Motivation and Pro-Environmental Behaviour - Managing Change

This course focuses on ways to understand behavior and motivate change toward pro-environmental behaviours.

Meaningful action to redress the ecological crises of our times will require the support and participation of the public, acting collectively toward localized and systemic change. This course explores how individuals and social groups, as consumers/producers, and as members of various communities, may be motivated toward pro-environmental behavior (PEB). PEB is many things, including: reduced energy consumption, agroecological pest management, the use of bicycles or public transport, reuse, repair, and upcycling, collective living, shopping organic and local, and participation in social/political movements. Beyond a focus on ‘regular people’, students may also consider how relatively powerful actors such as political leaders or industry executives may be motivated toward pro-environmental behaviour and policy change.

The course builds on theories about motivation and behaviour, theories of change, real life cases and practical tools to initiate and sustain behavioural change among individuals, groups, and organisations.

Motivation and behaviour theories span studies of specific, individual behaviour (e.g. Theory of Planned Behaviour, various cognitive biases), to macro level studies of how behaviour is shaped by structural factors like infrastructure, technology, economy, public discourse, media debate, and gender norms. Some theories and analytical frameworks assume that human behaviour is guided by economic / individualistic logics; some consider rationality to be value-driven and include broader communal and societal interests. Some theories and approaches focus on habits, emotions, embedded practices, the nature of narratively framing problems and solutions, and power dynamics as key entry points for change-making.

Actual interventions will be showcased throughout, such as political and grassroots campaigns, public sector interventions, community initiatives, and more. Based on real-life cases from public, non-profit and private organisations engaged at various levels (municipal, national, global) on environmental issues and management, students will learn to apply these theories in the real world and become better equipped as citizens and future policy makers and policy influencers, to formulate intervention strategies to achieve desired changes. Students are also expected to consider the implications of behavioural theories on policy practice. How do the different ways we look upon human behaviour, enable or limit what becomes possible in relation to environmental behavioural change? We will also explore the effects, both intended and unintended, of various change-making strategies, by considering the socio-ecological justice implications of particular change strategies in practice. Throughout, we will keep in mind where precisely all these change strategies are taking us, and how they relate to our desired futures.