The launch of a new journal is always an exciting occasion. Of course, it is a very tangible sign that an area of scholarship is developing and that there is a body of work being undertaken that is of sufficiently high standard that warrants publication. It is also very auspicious, to use a word that I am very conscious has important meanings in Asian cultures. It is auspicious because it makes a statement not only about the present - and indeed past research - but it looks to the future as well. It is a statement of commitment and of confidence that this area of scholarly endeavour is important

David, L. Uzzell

Universiti Teknologi MARA Institutional Repository

A Special Introduction
1
Uzzel, D.L..
A Special Introduction
David L. Uzzell
Department of Psychology
University of Surrey
United Kingdom
D.Uzzell@surrey.ac.uk
© 2010 cE-Bs, FAPS,  UiTM. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The launch of a new journal is always an exciting occasion. Of course, it is a 
very tangible sign that an area of scholarship is developing and that there is a 
body of work being undertaken that is of sufficiently high standard that warrants 
publication. It is also very auspicious, to use a word that I am very conscious 
has important meanings in Asian cultures. It is auspicious because it makes a 
statement not only about the present - and indeed past research - but it looks to the 
future as well. It is a statement of commitment and of confidence that this area of 
scholarly endeavour is important.
 Some might ask whether we need another journal in environment-behaviour 
research. After all, we are already well-served by two journals in particular – 
the Journal of Environmental Psychology and Environment and Behavior. There 
are other journals as well, perhaps more closely tied to particular disciplines 
such as the Journal of Architectural and Planning Research. And then there are 
many interdisciplinary journals which publish environment-behaviour papers 
as those having other foci such as environmental risk or environmental policy. 
Despite the presence of these publications, there is still a need for more outlets 
for the interesting and important research that is currently being undertaken in 
environment-behaviour relationships in general and in particular, which involves 
Asians not only in Asia but also those living in non-Asian countries with focus on 
the non-spatial context. 
2. Environment-Behaviour Research in and for the 
 Global South
An archaeologist once suggested to me that if you look at a map of archaeological 
findings, this does not tell you where the significant historic or pre-historic sites, 
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2Journal of ASIAN Behavioural Studies 1(1) January 2011 (Maiden Issue)
communities and societies were. Rather, it tells you where archaeologists work. Of 
course, one hopes that there will be a close correspondence between the two, but 
this will not necessarily be the case. The same goes, I suggest, for environment-
behaviour research. Both our cognitive map of the sub-discipline and the physical 
map of where we actually work by and large reflect our own personal interests and 
societal priorities through research funding agencies and government policy. 
 Thus most environment-behaviour research has been in the global North, 
where addressing these kinds of issues have received a comparatively large amount 
of attention. There are many reasons for this; available funding from government 
and industry; the protection and the development of the environment has been 
more affordable in the North; the availability of specialist researchers. There is 
an imbalance of reported research in the journals cited above either coming out 
of or discussing the Global South, for example, there is relatively little research 
published from Africa or India. However, the amount of environment-behaviour 
research being undertaken in Latin America is on the increase and there are notable 
research communities in Brazil, Mexico, and Chile to name but three. Likewise, 
there is a growing research community in Asia. This was reflected in the maiden 
ASEAN Conference on Environment-Behaviour Studies (AcE-Bs) in Kuching 
in July 2010. Eleven countries participated, the overwhelming majority from the 
region. Furthermore, over 113 abstracts were received. This is auspicious evidence 
of a growing research community and a ready justification for the launch of this 
new journal. If we are to take the view that environmental behaviour research 
should become more inclusive and integrative, then it cannot afford to exclude 
two-thirds of the world’s population. 
 Economic development in the global North is inseparable from environmental 
degradation in the global South. Industrial development and carbon emissions 
impact predominantly in the Global South. Moreover, the natural resource 
hungry economies of the Global North not only impact upon the environments 
and communities of the South through resource extraction and the exporting of 
pollution and environmental degradation, but development in these countries 
is hampered by crippling debt charges and structural adjustment programmes 
insisted upon and enforced by the North which lead to social and environmental 
inequalities. 
 In response to these inequalities, there has been a tendency for research 
in the social sciences as well as NGOs to focus on identifying people’s needs. 
