Exploring spillover effects between pro-environmental values and collective action: the case of housing cooperatives
Does taking part in a collective lead people to adopt pro-environmental values and behaviour, or is it the other way round? Researchers are puzzled about the direction of causality between these two factors, and if there is any at all. Literature on the spillover effect proposes that engaging in one behaviour affects the probability of engagement or disengaging in a second behaviour (Nilson et al., 2017). Scholars studying collective action are interested to assess the propensity of individuals participating in one type of collective – for example, a housing cooperative – to adopt pro-environmental behaviours, as “group settings and social capital seem to promote the uptake of wide ranging sustainability measures measures” (Broska, 2021).
However, some researchers argue that the relationship, if any, would be inverse: people who already hold higher environmental values than the mainstream would be more inclined to join a (housing) cooperative, which are characterised by participatory design approaches and high levels of resident engagement (Brysch et al. 2023; Czischke et al. 2023).
ECO-SPARK aims to explore the relationship between the propensity to take part in collective action and pro-environmental values, laying the foundations of a bigger study on spillover effects and design values to be carried out with a larger (international) consortium.
During the course of this research, there will be three main activities, including a survey study, a workshop and a symposium held by the three participating TU Delft’s faculties. In addition to expanding the scientific knowledge on this relationship, the project aims to contribute to improving the design and policies for sustainable and inclusive housing by identifying possible synergies between cooperative and environmental values.
For more information, please visit the project’s website here.
Team
Principal investigator:
Dr Darinka Czischke
Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment – TU Delft Profile
Research team:
Dr Amineh Ghorbani
Associate Professor, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management – TU Delft Profile
Prof Bregje van Eekelen
Chair Design Culture and Society, Faculty Industrial Design Engineering – TU Delft Profile
Dr Lise Jans
Associate Professor, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences – University of Groningen Profile
Gabriela Vieira
Research Assistant, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment
References
Broska, L. H. (2021). It’s all about community: On the interplay of social capital, social needs, and environmental concern in sustainable community action. Energy Research & Social Science, 79, 102165.
Brysch, S. L., Garcia i Mateu, A., & Czischke, D. (2023). The process of value
setting through co design: the case of La Borda, Barcelona. CoDesign , 1-17.
Czischke, D., Peute, M., & Brysch, S. (2023). Together: Towards Collaborative Living. Nai010. Rotterdam.
Nilsson, A., Bergquist, M., & Schultz, W. P. (2017). Spillover effects in environmental behaviors, across time and context: a review and research agenda. Environmental Education Research, 23(4), 573-589.
Co-Lab Research 