Incubating and nurturing sustainable practices through staged social engagements

Abstract

Social interventions emerging from the field of social psychology and sociology have been quite effective in encouraging a positive change in environmental behaviour under the influence of a social setting. They also provide a suitable social environment for learning, adopting, incubating, and nurturing the new behaviour. The study analyzes several such cases through an exhaustive document analysis. It aims at building a deeper understanding of the complex mechanics of such contrived social engagements including their process of encouraging sustainable behaviour. It dissects the whole process into smaller activities, and maps them against the behaviour change techniques (BCT) and the relevant theories to identify their role in the process of change. Further classification of these activities on the basis of their role resulted in a model, which comprises of five key phases through which a participant undergoes during the process of change. The model provides an overview of the process, which can be useful in understanding and devising such social engagements for encouraging a positive change in behaviour for environmental benefit.