Environmental behaviors and their connection to

the external. Two Greek families in Greece and

Holland

Methods of Empirical Social Sciences

BTU Cottbus, WS 20010-11 / 09.04.11

Christina Tsene, 2723755

Source: pixdaus.com Source: flick.com

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This report aims to present the results of the “Environmental
behaviors and their connection to the external: two Greek families in
Greece and Holland” research which was realized within the scope of
the lecture Empirical Methods of Social Sciences for BTU Cottbus, in
the WS 2010/11.

Summary
Having to regularly change residencies during the last couple of years,
I have often been confronted with various levels and multiple
expressions of environmental behaviors. Attempting to monitor them
has not only influenced my perception on the matter but has also
possibly altered my own everyday behavior regarding environmentally
sustainable behaviors’ issues. Trying to find out what two Greek
couples of similar backgrounds and different places of residence, one
in Greece and one in The Netherlands, are thinking in respect to
climate change and organic food, for example, and which their
barriers and motivations for their everyday behavior are, I am
resulting in associating environmental behaviors and the external
settings, within which they take place.

Tools
Qualitative information is what has been regarded as most suitable for
this project and therefore data has been collected by conducting open
question – interviews with the two couples. Both informants (per
couple) had been present during the interview. While Eleni and
Orestis live on Lesvos island in Greece, Ageliki and Manos have left
Greece for the small city of Delft in Holland since five years now. As
my residence was also in Delft at the time, a voice recorded personal
interview was able in the case of the second couple. When it comes to
the interviewees from Lesvos the only possibility has been a recorded
Skype interview. As mentioned earlier in the text the answers of the
participants included thoughts on climatic change and their chosen

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ways, if any, of reaction to it, their beliefs about organic agriculture,
the obstacles and motivations which shape their environmental
activity profile. All the four participants’ profiles were tested for
compatibility on age, educational and socioeconomic status. All
participants belong to the 30 – 40 age group, the middle upper
socioeconomic class and are of academic education.
The analysis of the text was partially based on the “coding” method as
shown on Russell’s “Research Methods in Anthropology: Quantitative
and Qualitative” according which the collected data is categorized by
the key ideas dominating the conversations. The issues that Eleni,
Orestis, Ageliki and Manos were involved with, narrowed down to
“contribution”, “inspiration”, “security”, “loneliness”, “limitation”,
“concern”, “information” and “personal benefit”.

Hypotheses

Taken as a fact from the very beginning of the research was that
environmental attitudes take a long time to shape and need a long
time to alter. Additionally, what I had from the start taken for granted

was the limitation, pessimism and insecurity which Greek reality

poses to citizens willing to perform well in environmental activities.
Therefore, I supposed that Greeks, even when entering a highly
efficient and challenging environment, will still hesitate tempting their
already shaped believes and habits and finally change their attitudes.
Greeks, I presumed, will find it quite hard to finally adjust to the
environmental behaviour status of their new society with many of
them never actually managing to. My hypothesis referred to the Dutch
environmental management system, which I supposed that serves as
inspiration and motivation for its citizens, allowing them to
energetically participate in everyday environmental activities.

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Text analysis

“We resemble ourselves to Don Quixote” Eleni and Orestis from the
green island of Lesvos” say. The pair seems lonely in their effort to
continue behaving in an “environmental sustainable way”, namely
recycling of paper, glass and packaging, saving on electricity, water
and fossil fuels. Orestis rides his bicycle in order to reach work every

day and Eleni waters the flowers with the excess rinse-out water.

