Communicative Bases of Reproduction of Environmental Consciousness of Modern Youth (Case-Study of the Republic of Tatarstan)

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 870-873

J. Environ. Treat. Tech.

ISSN: 2309-1185

Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com

Communicative Bases of Reproduction of

Environmental Consciousness of Modern Youth

(

Case-Study of the Republic of Tatarstan)

Liliya G. Egorova*, Valeriya O. Korunova

Institute of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Mass Communication, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia

Received: 18/08/2019

Accepted: 17/11/2019

Published: 20/02/2020

Abstract

Environmental problems are more on the current agenda of the world community and individual countries, which indicates

the intensification of management measures to resolve them. Measures directly taken by the authorities to improve the

environmental friendliness are aimed mainly at greening the everyday practices of the population, and above all, young people,

who are the central engine of all social changes. Under these conditions, a deep study of the environmental consciousness of

young people is necessary - the value attitude of young people to the environment, structuring their activities and reproducing

communicatively in the course of consumption of information about environmental problems. The article presents an overview of

the research of Russian and foreign authors on the topic of reproduction of the environmental awareness of youth, as well as the

results of a 2017 study among students of the Republic of Tatarstan. Based on a comparative analysis of the data of the author’s

research and earlier studies in the Russian regions, the dynamics of the environmental consciousness of Russian students is

traced. It is concluded that the factors of mass informing and awareness of young people about the state of the environment in the

process of forming environmental concerns of young people and the environmental behaviour practices they implement are

highly significant.

Keywords: Environmental consciousness, Environmental awareness, Environmental information, Communication,

environmental practices, Youth

positive social changes.

Introduction

The environmental consciousness of young people, as a

value attitude to the environment, designing their activities,

is a complex phenomenon, the structure of which includes

awareness of environmental problems, concern about them

and attitudes to action in their context. Under these

conditions, the key to understanding the reproduction of the

ecological consciousness of young people and the

environmental practices they implement should be the

process of communication on environmental issues.

The unsolved nature of most environmental problems

in the modern world determines the observed

intensification of environmental policy measures in terms

of minimizing the ecological footprint and improving the

quality of the environment. However, as practice shows,

successes in this field are not so great, thus, there is a need

for a deeply scientific understanding of the issue.

The emergence of environmental problems is a direct

consequence of human activity, motivated by a certain

value series, woven into the outline of the corresponding

worldview. Thus, it is fair to believe that urgent

environmental problems are brought to life by a low level

of environmental culture, formed on the basis of low

environmental awareness. In this connection, the focus of

specialists' attention is shifting today to measures to prevent

environmental problems by increasing the level of

environmental awareness of the population, and above all,

young people, who are the key bearers of potentially

2 Methods

The article provides an overview of foreign and

Russian studies of the environmental awareness of youth,

as well as the results of a sociological study among students

of the Republic of Tatarstan. The methodology of the

author’s research was built on the idea of the procedurality

and communicative nature of the social information

exchange, reproduced in the form of a spiral. The

environmental consciousness of young people is a social

process of reproducing the value attitude of young people

to the environment in everyday behavior, consisting in the

exchange of information about it. Central analytical units of

Corresponding author: Liliya G. Egorova, Kazan

Federal University, e-mail: lge64@mail.ru, Tel.:

79053190933.

870

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 870-873

the study: environmental awareness, environmental

concern, participation in environmental practices. Methods:

questionnaire survey (quota sample, n = 400), informal

interview (16 conversations).

do not always act in accordance with their views and values

related to the environment, and therefore public opinion is

not always an accurate indicator of environmental actions

(6). Thus, Western scholars suggest

a gap in the

environmental consciousness and behavior of young

people, the latter demonstrates a more “dramatic model” in

which environmental behavior does not always correspond

to trends in attitudes and beliefs.

