Diverse perspectives on action for positive social and environmental change

Abstract

This article presents an exploration of diverse adults’ motivations for action to promote social and environmental change at a California public university. Semi-structured interviews with current or graduated university students reveal how they navigate their own identities and intersectionalities in developing an activist orientation and their views on collective action. Significant contributing factors in sustaining action include experiences that allowed participants to experiment with and learn from action, and settings in which participants see themselves as part of a community. This research contributes to an understanding of how diverse individuals develop commitment to social and environmental action with implications for environmental education practice.

Keywords:

• Environmental action
• social justice
• intersectionality
• significant life experience
• activist orientation
• embodied experience

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the faculty and staff who provided recommendations of potential research participants; Pamela Motoike and Louise Chawla for helpful suggestions during the initial development of this research; and Georgia Lindsay and the anonymous referees who all greatly improved the article’s framing and presentation of results. I especially thank all the inspiring research participants for openly sharing their stories, frustrations, passions, and aspirations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Victoria Derr

Victoria Derr is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at California State University Monterey Bay, where her teaching and research focus on the intersections between sustainable communities, place-based environmental education, and social justice, particularly in under-represented communities.