‘I reckon my life will be easy, but my kids will be buggered’: ambivalence in young people's positive perceptions of individual futures and their visions of environmental collapse

Threadgold, Steven

doi:10.1080/13676261.2011.618490

Cited by 84 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…There is a disconnection between perceptions of individual actions and global issues (Threadgold, 2012). Altering attitudes and beliefs has been shown to have little impact on willingness to act (Boyes & Stanisstreet, 2012); the gap between reported attitudes towards environmental issues and actual behaviours is well documented in the literature (Ockwell et al, 2009;Lorenzoni et al, 2007, Sheppard, 2005.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 88%

Attitudes of undergraduate business students toward sustainability issues

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Case

et al. 2015

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education

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Abstract:Purpose -This paper reports on findings from the first phase of a longitudinal study of undergraduate business students' attitudes, beliefs and perceptions concerning sustainability issues.Design/methodology/approach -In order to improve understanding of the potential effects of changes in the curriculum, business students enrolled during the academic year prior to a redesigned, sustainability-informed, curriculum were surveyed. Familiarity with key sustainability terms was tested using a semi-structured questionnaire applied across two campuses of James Cook University, Australia. Quantitative data were complemented by use of open-ended questions that yielded qualitative insight into a range of student knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and normative influences relating to sustainability and climate change.Findings -Findings reflect naïve awareness of the potential impact of individual contributions to sustainability and environmental challenges. They reveal a tendency to regard major issues as beyond personal control and to view solutions as being the responsibility of others. This is coupled with reluctance to consider major lifestyle changes.Social implications -Universities are increasing their focus on sustainability related issues and the ways in which these can be effectively communicated via curricula. This article carries implications for this societal agenda, particularly in relation to the need to address disconnections between awareness of issues, personal relevance and effective strategies for addressing sustainability issues.Originality/value -The findings shed fresh light on the attitudes and behavioural dispositions of undergraduate business students and could help guide the development and delivery of curriculum content.2

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 88%

Attitudes of undergraduate business students toward sustainability issues

Eagle

Low

Case

et al. 2015

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education

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“…Sayer (2005) suggested that 'in the face of deeply embedded undeserved inequalities, resistance may be more painful and less rewarding than compliance and deference' (p. 4). As Threadgold (2012) recently noted, 'this sense of political powerlessness seems likely to continue whilst young people's rights are continually abused, they are treated as scapegoats and blamed for all manner of things in the omnipresent media moral panics about them, and they are constantly talked about rather than to or with' (p. 31). Indeed, until the student protests in 2010 and 2011 and the outbreak of urban unrest in 2011, the press and politicians tended to condemn young people for apathy and irresponsibility.…”

Section: Journal Of Youth Studies 583mentioning

confidence: 95%

Post-crisis, post-Ford and post-gender? Youth identities in an era of austerity

McDowell

2012

Journal of Youth Studies

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In this review I explore the connections between debates about the transformation of work in a service-dominated economy and those about classed and gendered identities. I suggest they might usefully be connected in analyses of disadvantage and exclusion among working-class young people. Youth involvement in protest and unrest in English cities, as well as rising rates of unemployment, raise questions about the connections between labour market exclusion and young men's and women's construction and performance of acceptable versions of gendered identities. Performative identities are crucial in gaining employment, especially in the forms of low-waged interactive employment open to young people with few skills or little educational capital.

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“…But the ambivalence of unequal structured social relations and of institutional arrangements also demands social action—praxis—to make conditions better for those with less power and fewer resources and to relieve macro‐ and meso‐level sources of ambivalence (Connidis, ). As Threadgold (, p. 26) argued, “ Ideally ambivalence can foster a scepticism that can be harnessed as a resource for change.”…”

Section: The Multilevel Potential Of Ambivalencementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Ambivalence in Family Ties: Progress and Prospects

Connidis

2015

J of Marriage and Family

135

158

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The 2002 exchange on ambivalence in the Journal of Marriage and Family (Vol. 64, No. 3), published under the editorship of Alexis Walker, prompted an impressive array of research on family ties, in particular intergenerational relationships. Following a discussion of the concept's theoretical underpinnings, the author argues that advancing the concept of ambivalence rests on realizing its multilevel potential by addressing the interplay of shifting contradictions experienced by individuals and in relationships and embedded in social institutions and in macro‐level arrangements and processes. She considers progress and limitations in a critical review of predominant applications of ambivalence and then investigates research that advances ambivalence as a bridging concept across multiple levels of analysis. Work on atypical family ties, dependency, contradictory cultural expectations due to migration and social change, families and the welfare state, and on climate change and disability promotes the multilevel potential of ambivalence and points to ways to advance its promise in theory and practice.

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‘I reckon my life will be easy, but my kids will be buggered’: ambivalence in young people's positive perceptions of individual futures and their visions of environmental collapse

Cited by 84 publications

References 45 publications

Attitudes of undergraduate business students toward sustainability issues

Attitudes of undergraduate business students toward sustainability issues

Post-crisis, post-Ford and post-gender? Youth identities in an era of austerity

Exploring Ambivalence in Family Ties: Progress and Prospects

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