Social and Moral Responsibility and the Environment: An examination of student perspectives

The aim of this project is to examine student perspectives on the environment and to consider in particular the way that students view their social and moral responsibilities towards the environment. It aims to examine views on social and moral responsibilities towards the environment on a number of levels.

The theoretical context provides a broad foundation for our project. It looks at the development of a number of key ways to view our responsibilities towards the environment by taking into account:

The historical development of environmental thought
The concepts of social and moral responsibility and how they inform current campaigns on fair trade and corporate responsibility
A variety of factions within the Green movement
The implications for citizenship

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This theoretical context is an anchor for the project. It shows, amongst other things, some of the diverse ways to address environmental concerns and to view the origins and nature of our responsibilities. It illustrates, moreover, that environmental awareness builds upon a considerable theoretical heritage and that it should not be regarded as a recent 'single issue' promoted by disaffected sections of the middle classes. Environmentalism and ecologism make sense in a number of ways and have spurred students to engage in environmental activity.

The second part of the project consists in an evaluation of some work conducted by the Student Citizenship Forum, a group of undergraduate students studying social sciences at Sheffield Hallam University. The Student Citizenship Forum worked on the project during the academic year 2005-2006 and consisted of seven students, four from year 2 of their studies and three from year 3. The students, who were paid a small fee, were asked to prepare a range of seminar materials for other students to use. They were given definite topics to research and asked to reflect upon what they learned from the exercise. These materials were in turn used and evaluated by students at the University of Lincoln. The report contained herein attempts to capture the views and opinions of those who produced the resource and those who used it.

The final part of our study looks at a range of student perspectives on the environment. This consists in a review of student projects and campaigns and is derived in the main from media and electronic sources. This is included to provide an international dimension to our project and it is hoped that it illustrates what can be done on an individual and group level to address certain environmental problems.

The authors of this project would like to thank the students at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Lincoln for their hard work and constructive criticisms. We would also like to thank Malcolm Todd at CSAP, Mike Green at Sheffield Hallam University and the FDTL5 project Active Learning Active Citizenship for providing us with funds to help us complete this work.

Project team members

The project has involved lecturers, postgraduates and undergraduates from a variety of Universities in Britain. The principal contributors are:

Jonathan Cook- Postgraduate student at Leeds University
Dr. Yee-Wah Foo- Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Lincoln
Liam Mellor- Postgraduate student at University of Sheffield
Dr Gary Taylor- Principal lecturer in Applied Social Science at Sheffield Hallam University
Lizzie Walton- Postgraduate Student at Sheffield Hallam University

The Student Citizenship Forum (2005-2006) - Comprised seven undergraduate students at Sheffield Hallam University:

Jonathan Cook
Judith Goodlad
Christopher Jacklin
Katherine Shepherd
Gemma Smith
Gail Turvey