Environmental evaporation: the invisibility of environmental concern in food system change

Abstract

Overcoming the barriers to ecological sustainability requires extensive civic engagement. In many respects, citizens have met this challenge yet, despite widespread environmental concern and activism, the structures that threaten the biosphere persist. Using data from a qualitative, comparative case study of local food movements in three Canadian cities, I introduce the concept ‘environmental evaporation’ to explain how activism may inadvertently reproduce dominant – particularly individualistic and market-oriented – social structures. Environmental evaporation refers to the process by which individual concern for the environment disappears in public life. Private environmental concerns ‘evaporate’ because themes relating to the environment are viewed as too polarizing to catalyze broad support and necessary allegiances with elite actors. Understanding the process of environmental evaporation has the potential to catalyze future research into the complex relationship between collective action and structural change.

Keywords:

• environmental concern
• local food
• environmental politics
• civic engagement

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Kari Norgaard and Dr. Christine Horne for providing valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. This article was also substantially improved through feedback from the faculty and graduate students at the University of Oregon’s Sociology Colloquium and Washington State University’s EARThS Seminar Series.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Capital Regional District around Victoria has a population of 359,591; the Edmonton Capital Region houses 1,159,869 people; and the Greater Toronto Area is Canada’s most populated area with 6,054,091 inhabitants.

2. If needed, contact author for more details about political events in the three study sites.

3. I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this point. The precise wording that he or she used was so eloquent that I cite it here: ‘to continue with the “evaporation” metaphor, I wonder if after evaporating, we might find environmental concern solidifying and “raining” on social structures elsewhere.’

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 430-0559-2013].

Notes on contributors

Emily Huddart Kennedy

Emily Huddart Kennedy is an Assistant Professor of environmental sociology. Her research focuses on civic engagement in environmental issues, which encompasses household sustainable consumption activities and public sphere advocacy and activism.