Unfortunately, needs are often defined by those in power (i.e., the North), not the 
people whose needs and rights are supposedly being satisfied. Thus, the argument 
is made that we need to conserve the rainforests, wildlife, water supplies and 
prevent pollution, etc. While these arguments are laudable and justified, they often 
fail to take into account the needs of those people’s in whose spaces wildlife and 
rainforests exist and whose environments are damaged. If these environments are 
being conserved at the expense of the livelihoods of local people, or if preventing 
environmental damage is at the expense of securing jobs for local people, this 
raises difficult issues. Of course, one wants to see the environment protected but 
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A Special Introduction
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Uzzel, D.L..
how one secures that raises all sorts of moral questions about which local people 
have a right to be heard. There is a need for North-South cooperation as opposed 
to the North deciding what has to be done in the South to prevent environmental 
degradation, while continuing to pollute and increase emissions whether through 
production in the North or through production relocated to the South. This 
dilemma is illustrated by a research project which I am currently undertaking 
investigating, amongst other things, the policies of trade unions towards climate 
change and environmental degradation in the global North and South. Our results 
point at one and the same time to the needs as well as the difficulties concerning 
collaboration and solidarity across the North-South (Räthzel and Uzzell, 2010). 
This research has highlighted the tensions which exist for trade unions in the 
North who are concerned to take on social justice issues, and act with solidarity 
to defend the interests of those with less power and influence in the South.  But 
if standing up for improving the conditions of someone’s job means that a job is 
no longer available then whose justice is being served? As one trade unionist said 
to us “I’m going to die quicker from having no job than from climate change.” 
Another said “For us exploitation is better than starvation”. This is not an easy 
conflict to resolve, but if it is to be solved much more cooperation, understanding 
and solidarity between North and South is necessary.
 Rather than framing the discussion on the basis of satisfying needs, especially 
when the issues of who determines needs is contested, an alternative approach 
focuses on environmental rights in which those without power define their needs 
themselves and try to secure the rightful access to resources to satisfy those needs. 
Within a context of self-determination, transparency in decision-making and 
accountability it is especially important to ensure that all involved are informed. 
Research is the key to this, and environment-behaviour research is crucial in the 
decision-making process. This new journal has the potential to inform decision-
makers in both the North and the South so that political movements as well 
as governments are informed is informed by local cultural as well as global 
perspectives. 
3. The Scope of the Journal of ASIAN Behavioural 
 Studies
Moscovici reminds us that the development of social psychology was inspired 
“by the hope that it would contribute to our understanding of the conditions which 
underlie the functioning of society and the constitution of a culture” (Moscovici, 
1972, p49). The domain of social psychology was seen to include the study of 
everyday life and “relationships between individuals and between groups, as well 
as ideologies and intellectual creativity in both its individual and collective forms” 
(ibid). Such a definition must include the relationship between people and their 
environment because within a holistic critique of the person we cannot separate 
people from their environment - people are part of the environment and the 
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4Journal of ASIAN Behavioural Studies 1(1) January 2011 (Maiden Issue)
environment is an essential part of the person. Although Moscovici was writing 
about social psychology, the hope to which Moscovici refers has to be set within 
an environmental context and research on the non-spatial environment-behaviour 
relationships are fundamental to our understanding of ‘the functioning of society 
and the constitution of a culture”. The papers to be published in this journal have 
an important role to play in that process.  I would like to highlight six qualities 
characterising environment-behaviour research. They are not the only ones but 
they strike me as significant as they capture the uniqueness of environment-
behaviour research. 
 First, environment-behaviour research is necessarily interdisciplinary. 
The problems we face in both the built and natural environment require the 
co-operation and collaboration of many disciplines - psychology, sociology, 
architecture, planning, geography, economics, the environmental sciences, 
education, archaeology, landscape architecture, interior design and engineering. 
Environmental psychologists typically work with colleagues in each of these 
disciplines over the years and without doubt to the enrichment of the research 
in all of these disciplines. It is difficult to conceive of environment-behaviour 
research that could not be undertaken without interdisciplinary collaboration. 
Bringing together such diverse disciplines in such a commonwealth of scholarship 
is probably unparalleled in the academic world.
 Second, environment-behaviour research is multi-method. There is not 
one single method that is appropriate to use all the time for the range of work 
research that we undertake. People-environment research uses both qualitative 
and quantitative methodologies; for example, questionnaire surveys, in-depth 
interviews, focus groups, simulation studies, behavioural mapping, laboratory and 
field-based experiments.
