Today, in light of the current landscape, there is a growing sensitivity and increased interest in ecological issues. Proper environmental management has become a priority in scientific and technological research, in government legislative activities, in political party programs, in many business agendas, and among environmental associations (Stolle, Micheletti 2013). Within this framework, we have recently witnessed an evolution of environmentalist movements, which have engaged a large number of activists and supporters (Hayes, O’Neill 2021; Sloam et al. 2022; Pickard et al. 2022). However, despite the increasing awareness, particularly among young people, of the urgency to adopt more eco-friendly practices and promote values of respect and environmental protection through morally grounded and responsibly oriented actions, not everyone seems to share this approach to the issue. Thus, a concerning dissonance between theory and practice emerges, as not everyone demonstrates a real commitment to changing their habits and cooperating for a common goal, accepting present costs and sacrifices to produce benefits along a more extended time frame. Therefore, in this context, where the behavioral and moral gap is located at the individual level but concerns collective behaviors in order to impact and bring about changes related to environmental issues, our actions evoke the concept of the ethics of responsibility in the classical sense offered by Max Weber (1919), yet reinterpreted in a contemporary light. The aim of this work is to analyze and understand the extent to which the formation of an ethics of responsibility impacts the development of environmental consciousness and the adoption of sustainable behaviors by Generation Z, the social category under study. Furthermore, this work seeks to explore the reasons that motivate Generation Z to act cooperatively or not in favor of environmental protection, as well as the gap between the perception of environmental issues and sustainability compared to the individual and collective actions and behaviors carried out. In order to deepen the subject and obtain a more representative background framework, the research design is divided into two sections, which methodologically place this work within the analytical paradigm of mixed-method approaches. Specifically, the research includes a campaign of narrative interviews directed at activists of the Fridays For Future environmental movement across the country (Step Qual-); a campaign of narrative interviews aimed at young people attending university settings (Step Qual-); and a semi-structured questionnaire directed at students in the fourth and fifth years of secondary school in various provinces of Sicily (Step Quant-).
Oggi, di fronte all’attuale panorama, si osserva una crescente sensibilità e un maggiore interesse verso le tematiche ecologiche. La gestione corretta dell’ambiente è diventata una priorità nella ricerca scientifica e tecnologica, nell’attività legislativa dei governi, nei programmi dei partiti politici, in molte programmazioni aziendali e tra le associazioni ambientaliste (Stolle, Micheletti 2013). All’interno di questa cornice, si è recentemente assistito a un’evoluzione dei movimenti ambientalisti, che hanno coinvolto un gran numero di attivisti e simpatizzanti (Hayes, O’Neill 2021; Sloam et al. 2022; Pickard et al. 2022). Tuttavia, seppur vi sia una crescente consapevolezza, soprattutto tra i giovani, dell'urgenza di abbracciare pratiche più ecocompatibili e di promuovere i valori del rispetto e della tutela dell'ambiente attraverso un impegno moralmente fondato e orientato responsabilmente, non tutti sembrano condividere questo approccio a tale questione. Emerge così una preoccupante dissonanza tra la teoria e la pratica, poiché non tutti mostrano un reale impegno a cambiare le proprie abitudini e cooperare per un obiettivo comune, accettando costi e sacrifici nel presente per produrre benefici lungo un continuum temporale più dilazionato. Pertanto, in questo contesto, in cui il divario di tipo comportamentale e morale si situa a livello individuale ma concerne i comportamenti collettivi per incidere e apportare cambiamenti in relazione alla questione ambientale, il nostro modo di agire richiama il concetto di etica della responsabilità nella classica accezione offerta da Max Weber (1919), rielaborato però in chiave contemporanea. L’obiettivo del presente lavoro è di analizzare e comprendere quanto la formazione di un’etica della responsabilità incida sulla formazione di una coscienza ambientale e sull’adozione di comportamenti sostenibili da parte della Gen Z, categoria sociale oggetto di studio. Inoltre, si cercherà di esplorare i motivi che spingono la Gen Z a comportarsi o meno in modo cooperativo per la tutela dell’ambiente, nonché il gap esistente tra la percezione del problema ambientale e la sostenibilità ambientale rispetto alle azioni e ai comportamenti individuali e collettivi messi in atto. Al fine di approfondire la tematica e ottenere un quadro di sfondo più rappresentativo, il disegno della ricerca è articolato in due sezioni che, dal punto di vista metodologico, inscrivono questo lavoro nel paradigma analitico dei mixed-method approach. Nello specifico, la ricerca prevede una campagna di interviste narrative rivolte agli attivisti del movimento ambientalista Fridays For Future sul territorio nazionale (Step Qual-); una campagna di interviste narrative rivolte ai giovani che frequentano i contesti universitari (Step Qual-) e un questionario semi-strutturato indirizzato agli studenti delle classi quarte e quinte di scuola secondaria di II grado in diverse province del territorio siciliano (Step Quant-).
Etica della responsabilità e sostenibilità ambientale: coerenza, incongruenza e contraddizioni delle azioni della Gen Z
SCIERI, ALESSANDRA
2025
Abstract
Today, in light of the current landscape, there is a growing sensitivity and increased interest in ecological issues. Proper environmental management has become a priority in scientific and technological research, in government legislative activities, in political party programs, in many business agendas, and among environmental associations (Stolle, Micheletti 2013). Within this framework, we have recently witnessed an evolution of environmentalist movements, which have engaged a large number of activists and supporters (Hayes, O’Neill 2021; Sloam et al. 2022; Pickard et al. 2022). However, despite the increasing awareness, particularly among young people, of the urgency to adopt more eco-friendly practices and promote values of respect and environmental protection through morally grounded and responsibly oriented actions, not everyone seems to share this approach to the issue. Thus, a concerning dissonance between theory and practice emerges, as not everyone demonstrates a real commitment to changing their habits and cooperating for a common goal, accepting present costs and sacrifices to produce benefits along a more extended time frame. Therefore, in this context, where the behavioral and moral gap is located at the individual level but concerns collective behaviors in order to impact and bring about changes related to environmental issues, our actions evoke the concept of the ethics of responsibility in the classical sense offered by Max Weber (1919), yet reinterpreted in a contemporary light. The aim of this work is to analyze and understand the extent to which the formation of an ethics of responsibility impacts the development of environmental consciousness and the adoption of sustainable behaviors by Generation Z, the social category under study. Furthermore, this work seeks to explore the reasons that motivate Generation Z to act cooperatively or not in favor of environmental protection, as well as the gap between the perception of environmental issues and sustainability compared to the individual and collective actions and behaviors carried out. In order to deepen the subject and obtain a more representative background framework, the research design is divided into two sections, which methodologically place this work within the analytical paradigm of mixed-method approaches. Specifically, the research includes a campaign of narrative interviews directed at activists of the Fridays For Future environmental movement across the country (Step Qual-); a campaign of narrative interviews aimed at young people attending university settings (Step Qual-); and a semi-structured questionnaire directed at students in the fourth and fifth years of secondary school in various provinces of Sicily (Step Quant-).File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14242/295668
URN:NBN:IT:UNICT-295668