Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-2001

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Sociology

Major Professor

Robert Emmet Jones

Committee Members

Sherry Cable, J. Mark Fly, Thomas C. Hood

Abstract

This dissertation examines changing environmental values in rural America, specifically as it applies to differences in support for environmentalism between inmigrants and non-migrants who live in rural places. As a means to this end, we closely examine hypothesized differences across several measures of environmentalism between rural in-migrant and non-migrant residents of the Norris Lake watershed area, in East Tennessee. We also explore the suggestion that the social bases of environmental concern may have changed over time due to a general greening trend that seems to be cutting across all social groups. Stem et al's (1995) working model of environmentalism is used as a guide to map several conceptual levels of environmentalism and link them to public support for the environment and to examine differences in environmentalism between rural in-migrants and non-migrants. These conceptual levels, or facets, of environmentalism include modified forms of Dunlap et al's (2000) New Ecological Paradigm Scale and Schwartz's (1992) theory of integrated value systems. We noted support for the proposition of a broadening of the social bases of environmental concern.

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