Results and Discussion

The environmental crisis of the early 1970s, related to

the awareness among the world community of the limited

nature of natural resources, caused an increase in

environmental concern and an increase in interest in

environmental issues. The Western public consciousness of

that period affirmed the idea of a responsible attitude of

people to nature, which is strongly associated with the

protection of the environment and the implementation of

environmental behavior. The results of sociological studies

show that even today “beliefs about a lack of resources can

have the greatest impact on people's behavior and

responsibility” (1). The 1970s saw the rapid growth in the

number of environmental movements and organizations in

many countries of the world. The next wave of public

interest in environmental issues and, as a result, the growth

of environmental concerns, the formation of environmental

awareness, was observed in the early 1990s and was

associated with two events: firstly, with a wide celebration

around the world of the 20th anniversary of Earth Day and,

secondly, with the United Nations International Conference

on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in

Domestic researchers, this gap is also recorded

empirically. For example, according to a survey of Kazan

student youth conducted in 2010 by P.O. Ermolaeva, young

Kazan citizens are highly concerned about environmental

problems in their place of residence (84.9%); the most

acute problems are air pollution, substandard drinking

water, pollution of water bodies, unsanitary conditions and

aesthetic unattractiveness of territories (7). We shall note

that the respondents reported their closest problems but the

least dangerous in the long run. Such a situation, in our

opinion, is directly related to the degree of awareness about

the nature and consequences of various environmental

deviations, in particular, lack of awareness prompts the

formation of an inadequate assessment of the severity of the

environmental situation and its reproduction only in passive

practices of environmental behavior. More than half of the

respondents said that they drink purified water (61%) and

save electricity (53.2%), another 47% save water, and

30.8% consume environmentally friendly food (7).

Similar results were obtained by a survey of students of

1992 and the world community discussing the ideas of

the Astrakhan region conducted by E.E. Pashkova in 2011.

The majority of respondents (60.3%) responded positively

to the possibility of personal participation in events of

environmental movements (8), which is due to the high

level of environmental concern (83.9%) (8). However, the

nature of the preferred actions is rather passive - most

students agree to participate in environmental rallies

“

sustainable development”. Western researchers note that

the media played an important role in both the first and

second cases, which covered in detail the course of events

(

1).

According to Western scientists, the greening of

consciousness is primarily associated with the formation of

certain environmental orientations in people, as well as

with the development of a sense of personal responsibility

for the state of the environment (2-4). Only in this case we

can talk about launching the process of transforming

activity settings into environmental practices and behavior,

as the main goal of the formation of environmental culture.

Hence the interest of researchers in the study of

environmental values and attitudes, their formation,

especially among young people.

Researchers have noted a decrease in environmental

concerns among young people, their limited knowledge of

climate change, green technologies, and eco-management.

As for the sense of responsibility, the general point of view,

based on data from numerous studies in Western Europe

and the USA, is as follows: “youth over the past 30 years

believed that the government has a greater responsibility

for the environment than they personally” (1). However, a

sense of personal responsibility in nature conservation can

be developed (5).

(

39.7%) and conduct propaganda activities (28.6%), while

work to improve the environmental situation in the region

is attractive to less than a third of respondents (28.1%) [8,

p. 78]. The situation in the Astrakhan region in 2011 is

also, in our opinion, caused by insufficient environmental

awareness of young people, as the author of the study

points to. Less than 40% of respondents demonstrated their

awareness of the nature of the activities of environmental

organizations (8).

The results of a student survey in Naberezhnye Chelny

and Nizhnekamsk conducted in 2012 by M.Kh. Akhmetova

also show a high youth concern about the environmental

condition (91%). Respondents have an adequate

understanding of the causes of environmental problems, but

their participation in environmental practices is minimal.

Moreover, it was caused not by the awareness of the need

for personal contribution but by civic duty, administrative

involvement, professional duties and unwillingness to lag

behind others. The reasons for non-participation by

students themselves are reduced to a lack of environmental

knowledge and low environmental awareness (9). L.Iu.

Chuikova came to an identical conclusion on conducting a

study in 2012 among students of geologists and ecologists

at Astrakhan State University. According to the author, the

latter demonstrate a higher environmental awareness due to

an objectively greater professional awareness (10, 14, 15).

In general, researchers consider that young people

cannot be more environmentally conscious than adults. If

only because they do not yet have sufficient knowledge and

social experience, since they are still students. In addition,

due to their non-self-reliant social status, young people can

only implement certain elements of self-preservation and

environmental behavior. In our opinion, it is the youth who

first of all applies the conclusion of R. Dunlap that people

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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 870-873

More relevant studies, in particular, a survey of student

youth in Simferopol conducted by A.V. Boiko in 2016,

only strengthen our assumptions. With 98% of respondents

who note their positive attitude to nature, more than half of

the respondents, experiencing a serious lack of information

motivation, do not take part in environmental practices (11-

respondents are sure that they personally can influence the

solution of environmental problems, while 39.7% believe

that not ordinary people are primarily responsible for the

quality of the environment, and city authorities.

This “shifting of responsibility” is reflected in

behavioral practices. The most common of them among

Tatarstan students are saving water and electricity (45.2%

and 38.7%). In general, Tatarstan students have more desire

to do something for the environment than real behavioral

attitudes. This is, in our opinion, due to the consumer

attitude to life and focus on individual economic goals.

