From concern to practice: Routinization of pro-environmental behaviour among Russian youth

Everyday routines are a key yet understudied mechanism by which young people embed pro-environmental concerns and values into their everyday lives. Drawing on structuration and practice theory, this paper examines how the routinization of environmental behaviour of modern youth occurs, that is, how and under what conditions it becomes a stable part of the everyday life of young people. The empirical object is young people aged 16–32 years, actively involved in environmental care practices for more than 1 year. The research methodology is based on a qualitative approach in the paradigm of grounded theory of K. Charmaz. The empirical base includes 47 semi-structured interviews collected in 2020–2022. The main findings of the study are that the routinization of environmental behaviour occurs through the integration of knowledge, emotions, values, and structural conditions and markets that shape environmental care. We show that ‘small actions’ as meanings and practices mutually reinforce each other into stable habits, while markets and peer communities function as infrastructure for ecological routines in the absence of strong state support. Reflexive and routine processes together give rise to a recurring reflexive–routine dialectic (‘reflexive habitus’) that stabilizes practice within individual biographies. This model advances our understanding of consumer culture by illuminating the micro-macro dynamics through which everyday consumption routines sustain and transform the environmental agenda.