Detrimental Determinants: The Impacts of Neoliberalism on Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Abstract

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on July 29, 2015Thesis advisor: Marc GarcelonVitaIncludes bibliographic references (pages 109-120)Thesis (M.A.)--Department of Sociology. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2015The mounting evidence of anthropogenic climate change in the past 30 years has beckoned the social sciences to illuminate and address the complex phenomena underlying actions that impact the environment. While many studies have considered salient indicators of pro-environmental behavior (PEB) in the United States, little research has assessed how economic ideologies influence such behaviors at the individual level. Accordingly, this study develops and tests a sociological augmentation of the Theory of Planned Behavior in an effort to understand how neoliberal market ideology impacts the frequency and likelihood of behaviors that benefit the environment. Using data from the 2010 General Social Survey and the Environment III module of the International Social Survey Program (N=1430), the impacts of market-fundamentalist endorsements are tested using hierarchical regression techniques on a variety of environmentally significant behavioral outcomes. Results indicate that neoliberalism overall plays a significant and often negative role in individual pro-environmental behavior, which empirically challenges the assertion that markets can simultaneously self-regulate and address environmental degradation. Insights for future research, theoretical synthesis, and public policy are discussed.Introduction -- Literature review -- Methods -- results -- Discussio