“There is a percentage of people who do care and it is more than the

national elections and all other political expressions show.
Nevertheless, the majority of people are ignorant and do not have a
clue” Orestis reports.
Much northern in Europe, in Delft, Ageliki and Manos do not share
that feeling. On the contrary, the leading action and support of the
state has become clearly obvious to them. Specifically, the extensive
and efficient infrastructure of the waste separation and processing
provides the necessary security to Ageliki who feels that everything lie
in one’s hands. “If you try, there will be a result” she characteristically
says.
While the official projections for the overall Dutch waste processing
scheme in 2012 surmount an impressive 80%, a large number of
limitations manage to seriously constrain the Greek citizens who
wish to be active and effective. The interviewees in Mytilini, the
island’s capital, mention among other things, the absence of organic
waste processing and the poor insulation of the houses which in a
way boycotts all the rest individual efforts on saving energy. Carefully
looking for any obstacle in their everyday life environmental activity,
Manos and Aggeliki refer to the higher prices of organic products and
hybrid cars. At the end of the day this particular reference did not
serve as a serious limitation but as one which could be easily
overcome, again by the interference of the state.

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The around 100.000 inhabitants island is since January 2010 served
from a limited recycling scheme. Since any official governmental
participation is absent until now, the scheme runs on a voluntary
basis. Orestis and Eleni has pointed out that leading political action
on environmental issues is inspirational and of vital importance to
them. Being accurately informed weighs significantly as well in their
decision to act and participate. “The food issue is an issue that
involves members of your family. For example you talk about it with
your mother or your sister, or your sister in law” is what on the other
hand Ageliki mentions and continues that since organic food has
never been discussed in her family, consequently there has been no
motivation for her to try it out. The possibilities offered in Delft have
been proven to be stimulating for the couple, mainly due to the fact
that organic food offers lies in convenient proximity to their house.
What has also been pointed out during the interview is the fact that
the birth of Helena, their baby daughter, has certainly served as a
drive for them to carefully reconsider the quality of their food and
evaluate the possible alternatives. In the case of our first participants,
buying organic seems to have been an independent from their two
young children consumer’s decision, since Eleni and Orestis have
already been experimenting with the incoming in Greece, at the time,
organic agriculture since 2004. Where the effect of their children is
nevertheless obvious, is the couple’s concern about the future effects
of climatic change: “It is the most important issue I would be
concerned about. I mean, all the rest issues I believe them not having
such a great effect on our lives…” Orestis explains.

Results
The outcome of the interview held in Delft, is that the Dutch actuality
has seemingly played an important role in shaping our informants’
current environmental behavior profile and has contributed into a
great extend in brightening their horizons. It has also helped them to

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reassess their beliefs concerning environmental behavior issues.
According to this realization, the hypothesis set at the beginning of the
research, which wanted the Greeks hesitating “even when entering a
highly efficient and challenging environment, tempting their already
shaped believes and habits and finally changing their attitudes” has
been completely false. On the other hand, what the couple living in
Mytilini has reported experiencing, validates the initial suggestion of
that survey, namely that the concepts of limitation and doubt interfere
into a significant extend with the everyday environmental protection
activities in Greece. Nevertheless, despite the obstacles they face, and
Eleni Orestis do show an optimistic attitude, proving the hypothesis
on prevailing “Greek pessimism” rather inaccurate.

Conclusion
Despite the fact that the questions asked during the qualitative
interviews proved to be adequate and succeeded in providing me with
a satisfying amount of useful information, there has been a rather
limited number of text analysis models available from which to select
from. Therefore, I have to be sceptical about the extend to which I
have fully utilised my data.
A possibility of having biased my informants need also to be reported
at that point, as all four of them had been already acquainted to me,
having as a result already enough information about my personal
interests and preferences in regards to environmentally sustainable
behaviours.

References

Russell Bernard - Harvey, Research Methods in Anthropology:

Qualitative and Quantitative, USA, 2006

Stier Emily Adler & Roger Clark, How it is done: an invitation to

Social Research, USA, 2008

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Taylor Steven, Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, 1998
Acknowledgments
I very much thank Orestis, Ageliki, Manos and Eleni for their valuable
contribution to this research, by sincerely sharing their thoughts and
concerns with me during one of their busy day schedules.