Environment and Social Psychology

“The past defines the present because mankind has not yet mastered its destiny.”
Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization (1955: 58)

Using content analysis method and the theory of framing, this study compares news coverage of climate issues around the Paris Climate Conference 2015, also known as “COP21”, between U.S. and Indian newspapers. The findings, based on an analysis of 278 stories published by four leading newspapers in these countries, suggest that international politics-oriented conflict and strategy frame and environmental consequences frame dominated both U.S. and Indian newspaper coverage. Another important finding of this study is the Indian newspaper coverage, compared to the U.S. newspaper coverage, included more information on social progress and innovations toward environment-friendly initiatives.

This article expounds a new theory of humanity that problematizes the discrete, biomaterialist and materially rational individual of Modernity through sensitivity to the human potential for Conscious Evolution [evolution of the ‘invisible self’, which is to say the cultivation of reason, free will, intuition and the other ‘high epistemological faculties’ that allow humans to actualize the potential for self-mediation of the biological desires and animal (irrational) passions]. After defining Conscious Evolution, comparing it with Mechanical Evolution and providing a brief overview of the epistemological processes involved in Conscious Evolution, we examine the ways in which Modernism axiomatically, logically and practically negates the potential for Conscious Evolution and self-mediation as well as the manifestations of this negation in Modernist epistemology and Modernist social systems like Economic Theology or ‘the police’ that, due to their biomaterialist understanding of humans as discrete, biological, materially rational individuals, aim to mediate biological desires and animal passions through external, forceful, hierarchical domination rather than the cultivation of Conscious Evolution and subsequent actualization of the potential for self-mediation. This critique of epistemological and social systems that seek to create order through external, forceful, hierarchical domination sets the stage for a follow up paper titled “Conscious Evolution, Social Development and Environmental Justice” that critiques contemporary Planning Theory and Practice and calls for planning of social systems from a theoretical perspective where seeking to cultivate Conscious Evolution and the actualization of the social order implicit in the self-mediation made potential by Conscious Evolution is possible (which is to say that (r)evolution of theory must precede (r)evolution of practice).

Green grabbing is the privatization or appropriation of land for purposes of advancing a “green” economy while excluding local, indigenous people from natural resources. This is a problem of global scale that has arisen mainly during a historical period when free market, neo-liberal policies have dominated the world economy. The academic li-terature on the subject rarely mentions resistance to green grabbing, nor are there many efforts to critically and syste-matically examine the social dynamics of this process. We consider both what works and what fails during the process of opposition, as well as the social psychology of risk taking among both green grabbers and opponents. The paper con-cludes with a way forward proffering the resistance.

The welfare culture consists of doctrines and ideologies, beliefs, ideas, values and ideal norms that various groups and actors in the society have concerning the welfare state. The new ways of thinking, which are derived from the cultural turn and paradigm shift in social sciences, is in actual environments influenced and strengthened by economic and social changes, and also by the increasing number of old people. The Nordic welfare model (Denmark, Fin-land, Norway and Sweden), which is distinct from the other welfare models, is because of its basic ideological foundation, which also pertains to Finland, the general frame for the welfare culture. The characteristics of the environments in which people live, such as risks and uncertainties, impact thoughts and ideas they have about actual and preferred conditions, and influence the interest in renewal of welfare arrangements, schemes and services. Following this lead, we examine the changes in the legislation concerning social eldercare services and changes in provision and use of elder-care services in Finland. We also examine the division of responsibility for social eldercare between the public and private sector. Because the welfare arrangements are embedded in a complex cultural context, the research helps us to understand the shaping of the social eldercare. Great changes in the Finnish eldercare in favour of care at home or in a home-like environment have taken place. The goal “more home care, less institutional care” will serve even in the future as guidance in social eldercare.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is argued to be a flawed concept in the same way as sustainable development in that it seeks to combine two aspects which are incommensurable. Nevertheless CSR contains an expanding space for social and environmental concerns under the guise of stakeholder management which undoubtedly influences the commercial bottom line. It is proposed that the concept of corporate citizenship is separated from what is now termed corporate social responsiveness to encompass truly ethical and normative considerations which in business should be manifested by a wholehearted acceptance of the need for regulation, lobbying for the universality of that regulation and an avoidance of undue influence on government. Proper roles for the three partners in society, namely government, commerce and civil society are explored together with the nature of citizenship.

This paper discusses an evidence-informed bottom-up transformative social work practice model that holistically encapsulates multi-system levels of practice. Based on 12 years of empirical evidence on psychological self-sufficiency (PSS), the Transforming Impossible into Possible (TIP) program was developed to focuses on the ‘process’ of human agency development that leads to economic self-sufficiency (ESS) ‘outcomes’. It attempts to bring together various modalities of social work practice into a transformational leadership development framework that reflects a bottom-up, participant-centered approach to empowering individuals to impact larger systems. In workforce development practice, it is being regarded that constructs reflected in TIP improve both employment and retention outcomes.