Reading a whole bunch of different articles about various “Ecotypes”, or environmental values, has been certainly interesting, but it also left me wondering what the point of it was. They all seemed to say the same thing: there are x number of boxes to lump environmental identities into. Either you can be bright, light, or dark green (or grey) and you’re either a ecomodernist, smart growth reformer, or an ecological activist. Similar, to the enjoyment of categorizing musicians by genre or artists by movement, its definitely fun to lump together people through shared ideas. It also could provide information on trends in environmentalism and maybe showing where movement is happening, if more people are becoming bright greens or what not, but I am still left wondering what solutions this leads to.
While the articles we looked at did not the ‘successfulness’ of each categorization, but this could be something that would be practical and interesting. However, it would be very difficult to find a way to measure each identity as some favor large policy changes and while others favor developing new technologies or advocate for grassroots movements. The number of people who identify with each term could provide some indication, but this also reflects the movers and shakers of each category as much as changes implemented.
Another reason why I find Ecotypes difficult to analyze is that it is merely an identity. Identities are surely important, but they are also just boxes to ascribe people to or for people to claim. They are more group guidelines than actuality. In actuality, people are more of an individual subjectivity, a perspective to view the world that may take on the characteristics of several, even contradicting, identities. Someone can find things to agree about with both bright and dark green identities, or ecomodernist and smart growth reformers. Identities are great to show shared ideas and trends, but aren’t too great at reflecting a reality.
This makes Ecotypes a confusing topic to study: I find them very interesting and love seeing where I fall into these boxes (mostly bright green and ecomodernist by the way), but I’m still struggling to find their practicality. I hope to revisit this with a better understanding later. If nothing else though, they make it much easier to understand the modern environmental movement.