Behaviour Change and Environmental Citizenship: a case for spiritual development?

In spite of the efforts that have been made to increase awareness and understanding of environmental issues, there is little evidence of a general adoption of pro-environmental behaviours that might characterize environmental citizenship. This paper argues that awareness and understanding are necessary but not sufficient, and reports research which suggests that sufficiency might need to be understood in spiritual terms. An argument is developed in favour of a citizenship founded upon transformative spiritual values in preference to a morality founded upon imposed notions of duty or obligation to support a value system which is itself arguably part of the problem. The primary objection to such an approach is that it would seem to rely upon the preservation of childhood spirituality through the teenage years into adulthood, and this is seen to present many difficulties for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners.