Ideological Dilemmas Actualised by the Idea of Living Environmentally Childfree

Abstract

Over the past decade, the choice of living childfree has increasingly been viewed as a pro-environmental behaviour. Recent research has investigated statistical relations between environmental concern and reproductive attitudes, as well as exploring the processes around actually deciding to live environmentally childfree. Based on increased public attention about the phenomenon, this article employs Michael Billig’s notion of ideological dilemmas to analyse the media coverage of choosing to live environmentally childfree, attempting to answer how these dilemmas influence whether living childfree is perceived as a relevant pro-environmental behaviour. Thirty-one news items were analysed using a synthesis of critical discursive psychology and thematic analysis. The analysis identified five ideological concepts: liberalism, sustainable development, globalism, biologism and humanism. Each of these concepts contains positions supporting and opposing the idea of living environmentally childfree in Norway. These ideological dilemmas seem to weaken the perceived relevance of living environmentally childfree, as the topic is easily dismissed or framed as irrelevant. I therefore conclude that the discourse of living environmentally childfree is analogous to how society generally relates to solutions to the environmental crises.

Pushing too far? Negotiations of non‐compliance and resistance to the COVID‐19 cabin ban in Norway

“…Simultaneously, participants argued that individual needs should be secondary in a collective crisis, and spoke of non‐compliance as being an expression of people being too used to privilege to accept forgoing their personal wishes (overarching explanation 2). Thus, our analysis supports previous research showing the dilemmatic nature of thinking (Condor & Gibson, 2007; Nakkerud, 2021; Wilmers, 2022), where people's meaning‐making of a specific situation draws on ideological roots in a society. The results of our study thereby show the importance of understanding compliance and non‐compliance with measures through an ideological lens.…”

“…showing the dilemmatic nature of thinking (Condor & Gibson, 2007;Nakkerud, 2021;Wilmers, 2022), where people's meaning-making of a specific situation draws on ideological roots in a society. The results of our study thereby show the importance of understanding compliance and non-compliance with measures through an ideological lens.…”

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

“…Regarding the specific topic of living environmentally childfree, social network studies could illuminate how reproductive considerations and intentions are spread (or not) in different social groups. Such studies could also include the Norwegian media coverage on the topic (see Nakkerud, 2021b;Kristensen, 2020), as this coverage potentially influences the very same considerations and intentions that it covers.…”

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“…Кроме того, в современном мире, в условиях глобализации, появляются новые обоснования добровольной бездетности. Так, Э. Наккеруд говорит о взаимосвязи такой модели репродуктивного поведения со стремлением респондентов к сохранению чистой экологии (Nakkerud, 2021).…”