Race/Ethnicity in Visual Imagery of Dutch Nature Conservation Organizations

ABSTRACT

Nature conservation organizations in various Western countries, including the Netherlands, have noted that racial/ethnic minorities compared to Whites are “underparticipating” in recreation in natural areas and in nature conservation practices. Previous research trying to explain (under-)participation by racial/ethnic minorities in outdoor recreation and nature conservation mainly focused on characteristics of racial/ethnic groups. This study argues that nature conservation organizations themselves—although in all likelihood unintentionally—may play a role in participation of racial/ethnic minorities as well, through their promotional material. A content analysis of 22,974 pictures in magazines and on websites of four large Dutch nature conservation organizations shows that only 3.8% of the depicted people were non-White. Our results indicate that visual imagery of nature conservation organizations, at least in the Netherlands, (re)produces an image of outdoor recreation and nature conservation as being activities almost exclusively performed by Whites.

KEYWORDS:

• Content analysis
• immigrants
• people of color
• promotional material
• representations
• the Netherlands

Notes

A person is considered an immigrant in the official counting of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) when at least one of the person’s parents is born abroad. A non-Western immigrant in the definition of CBS is someone whose country of origin lies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia including Turkey, with the exception of Indonesia (or the former Dutch East Indies) and Japan; a Western immigrant is someone whose country of origin lies in Europe (except Turkey), North America, and Oceania, or whose country of origin is Indonesia or Japan.