Choosing to live environmentally childfree: private-sphere environmentalism, environmental activism, or both?

Abstract

Choosing not to have children can be considered a pro-environmental behaviour with a very high environmental impact. However, such impact calculations have been criticised for focusing only on private, individual actions. In the current article, the aim was to build on studies that have identified activist aspects of living environmentally childfree, and analyse whether this choice, in a Norwegian context, should be categorised as private-sphere environmentalism or environmental activism. This is explored through an analysis of interviews with 16 participants who have restricted reproduction due to environmental concerns, identifying three subthemes related to private-sphere environmentalism and three subthemes related to environmental activism. The results indicate that living environmentally childfree has central aspects of both private-sphere environmentalism and environmental activism, suggesting an interaction of different types of environmentally significant impacts. The implications of these results are that research on pro-environmental behaviour should look for an interaction of impacts and assess their significance beyond the immediate, individual level.

“I don't want a child”: an apolitical argument in climate change trials in Switzerland

“…Schneider-Mayerson (2021) suggested that reproductive behaviors have entered the ways in which people think of themselves and act as environmental actors, highlighting the intimate intersection between private action and movement participation. Similarly, asking whether living environmentally childfree is related to private-sphere environmentalism or activism, Nakkerud (2023) suggested that “eco-reproductive” concerns are both individual and collective forms of environmentalism, as they are also mobilized “to influence structures beyond one's own immediate impact” (Nakkerud 2023, p. 7). We ground our research in a similar attempt to analyze how “eco-reproductive” concerns are used as socio-political tools to appeal to decision-makers.…”