Act global, think local? Local perspectives towards environmental sustainability in semi-rural communities of Alberta, Canada

ABSTRACT

Despite the increasing popularity of the notion of sustainability, there have been global challenges in effectively addressing environmental problems. One of the key strengths of the sustainability concept is its ability to coordinate and unite otherwise contending groups. Because of this bridging function, however, the concept remains necessarily ambiguous, which can obscure existing inconsistencies and tensions and thereby block the successful translation into concrete policy action. In this study, we analyse how environmental sustainability is understood within semi-rural communities in the Canadian province Alberta, which exhibits a heavy economic reliance on fossil fuels and a strong conservative voter base. By carrying out a Q-method study in two characteristic towns, we were able to identify three competing sustainability perspectives: ‘Radical transition towards a post-fossil society’, ‘Maintaining the Albertan way of life’, and ‘Technological innovation and growth’. The study findings emphasize the embeddedness of sustainability framings in the cultural and socioeconomic context. Furthermore, the uncovered perspectives not only reveal conflicting viewpoints, but also areas of consensus as well as points which could be considered as neutral. It is argued that policy action should acknowledge both the place-specific nature as well as the nuance and complexity of environmental discourses to be effective.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental policy
• Environmental discourses
• Subjectivity
• Sustainability narratives
• Sustainability transitions

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support by the University of Graz.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 As reported in several newspaper reports. Retrieved April 9, 2022. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-war-room-launch-calgary-1.5392371; www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-warming-at-twice-the-global-rate-leaked-report-finds-1.5079765; https://globalnews.ca/news/5900012/alberta-climate-change-environmental-monitoring-closes/; https://albertastrongandfree.ca/policy/.

2 The whole concourse, the respective sources as well as the final Q set with the associated categories are shown in Supplement A.

3 Participants were encouraged to follow the distribution of the chart; however, they were informed that it was not forced (see Webler et al., 2009; Watts & Stenner, 2005). Semi-structured post-sort interviews were also conducted following the recording of the Q sorts. These interviews were voice recorded and later transcribed to be used for reference when analyzing the sorts.

4 See Supplement B for details.

5 While the conservative voter base is by far the strongest in these towns, the political ideology within our sample was spread evenly between liberal and conservative viewpoints, see Supplement B.

6 According to Watts and Stenner (2005), a standard requirement is that an ‘interpretable Q methodological factor must ordinarily have at least two Q sorts that load significantly upon it alone’.