Nature and the environment in the public perception As far as images of nature are concerned, various ideas about nature

have already been dealt with in Section 2.2 (Table 1). The classifica-tion made there started from a division into anthropocentric (rela-ting to man) and physiocentric (rela(rela-ting to nature as a whole) ideas.

However, such a systematic classification reveals little about how people in Germany and in other countries perceive nature or what image of nature they consider appropriate. It is the perceived and experienced environment that guides people in their action with regard to the environment (Graumann and Kruse, 1990; WBGU, 1994). It is not the objective situation of the environment or the chan-ges within the natural environment recorded by scientists that bring about a corresponding awareness of the environment and conduct with regard to the environment. Much rather, it is the images of the environment constructed from one’s own sensory perception, absorption of information from fellow humans and, above all, from the mass media that are cognitive elements for one’s own cons-ciousness of the environment and, to a certain extent, conduct with regard to the environment. Individuals, social groups and entire cul-tures form specific images of nature and an understanding of envi-ronmental processes on the basis of individual and social perception processes (Douglas and Wildavsky, 1982; Dake, 1991). In this connec-tion, however, it must be remembered that environmental awareness and conduct with regard to the environment, just like images of nature and the understanding of processes relevant to the environ-ment, depend on many factors, whose weighting varies for reasons of different cultural, social and psychological contextual conditions (WBGU, 1994). There is also dispute in the specialist literature with regard to exactly what an image of nature or environmental cons-ciousness is (Fuhrer, 1995).

60 Empirical studies on the importance of the environment

Unfortunately, there is still relatively little reliable empirical mate-rial about the subjects of images of nature and an understanding of nature. This is mainly because it is not easy to record – and then con-sider to be valid – images of nature by questioning and observing people. Asking people what they understand by the term „nature“ or what image of nature they consider to be appropriate hardly leads to sensible results. In order to acquire a deeper understanding of the perceived and experienced images of nature we have to use diffe-rentiated and creative methods of social research (Knaus and Renn, 1998).

One example of this is the dissertation by an American social scientist that studied understanding of nature of Germans, Swiss and US Americans (Shockey, 1996). Her method was to accompany wal-kers in national parks and recreational woods, collect their impressi-ons over two to three hours and then to reflect with them over what they had seen, what they had not seen and what they had missed. The views of nature differed between Germans, German-speaking Swiss, French-speaking Swiss and US American much less than the author had originally supposed they would. Most regarded nature as a refuge that had to be protected against the almighty power of tech-nology and civilisation. Just as often, nature was seen as a location for them to find their own identities and as an anchor in a real home instead of a virtual home. Most of the people questioned understood the gradual transformation of natural land into built-up land as irre-versible, but by no means welcome, change in their own world. Fre-quently, the walkers characterised the others, who do not want to or cannot go for walks any longer, as the driving forces of a continuous destruction of nature. However, they did not accuse these people of ill-will or deliberate intentions, just of a lack of motivation due to ignorance and an unconscious loss of experience (Shockey, 1996).

The empirical work carried out by the sociologist Michael Zwick within the context of a national compound project on genetic engineering and modernisation at Centre of Technology Assessment in Stuttgart (Zwick, 1998) shows that this impression is more than just a snapshot of talks with walkers. In a first stage, Zwick conduc-ted detailed conversations in the form of in-depth interviews with 48 people from various walks of life (from people living on welfare benefits to captains of industry) and let the people questioned talk Nature and environment in the public perception 61

about their relationship with nature. On the basis of these interviews he was able to identify a number of different images of nature.

In order to test the impressions from the qualitative studies on a national scale, he conducted a representative survey in Germany in 1997 in which the people questioned could make free associations on the subject of nature. These associations – a maximum of three per person – were assigned to the images of nature gained in the in-depth interviews. Eighteen categories were used and practically all of the associations (with exception of a residue of just under 1%) could be subsumed among them (Table 4).

Even a first glance at Table 4 clearly shows that the idea of nature among Germans is marked by a few dominant images of nature. Four out of ten people questioned have romantic ideas about nature. If the evaluative concept of nature and the ontological concept are inclu-ded in the view, the images of nature that can be classified as ideali-stic reach around 45% of the responses. If the image of nature as a reproductive factor is added to this group, it is clear that over half of the people questioned associate nature with such matters relating to

„habitat“.

The second emphasis relates to threatened, desecrated or dest-royed nature. 23% of all responses fall in this category. If this cate-gory also includes its counterpart – nature as a polluted environment in need of protection – almost 40% of people questioned share the idea of nature as threatened by man and in need of protection. By contrast, a minority of fewer than 3% see nature as a productive resource. In most cases agricultural use is being thought of here, a few times traffic and road building and only four times (of a total of 1,500 people questioned) thought of nature as suppliers of raw materials.

Even the sober systematic understanding of nature or the scientific image of nature were mentioned by a small minority only.

The results of the survey make it clear that two essential and com-plementary images of nature dominate in the population. On the one hand, people see nature as a cradle of beauty, recreation and repro-duction, on the other hand as a good threatened by civilisation and in need of protection. In this context it is practically irrelevant whether nature is evaluated as anthropocentric or physiocentric. In both cases it appears to be neither a threat nor a stock of raw materials, but as a social and cultural reference system whose way of working and exi-stence are threatened as a result of modern civilisation. The tradition 62 Empirical studies on the importance of the environment

Nature and environment in the public perception 63

Category Explanation Frequency

of citing Romantic understanding Beauty, meadows, woods, love of nature, idyll, 38%

of nature always positive evaluations

Evaluative understandingNature is good, optimum, very important, always

of nature positive evaluations 5%

Ontological under- Creation, apotheosis of nature: nature is God 4%

standing of nature or similar to God

Reproduction Health, recreation, hiking, sport, holiday, 27%

understanding food

Threatened, Threatened basis of life, disturbed, destroyed nature, 23%

destroyed nature exhausts gases, waste, noise, traffic, ozone, negative evaluations

Understanding of Ecology, environmental protection,

environmental conserving nature 22%

protection

Countercultural Nature is the opposite of culture, inactness, 9%

understanding of naturalness, originality, foregoing human

nature interventions in nature

Productive resource Energy, raw materials, agriculture 3%

System understanding Interaction of living beings, plants, air, earth, 3%

movement, autopoiesis

Scientific understanding Natural (sciences), laws of nature, nature 1%

of nature as knowledge, basis of findings

Nature as the Nature is life, nature is vital 8%

foundation of life

Nostalgic Nature, as it used to be 1%

understanding of nature (usually positive evaluations)

Visionary understanding Nature, as it will be, reference to subsequent 2%

of nature generations (usually normative statements)

Nature as a threat Disasters, selection, nature can be cruel 3%

Geographical under- Being outdoors, countryside, garden, habitat, 12%

standing of nature surroundings

Functional under- Origins, growth, power, energy, death 5%

standing of nature

Universal under- Heaven and earth, cosmos, space, stars 5%

standing of nature

Syntagmatic under- Listing of elements without assigning a value 29%

standing of nature

Other and no responses 1%

Table 4: Images of nature in Germany

Source: Biotech-Survey Biotech survey by the Akademie für Technikfolgenab-schätzung in Baden-Württemberg, 1997

(representative study 1997 in Germany)

of protectionist and romantic understandings of nature is certainly an important declaration for the relatively marked environmental consciousness in Germany and for the repeatedly expressed disquiet about current environmental policy.