundmann, Björn Wendt and Benjamin Görgen advocate for regarding this diversity of perspectives as a strength in their new article “Soziologie der Nachhaltigkeit – Herausforderungen und Perspektiven” (also published in 2017). They present five approaches, each of them coming up with its proposition on how to mediate between the diversity of sociological perspectives on sustainability, in order to provide a starting point for a discussion about a “sociology of sustainability” (Henkel et al. 2017: 1).

[Sources: Henkel Anna, Böschen Stefan, Drews Nikolai, Firnenburg Louisa, Görgen Benjamin, Grundmann Matthias, Lüdtke Nico, Pfister Thomas, Rödder Simone, Wendt Björn (2017): Soziologie der Nachhaltigkeit - Herausforderungen und Perspektiven. IN: Soziologie und Nachhaltigkeit - Beiträge zur sozial-ökologischen Transformationsforschung Sonderausgabe, Nr. I. und Wendt Björn, Görgen Ben (2017): Der Zusammenhang von Umweltbewusstsein und Umweltverhalten. Eine explorative Studie zu einem Kernproblem der Umweltsoziologie am Beispiel von Wissensarbeiter*innen. Münster: MV Wissenschaft.]