 Third, environment-behaviour research is policy-oriented. In other words, 
much of the work we do aims to inform government policy on the most 
pressing social, environmental and economic issues of the day. At the same time 
environment-behaviour research aims to support social movements in their aim 
to develop grassroots oriented forms of participation. This has never been more 
necessary with the current contribution of researchers to issues of sustainable 
development.  
 Fourth, environment-behaviour research is necessarily applied. While much 
research seeks to increase our fundamental knowledge about environment-
behaviour relationships, much of this is done in the context of addressing real-
world problems.  People-environment research is contracted by governments, 
industry and NGOs to generate solutions which address the problems of everyday 
life in our cities and rural areas and enhance the quality of life of its citizens.
 Fifth, one of the defining characteristics of people-environment research 
is that it is context-aware.  One of the shortcomings of so much environmental 
psychological research is that it treats the environment simply as a value-free 
backdrop to human activity and an empty stage upon which we act out our 
lives.  In essence the environment is regarded as noise. It is seen as expedient 
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A Special Introduction
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Uzzel, D.L..
in much traditional psychological research (especially experimental research) 
to remove or reduce as much extraneous ‘noise’ as possible in order to reduce 
contamination of the findings.  But as environment-behaviour researchers we 
know that the environment -- the noise -- is a crucial part of the equation.  We 
cannot understand human perceptions, attitudes and actions without reference to 
the social and environmental context in which they are formed.  And of course, the 
environmental context in which perceptions, attitudes and action occur also has 
a temporal dimension; we cannot understand people, spaces and places without 
taking into account time.
 And finally, the most effective environment-behaviour research is 
international. As it is difficult to conceive of environment-behaviour research 
undertaken in disciplinary isolation, so is it only slightly less difficult to think 
of environment-behaviour research undertaken in national isolation. IAPS 
(International Association of People-Environment Studies) has been in existence 
for 25 years which is testimony to the enduring value of international collaboration. 
For example, I have ongoing projects with colleagues in France, the Netherlands, 
Spain and Sweden.  There is not a single week, sometimes a single day, when I 
am not in communication with colleagues from these countries.  We work in a 
comparatively small field, certainly within our own individual countries. I am sure 
that this has only served to encourage international collaboration and international 
projects.  
 The papers that are published in this first issue of the Journal of ASIAN 
Behavioural Studies reflect many of these characteristics. It is hoped that 
future issues of the Journal will continue to take, for example, context-aware, 
interdisciplinary, applied, policy-oriented and multi-method approaches.  Doing 
so will lead not only to a transformation of our understanding of the problems our 
cities, nations and the planet faces, but is also more likely to generate solutions 
which are useable and useful (Solesbury, 2001, p5).  
 I began this introduction with a discussion of the role and importance of 
research in the global South. It is intended that this Journal will have a regional 
focus. It is vitally important that researchers in the region feel that they have 
an outlet for the dissemination of their research that reflects the particular 
characterises and features of everyday life and the environments of not only Asians 
in Asia, but also those living in non-Asian countries . It is critical that researchers 
in the South have means and opportunities to reflect their position in these global 
debates. I benefitted hugely from attending the maiden ASEAN Conference on 
Environment-Behaviour Studies (AcE-Bs) in Kuching. It is essential that more 
researchers in the North are exposed to the kinds of perspectives and knowledge 
that are represented in this journal. It is also important that researchers from the 
North publish in the journal so that there can be a dialogue between north and 
south. It is noteworthy that this first issue has already started that dialogue. 
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References
Moscovici, S (1972) ‘Society and theory in social psychology’ in J. Israel and H. Tajfel 
(eds.) The Context of Social Psychology: A Critical Assessment, London: Academic 
press, pp 17-68.
Räthzel, N and Uzzell, D (2010) ‘Trade Unions facing the dual challenge of globalising 
work division and globalising environmental degradation), paper presented at the 
World Congress of the International Sociological Association, Gothenborg, 11-17 
July, 2010
Solesbury, W. (2001).  Evidence based policy:  whence it came and where it’s going.  ESRC 
Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice: Queen Mary College, University of 
London.
Stokols, D.  (1995) ‘The Paradox of Environmental Psychology’, American Psychologist, 
October, 821-837.
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