Demographic shifts and green values in rural America: A southern Appalachian case (Tennessee)

This dissertation examines changing environmental values in rural America, specifically as it applies to differences in support for environmentalism between in-migrants and non-migrants who live in rural places. As a means to this end, we closely examine hypothesized differences across several measures of environmentalism between rural in-migrant and non-migrant residents of the Norris Lake watershed area, in East Tennessee. We also explore the suggestion that the social bases of environmental concern may have changed over time due to a general greening trend that seems to be cutting across all social groups. Stern et al.'s (1995) working model of environmentalism is used as a guide to map several conceptual levels of environmentalism and link them to public support for the environment and to examine differences in environmentalism between rural in-migrants and non-migrants. These conceptual levels, or facets, of environmentalism include modified forms of Dunlap et al.'s (2000) New Ecological Paradigm Scale and Schwartz's (1992) theory of integrated value systems. We noted support for the proposition of a broadening of the social bases of environmental concern. We found significant sociodemographic differences between in-migrants and non-migrants. In-migrants and non-migrants share a common value system and both groups are pro-environmental, although in-migrants are more so. We found no differences between the two groups regarding pro-environmental behavior tendencies or political activity. Conclusions are discussed in terms of several paradigms—culture clash, gangplank, cultural infusion, new voices, and green migration—used to explain the effects of in-migration on rural communities.