Description
Book SynopsisEveryday People Can Save the Planet and So Can You: A Qualitative Examination of Green Lifestyles in Lowcountry South Carolina examines three interview studies, conducted over the last two decades, with green parents, choice utility bike commuters, and necessity utility bike commuters. The book draws on qualitative analyses of the data and literature (social practice, social innovation, embodiment, and attention economy research/theory) to ask and answer the question of how can advocates and policy makers enable pro-environmental behavior in people’s everyday lives? Deborah McCarthy Auriffeille begins by focusing on the particularities of living green in Lowcountry South Carolina, a region that is both highly conservative and conservationist. She then examines the pathways to, challenges of, and meanings/motivations that practitioners told about green living. Finally, she draws on analyses of respondents’ narratives and interdisciplinary theory to make policy recommendations and suggestions for future social science research directions.
Trade Review"While critical of green consumption and other overly individualized forms of social change, Everyday People Can Save the Planet and So Can You manages to stitch together an empirically rich argument about what meaningful change looks like from the perspective of everyday life. I also appreciate the attention given to 'green parenting'—one of the more thorough treatments of the concept that I have come across."
-- Michael S. Carolan, Colorado State University
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter One: Conservation Is What You Are Doing!: Living Green in Lowcountry South Carolina
Chapter Two: Pathways to Living Green
Chapter Three: Green Parenting Challenges
Chapter Four: Green Living Motivations and Meanings
Conclusion