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Telling 'moral tales'? Family narratives of responsible privilege and environmental concern in India and the UK

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 08:32 authored by Janet BoddyJanet Boddy, Ann Phoenix, Catherine Walker, Uma Vennam, Helen Austerberry, Madhavi Latha
Contemporary discussions of climate change response frequently emphasise individual moral responsibility, but little is known about how environmental messages are taken up or resisted in everyday practices. This paper examines how families negotiate the moral narratives and identity positions associated with environmental responsibility. It focuses on families living in relatively affluent circumstances in England and south-east India to consider the ways in which the families construct their understandings of environment and take up identities as morally responsible. Our analysis focuses on a subsample of case studies involved in the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods Family Lives and the Environment study, within the NOVELLA Node, using a multimethod qualitative approach with families of children aged between 12 and 14 years. This paper focuses on interviews with 10 of the 24 families in the sample, all of whom (in both India and the UK) discussed environmental concerns within moral narratives of the responsibilities of relative privilege. Findings highlight the potential of cross-world research to help theorise the complex and economic and cultural specificity of a particular morally charged framing of environmental concern, addressing the (dis)connections between 'moral tales' of responsible privilege and individual and collective accounts of family practices.

Funding

Habitual Practices in everyday family lives: Understanding constructed meanings by mixing methods; G0903; ESRC-ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL; R00793

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Families, Relationships and Societies

ISSN

2046-7435

Publisher

Policy press

Issue

3

Volume

5

Page range

357-374

Department affiliated with

  • Education Publications

Notes

Special issue on families and the environment

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-09-20

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-10-12

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-09-20

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