Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5050052 | Ecological Economics | 2012 | 10 Pages |
In the global debate on sustainable development, there appears to be a growing recognition of the crucial importance of worldviews vis-Ã -vis the urgently needed transition to an ecological economy and society. This study therefore aims to support (survey) research exploring worldviews and their complex relationships to sustainable lifestyles. I do this by analyzing and critically challenging existing measures such as the New Environmental Paradigm, and by developing a new conceptual and methodological approach. First, a review of multiple survey-approaches, stemming from different disciplinary and theoretical traditions, is conducted. This results in a meta-analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. On this basis it is concluded that a more optimal approach should be comprehensive and systematic, measure structural worldview-beliefs, and be able to account for human and cultural development. Then, the Integrative Worldview Framework (IWF) is proposed in order to support such a systematic, comprehensive, structural, and dynamic operationalization of the worldview-construct. In this way, a conceptually and methodologically innovative approach to exploring worldviews and their relationship to sustainable behaviors is developed.
⺠Survey-approaches exploring worldviews and sustainable lifestyles are reviewed. ⺠This results in a meta-analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. ⺠An optimal approach should be systematic, structural, comprehensive, and dynamic. ⺠Therefore the Integrative Worldview Framework (IWF) is proposed. ⺠The IWF operationalizes worldviews in 5 aspects, such as ontology and epistemology.