2020/11/27 [學術演講] Why are we failing to achieve sustainability? Introduction to the Cultural Approach

|| 講題：Why are we failing to achieve sustainability? Introduction to the Cultural Approach
|| 時間：2020/12/7 (一) 15:30-17:00  將此活動加到我的Google日曆
|| 地點：Global Change Research Centre 2F room G202
|| 講者：小松光 – 副教授 臺灣大學氣候永續學程

|| 摘要

We know that our behavior is the cause of environmental problems including climate change. We know that no change in our behavior will lead us to environmental catastrophe. Still, we have not been successful in changing our behaviors to avoid the environmental catastrophe. Why? What is the problem of our current approaches? This is the key question to be addressed in today’s talk.

We currently use two mainstream approaches that I call ‘the cognitive approach’ and ‘the behaviorism approach’. The cognitive approach assumes that humans are rational and therefore disseminating correct information in society will change human behaviors. The behaviorism approach assumes that humans, like animals, need to be stimulated by rewards and punishments to change their behaviors. These two approaches, though important, have been virtually unsuccessful in changing human behavior for sustainability.

I propose an alternative approach that I call ‘the cultural approach’. The cultural approach assumes that humans cannot change their behavior because the underlying structure (i.e., culture) holds humans to stay the same. The cultural approach demonstrates how culture affects our behaviors and humans’ environmental impacts on Earth, and then attempt to rewrite the cultural script for behavioral changes. In today’s talk, I will introduce several studies using the cultural approach. In doing so, I will prompt you to rethink about your own approach and even use the cultural approach as well in your own research.