Self-Worth and Environmental Engagement: The Case for Culturally Sensitive Community Organizing

Background and Purpose

The purpose of this research is to contribute to the environmental justice literature in community social work practice through the examination of the relationship between feelings of self-worth amongst Americans and their concern(s) for their respective communities, surrounding environments and environmental justice issues, while controlling for variables such as race, gender, household income, and educational achievement. It is well explicated in the environmental justice literature that environmental degradation and pollution not only have detrimental impacts upon ecological and environmental systems, but also have enduring, adverse, ancillary epidemiological, social, political, and economic impacts upon communities.

The current literature thoroughly examines environmental justice issues within the context of community action in addressing environmental problems, however, there is a deficit in an examination of what compels individuals to take action on behalf of their communities.  Thus, this research intends to explore a possible relationship between an individual's feeling of self-worth and their concern for environmental justice issues. This research will help in developing an understanding of implications and reasons for community action towards addressing environmental justice issues. The
data in question has been used to explore racial ties to environmental justice issues, however, no exploration of self-worth tied to community action has been explored.

Methods

The data used for this study was acquired from the The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Data were gathered from a 2002 face-to-face survey of 339 adults in the Detroit, Michigan tri-county area by Paul Mohai and Steve Brechin. The variables to be examined are: 1) concern about the environment, 2) environmental justice, and 3) feelings of self-worth. The dependent variable in the analysis consists of
feelings of self worth, and independent variables consist of concern for the environment/environmental justice, race, gender, household income, and educational achievement. A statistical test of significance was conducted at the univariate level of analysis as well as statistical tests of linear regression were conducted at multivariate levels.

Results

Research findings indicate that feelings of self-worth and a person's age are significant predictors for community environmental engagement.  The factors of race, ethnicity, sex, education level, and income were found to be non-significant predictors for community environmental engagement.

Implications

Results from the current study indicate the importance in utilizing community organizing strategies that engage individuals' self-worth such as functional organizing, parallel organizing, the use of transcational settings, and citizen participation.  Further exploration in this area could lead to sharpened organizing and recruitment tools in environmentall-conscious commuinity organizing practice.