Seinen, Maud (2024) Place, risk perception, and experiences of climate anxiety in rural and urban areas in the Netherlands and France. Master thesis, Cultural Geography - Climate Adaptation Governance (CAG).
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Abstract
This research aimed to ameliorate the understanding of French and Dutch rural and urban residents’ experiences of climate anxiety looking at their place attachment and risk awareness and perception. To achieve this, a qualitative study was performed. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were held with 15 participants, individuals from rural and urban areas in the Pays-de-la-Loire region and Groningen, Friesland, and Flevoland. Participants were of all ages and had different levels of affinity with climate change. The results show that all known elements of climate anxiety are present to some degree. Furthermore, risk awareness did not necessarily lead to feeling at risk and worrying about one’s own home. Place attachment was found here to be a source of that optimistic bias. Especially rural participants experienced this, the rural landscape being experienced as unchanging. Climate change was also found to be experienced at different scales. Rather than the local level, worries and anxiety were also concerned with climate change at the national, European, and global levels. Finally, ways in which participants coped with their anxiety were identified, as were reasons for non-engagement in pro-environmental behaviors. The study concluded that place attachment, risk perception, and climate anxiety influence each other, but is unable to draw concrete and quantifiable links. This could be addressed in further research.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Name supervisor: | Seddighi Khavidak, H. |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Sep 2024 06:51 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Sep 2024 06:51 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/562 |
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