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13.5.1 Needed Future Capacities
Applied here, this approach involves identifying the capacities that would be needed
in order for citizens to plan, self-initiate and regulate their behaviour. A complete
list of such capacities and their functional relationships would be long, drawing
from the full range of social science research. For the purpose here, we can bound
the list by considering only those features needed for conducting the mental work of
envisioning, crafting and implementing behaviours in a future context.
Hertwig and Grüne-Yanoff (2017), in their explanation of the advantage of using
boosting rather than nudging to change behaviour, mention creating competencies
that are useful across a range of situations including, presumably, those for which
we cannot in advance know the details. Their discussion of these capacities includes
improving people’s competencies to exercise their own agency. One example is the
authors distinguishing between short- and long-term boosts with the latter focused
on creating generic problem-solving capacities that would be useful in future situa-
tions (Sunstein 2016).
Wamsler et al. (2018) are more specific in their discussion of the relationship
between mindfulness and sustainability. They highlight such individual capacities
as being able to maintain an adaptive and flexible response to events, the minimising
of impulsive and habitual reactions and similar self-regulation skills. Analogous
capabilities were uncovered in the study of green citizenship (Hamilton et
al. 2018)
where participants identified the importance of a capacity for openness in approach-
ing a situation so as to avoid habitual response. Green citizens also seek opportuni-
ties to learn new skills while simultaneously deriving intrinsic satisfaction from
these same opportunities (Guckian et al. 2017; Hamilton et al. 2018).
These ideas suggest a preliminary set of three capacities necessary for effectively
responding to the new biophysical and behavioural context.
Mental Clarity Clear-headedness would be necessary for envisioning desired
future states. Conscious deliberation and reflection are needed to plan the interme-
diate and long-term goals, and relevant behaviours, needed for achieving those
future states.
Building Competencies Given that future behaviours are unknowable in their
details there is the need for a motivation to continuously develop new competencies
rather than merely the training of specific skills. Particularly important is the ability
to understand diverse and complex social and natural systems in order to be able to
identify intended and unintended consequences of future actions.
Emotional Regulation The premise of this chapter cannot help but be unsettling.
Nonetheless, given the likely need for social coordination, it will be necessary to
maintain pro-social inclinations under the stress of difficult biophysical circum-
stances. Maintaining a positive emotional state will help to build and maintain
social
and behavioural resources.
13 Supporting Behavioural Entrepreneurs: Using the Biodiversity-Health Relationship…
Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change
- Titel
- Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change
- Autoren
- Melissa Marselle
- Jutta Stadler
- Horst Korn
- Katherine Irvine
- Aletta Bonn
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-030-02318-8
- Abmessungen
- 15.5 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 508
- Schlagwörter
- Environment, Environmental health, Applied ecology, Climate change, Biodiversity, Public health, Regional planning, Urban planning
- Kategorien
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima