Eco-habitus or Eco-powerlessness? Examining Environmental Concern across Social Class

Recent evidence of an association between status and eco-friendly practices invites examination of environmental concern across social class. Analyzing interview data from 64 socioeconomically diverse residents of Washington state, we observe variation in orientation to the environment across social class. High-status participants embody an eco-habitus—a sense that being “green” is good and also achievable. Lower-status participants express “eco-powerlessness”—fear and uncertainty in the face of environmental issues and a sense that one’s daily actions have little bearing on broader issues. We suggest that, among our participants, existing measures of environmental concern capture variation in their alignment with high-status preferences for environmental actions and in self-evaluations of their role in mitigating environmental problems. Our research contributes to a more culturally nuanced understanding of environmental concern by using qualitative data to explicate the association between social class and perceived self-efficacy to enact socioecological change in an era of consumer-based solutions to ecological crises.