Background to the Research

• In their introduction, the authors comment on the rise in the late 1980's of environmental awareness among the populations of developed nations. However, the NI conflict may have had a detrimental effect on environmental awareness in NI, as the population had more immediate political and social concerns, and the sectarian nature of politics meant that the larger political parties saw no political capital in campaigning on green issues.
  

Research Approach

• This book chapter involves secondary analysis of data from the 1996 NI Social Attitudes survey.
  

Main Findings

• NI has a large rural population, in comparison to GB, with a greater proportion of the population employed in agriculture. Most farms are small-scale and family based, so NI does not suffer as much from the impact of intensive farming systems as other areas of GB. Additionally, there is little industrialisation in rural areas in NI, and no large scale natural resource exploitation such as mining.
• An earlier study by Stringer (1992) concluded that the presence of a large community dependant on rural employment, and the absence of any significant environmental pollution problem has led to the NI population being less concerned with environmental issues than their GB counterparts.
• NI respondents have a lower level of concern for the countryside than the GB population. While both groups disagree with the statement that the countryside is much the same as 20 years ago (GB 22%, NI 18%), a higher proportion of GB respondents are very concerned about the countryside (43% compared to 32% in NI) and similar numbers believe that changes that have occurred are for the worse (47% in GB, 33% in NI).
• In general, respondents in NI were more in favour of development in the countryside than those in GB, although in both cases the overall percentages who favoured development were small. NI figures were 2%-10% higher than in GB, with the most significant difference being on the question of developing new roads in country areas, where 18% of the NI population were in favour, compared to 8% in GB.
• Only 4% of the NI population saw new roads as a threat, while 17% of those in GB identified roadbuilding as a threat. Indeed, this was ranked as the second most common response in the GB sample. In contrast, while both groups identified land and air pollution and discharges into waterways as the biggest threat, (34% in NI sample, 28% in GB) NI respondents were next concerned about litter (26%) while only 14% of GB respondents identified this as a threat.
• Questions determining protectionist or development attitudes were interpreted in relation to the social and economic variables. The results suggest that those from the professional and managerial class, and those with the highest educational qualifications are more inclined to take a protectionist attitude to the countryside.
• Overall, the results point to NI and GB respondents moving towards a convergence of attitudes, and that the protectionist attitude is the majority. However, NI respondents are more likely to favour certain development attitudes, especially where they may produce some benefit for rural communities, as their attitudes towards road building and new housing demonstrate.
• Examination of area of residence, and social class show that strong differences exist between some population sub-groups on a number of issues. Urban dwellers have a more protectionist attitude than rural dwellers, but in general a large proportion of urban respondents do not hold any particular opinion on countryside issues. Those living in the country are more likely to express a strong opinion, but their responses highlight a lack of consensus that can be explained on a social and educational basis. Those involved in agriculture, or who come from a farming background, are more likely to hold pro-development attitudes than those who are immigrants to rural areas.
• While non-manual social classes generally oppose house-building in the countryside, regardless of their area of residence, manual workers in urban areas are protectionist, while those in rural areas are pro-development.
• The authors conclude that the area type in which a respondent is resident does have an independent effect on attitudes to many countryside issues, although they do not find that it is possible to characterise either urban or rural dwellers as having more interest in the countryside and its conservation.
• They speculate that both groups may be motivated by a similar level of self-interest; rural dwellers adopting a developmental attitude towards housing and roads, which may help develop the rural economy, while the urban dwellers motive for adopting a protectionist attitude may be related to their wish to preserve recreational and amenity facilities.