Response to the Environment: Social Capital and Sustainability

This article examines the empirical connection between social capital and attitudes to issues of ecological sustainability within the community of Brokell Hill. More specifically, it focuses all the empirical link between the way people think and act towards other people within the community and the way they think and act towards the environment. This relationship is tested using the results from a questionnaire survey. The results indicate that attitudes to the environment form a coherent factor that is distinct from the social capital factors, but is nonetheless related to the higher order factor. Those with stronger social capital scores have more positive attitudes to the environment. The implications for environmental policy and the potential for grassroots action are examined in the concluding discussion.