 |
 |
Dear Colleagues,
The sixth conference of the European
Survey Research Association will take place July 13-15 in Reykjavik, Iceland, in
2015.
We are organizing a session on "Using Surveys to Study the Environment:
Attitudes, Behaviours, Health", and invite relevant paper proposals (the
deadline is January 15, 2015). Please see the conference website (www.europeansurveyresearch.org/conference) for
more details, and feel free to forward this e-mail to any potentially
interested parties.
The session abstract is below.
Best wishes,
Kerry Ard
Ohio State University
Malcolm Fairbrother
University of Bristol
Effective public policies and regulations have worked to mitigate many environmental problems globally. But other such problems remain severe (e.g., urban air pollution) or are getting worse (greenhouse gas emissions, species extinctions). There is an urgent need for research on solutions to such problems, and in this regard survey research has much to offer. Existing research has used health surveys to show that exposure to environmental toxins is an important determinant of human health outcomes. Political researchers have shown how public opinion has often shaped key environmental policy outcomes. Building on previous studies of these kinds, this session welcomes papers related to survey research on environmental topics broadly defined. Papers may be either substantive or methodological. Substantively, papers should address topics including but not limited to: the measurement of environmentally consequential behaviours and lifestyles; public concern about environmental problems; political attitudes relevant to environmental protection; or the impacts of pollution on human health and well-being (including stress and mental health). What are the correlates of less environmentally damaging behaviours, greater environmental concern, more pro-environmental attitudes, or greater exposure to environmental toxins? Papers may use datasets that are comparative or single-nation, cross-sectional or longitudinal, but should all make an important contribution to some substantive field of research relevant to the natural environment. For example, how does exposure to environmental toxins vary across different demographic groups, and how is such exposure changing over time? Under what conditions do people support (or oppose) measures for environmental protection? (What kinds of people, and what kinds of protections?) Methodologically, we are interested in innovations such as survey experiments, new or improved measures, new analytical techniques appropriate for data types of particular relevance to the environment, and innovative survey modes and forms of data linkage.
