A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY BASED ON PLURALISTIC STEWARDSHIP

Environmental Economics and Policy,

Understanding preferences for nature based and sustainable tourism. The role of personal values and general and specific environmental attitudes

This paper reports the results of a study which investigated the social psychological correlates of people’s preferences for sustainable and unsustainable tourism activities. Two-hundred-eighty-two participants from two Italian cities responded to a questionnaire which recorded their tourism preferences, their general pro-environmental attitudes and values, and their specific attitudes towards sustainable tourism. Results showed positive correlations among the constructs considered. Groups of participants differing in their tourism preferences were also identified and the paper discusses the way in which the social psychological variables considered here may be used to plan adequate strategies and management instruments able to address crucial issues of sustainability in tourism, including, for example, tourists’ ecological behaviors “on site” and their educational needs

A philosophical outlook on potential conflicts between planetary protection, astrobiology and commercial use of space

The aim of this chapter is to use philosophy and, in particular ethical theory, to identify and explore some potential conflicts

Understanding sustainability through the lens of ecocentric radical-re?exivity : implications for management education

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate around sustainability by proposing the need for an ecocentric stance to sustainability that reflexively embeds humans in—rather than detached from—nature. We argue that this requires a different way of thinking about our relationship with our world, necessitating a (re)engagement with the sociomaterial world in which we live. We develop the notion of ecocentrism by drawing on insights from sociomateriality studies, and show how radical-reflexivity enables us to appreciate our embeddedness and responsibility for sustainability by bringing attention to the interrelationship between values, actions and our social and material world. We examine the implications of an ecocentric radically reflexive approach to sustainability for management education

The Role of Preferences in Disagreements over Scientific Hypothesis: An Empirical Inquiry into Environmental and Economic Decision Making

The Porter hypothesis suggests that environmental regulations, such as restricting firms to reduce pollution, stimulates innovations and create a win-win situation for the environment and for firms. It has received a great deal of attention from academics as well as bureaucrats who disagree about the applicability of the Porter hypothesis. This study tests if part of such disagreement can be explained by a preference-expectation relationship and if people are more likely to believe in a scientific hypothesis that appeals to their preferences. The results show that individuals' who care more about the environment are more likely to believe in the Porter hypothesis. We also discuss the capacity of economic methodology to mitigate a preference-expectation bias and how it relates to the current practice in environmental economics.Porter Hypothesis, Subjective Beliefs, Economic Methodology

ECOCENTRIC MANAGEMENT: AN UPDATE

In an article published in 1995, Paul Shrivastava coined the notion of an ecocentric management paradigm. The ecocentric paradigm provided an integrated and holistic view of the organization at peace with the natural environment. This paper updates the idea of ecocentricity and enriches it with facts and fears that have emerged since then. We suggest that Shrivastava’s original formulation was an improvement of the industrial paradigm, advance an alternative reconceptualization of ecocentricity, and discuss some of the possible obstacles to the emergence and adoption of ecocentric management.

The role of preferences in disagreements over scientific hypothesis: An empirical inquiry into environmental and economic decision making

The Porter hypothesis suggests that environmental regulations, such as restricting firms to reduce pollution, stimulates innovations and create a win-win situation for the environment and for firms. It has received a great deal of attention from academics as well as bureaucrats who disagree about the applicability of the Porter hypothesis. This study tests if part of such disagreement can be explained by a preference-expectation relationship and if people more likely to believe in a scientific hypothesis that appeals to their preferences. The results show that individuals' who care more about the environment are more likely to believe in the Porter hypothesis. Males are also found to believe more in the Porter hypothesis while females are more uncertain. Education is found to be insignificant in explaining beliefs about the Porter hypothesis. Based on our results we also discuss if and how scientific and economic methodology can mitigate a preference-expectation bias

Underlying Dimensions of Ecocentric and Anthropocentric Environmental Beliefs

This study focuses on the cognitive components of general environmental attitudes. Taking as a starting point the scale of Thompson and Barton (1994) to identify ecocentric and anthropocentric motives in environmental conservation, the beliefs that guide attitudes in the person-environment relationship are analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to contrast the tripartite structure of these beliefs—based on egoistic, socioaltruistic, and biospheric aspects—with a two dimensional structure that confronts ecocentric and anthropocentric orientations. The results obtained from two samples, a student sample (n = 212) and a sample from the general population of Madrid (n = 205), indicate the existence of a three dimensional structure of environmental beliefs: an anthropocentric dimension based on the instrumental value of the environment for human beings, a biospheric dimension that values the environment for its own sake, and, lastly, an egobiocentric dimension that values the human being within nature as a whole.La presente investigación está centrada en los componentes cognitivos de las actitudes generales hacia el medio ambiente. Partiendo de la escala utilizada por Thompson y Barton (1994) para identificar motivos ecocéntricos y antropocéntricos en la conservación medioambiental, se analizan las creencias que orientan la relación individuo-medio ambiente. Mediante análisis factorial confirmatorio se contrasta una estructura tripartita de estas creencias basada en dimensiones egoístas, socioaltruistas y biosféricas con una estructura bidimensional en la que se enfrentan una orientación ecocéntrica y una orientación antropocéntrica. Los resultados obtenidos con dos muestras, una de estudiantes (n = 212) y otra extraída de la población general de la ciudad de Madrid (n = 205), apuntan hacia la existencia de una estructura de tres dimensiones de las creencias ambientales: una dimensión antropocéntrica vinculada al valor instrumental del medio ambiente para el ser humano; una dimensión biosférica que contempla el medio ambiente por el valor intrínseco de éste y, finalmente, una dimensión egobiocéntrica que valora al ser humano en la naturaleza