Thus, the vast majority of informants motivate their

reluctance to participate in active practices by the lack of

time for them (“I don’t know whether I would like to enter

somewhere or not. I like the idea but I don’t know whether I

would find time for this or not”).

13, 17-20).

Turning to the results of the author’s study, first of all,

we note that the environmental awareness of the

respondents is characterized by average indicators. Despite

the fact that, according to respondents, 56.2% of them at

least once in their life searched for any kind of

environmental information on their own, they rate their

environmental awareness by 3 points out of 5 and get more

environmental information, they do not seek to increase it

(

42.7%). Informants of an informal interview characterize

their level of environmental awareness in the same way,

clarifying that they know little because they are only

interested in the environment in the framework of their

general development or in relation to their place of

residence (“Informing in our city is mediocre... and I know

the same. Although it is possible that people themselves do

not want to know. As for me, I would like to know more but

about Kazan and the Republic of Tatarstan particularly

rather that about the world or the country”).

Summary

The resource representation of nature was largely

reflected in the environmental consciousness of the student

youth of the Republic of Tatarstan, which became the

object of the author’s study. Environmental problems of the

republic are considered by students not so much dangerous

as annoying, although, in their opinion, they do not

interfere with

prosperous life. In this regard,

The subjective assessment of environmental awareness

of the interviewed Tatarstan students proportionally fully

coincides with the objective that we received from the test

results. The average assessment of their environmental

knowledge is 2 points out of 3 possible, which forms the

following hierarchy of values in which ecological well-

being takes 7th place (20.5%). First of all, respondents

worry about economic problems: low salaries and

scholarships (59.2%), unemployment (39.2%), increasing

prices (28%), economic crisis (23.7%), the crisis of

morality and culture (22.2%), and corruption (22%). This

situation can be explained by the immediate relation of

problems to Tatarstan students. In other words, they care

about what they themselves can and are afraid to face (“The

most important thing for me in life?.. Well-being. If there is

well-being, then you have a job, livelihoods, an opportunity

to develop. I want to be on to a good thing”). Such a

somewhat consumer attitude to life forms a corresponding

attitude towards nature, the level of concern about the state

of which is quite high (90.5%) and is expressed mainly by

concern about local environmental problems that concern

respondents directly. Among them are low quality of

drinking water (61.5%), air (58%) and water bodies

pollution (55.7%), landfills (34%), dirty streets, dilapidated

buildings (22.5%), decrease in area of green spaces

environmental assistance is perceived in most cases by an

altruistic action, which is disadvantageous in terms of time

costs. The results obtained in this part correlate with the

conclusions made earlier by Russian and foreign authors.

Following them, in the current situation, we assume a

significant role of the awareness on the nature of

environmental problems, on the nature and purpose of

everyday activities to help the environment, and,

accordingly, the factor of mass information on these issues.

The lack of environmental information entails the “failure”

of environmental communication - the reproduction of a

low level of involvement in environmental practices.

Conclusions

The environmental consciousness of modern youth is

highly controversial, which is a consequence of the

failure” of environmental communication. Young people

“

are informed about the nature of relationship of human and

nature, about its high value and the need for directed

environmental activity of every citizen to maintain the state

of the environment. Along with this, in relation to the

current state of ecology, the severity, diversity and

consequences of environmental problems, there is a

significant information gap. As a result, the value attitude

to the nature of youth includes a deep respect for it and the

(

22.2%), non-natural food products (21%).

illusion of

a harmonious, almost harmless mutual

The study participants noted a real environmental

neighborhood, the nature of which can change, however, in

the long term only. The model of environmental behavior

laid down by this form of consciousness is based on passive

actions of both ends of the spectrum, excluding any active

activity. Thus, the use of nature that is active and carries a

clear threat is condemned, but its passive forms do not

cause such a strong negative reaction. At the same time,

passive forms of environmental activity are common that

make up the practice of self-preserving behavior, while

degradation and expressed their concern about this (76.7%).

Despite this, in general, the students surveyed highly rate

the degree of favorable environmental conditions in their

place of residence (73.5%) and feel protected from

environmental risks (46%). Along with this, it is necessary

to solve environmental problems, and 66.2% of respondents

and about half of interviewers express their desire to

contribute to their solution. At the same time, a slightly

smaller share positively assesses their strengths - 53.2% of

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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 870-873

active protection of the environment almost does not find

support.

20.

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The work is performed according to the Russian

Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan

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