Sociological Analysis of Sense of Belonging towards Nature (Case Study: Tehran Residents)

Abstract

IntroductionWith attention to scarcity of natural renewable supplies and necessity of more convergence between human and nature, exploring related factors in order to decrease environmental footprints of human is essential. Human society has been shaped in natural environment, and then interactions between human and environment are as crucially important as his interactions with other humans and sociology should give precise attentions to this level of social interactions. From sociological standpoint, human’s emotion and behavior come into emergence as a recent and unique domain. Since in urban communities, the relationship between these two areas seems to be detached and as a result, sense of belonging towards nature has been decreasing, exploring relationships between natural and human realms has an undeniable impact on controlling human behavior toward nature. Because, for as much as environmental problems profoundly have social concepts, then taking into account the middle level variables such as sense of belonging as a part of environmental attitudes can determine types and qualities of human behaviors toward environmental issues. Emotions are under the influence of culture, values and human interactions and are basically produced by social situations. Examining sense of belonging (emotions related to attachment, calmness and feeling of being united with nature and environmental issues) among Tehran residents can provide a theoretical approach and social policy strategy.                                                                                   Material and Methods Emotions are considered as an essential linkage between micro and macro level of social reality. In this research, religiosity and environmental values emphasize cultural necessity of positivism approach, environmental socialization emphasizes on human interaction aspect of social construction approach, and experience of connection with nature highlights sense of belonging toward nature through place experience. This research uses sectional survey and questionnaire, in order to examine the question of research. Sample Population size of research calculated based on Cochran formula and selected with Random stratified sampling among all above 18 years old citizens of Tehran. Alpha’s coefficients of variables were confirmed in preliminary test.  Discussion of Results and Conclusions Mean of sense of belonging measure among Tehran residents is in upper medium level. Bivariate relationships of environmental values, experience of connection with nature, environmental socialization and religiosity with dependent variable are confirmed statistically significant, although relationships between socio-economic variables (age, sex, education and place of birth) with dependent variable were not significant. The explanatory model could explain 48 percent of dependent variable's variation among the research sample. Furthermore, Path analysis of Independent variables with dependent variable shows that the experience of connection with nature with 0.617 percent and environmental values with 0.346 percent respectively have highest effects on dependent variable. As most researches, this one also shows emotional aspect of attitudes toward nature in parallel with cognitive aspect is strongly under the influence of social factors. However some researchers believe place of birth can determine types of emotions, but in this research it did not reaffirmed because the experience of connection with nature has more reliable notion for us. Insignificant relationships about education and socio-economic index with dependent variable present dysfunctional role of educational systems and class relations in internalizing pro-environment emotions. Examining relationships between aspects of religiosity and dependent variable show the sense of belonging toward nature is mainly under the influence of ethical aspect, because function of ethical aspect of religion is partly in relation with objective issues such as environmental one. About dependent variable which has an ethical aspect, answering pattern could have inclined toward pretense to depict an ideal self-image.

Keywords

• Environmental Emotion
• Sense of Belonging Towards Nature
• Environmental Values
• Experience of Connection with Nature
• Environmental Socialization