https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7611-9292
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Abstract
In recent years, Yokohama City, Japan, has seen substantial efforts to address socio-environmental issues. One such effort is the G-30 program, which has helped reduce garbage waste production by 43 percent in 2010, since 2001. The eco-picture diary, an environmental education project, has been identified as contributing to the success of G-30. However, no research to date has examined the diary’s effect on garbage reduction, nor accounted for what the project is and how it became prevalent. Using questionnaires with citizens and interviews with other stakeholders, this case study addresses these gaps. Key findings concern how people perceived the diary to have been central to garbage reduction by citizens. The study also shows how the diary illustrates an example of backcasting, ecopedagogy, reflective learning, and place-based approaches to environmental education, as well as how uptake of the project can be explained via diffusion of innovation theory and the theory of planned behavior.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Future Cities are Japan’s SDGs model cities, designated to promote local government initiatives for achieving SDGs. Similarly, an Eco-city is designed to promote ecological and economic integrity for quality of life.
2 Integrated Studies was introduced to help students become more aware of environmental problems and to help them identify ways to tackle these. The program is mandatory for all primary and secondary schools. Each school has to allocate a few hours per week for environmental education. Teachers serve as facilitators in the program and local persons come in as guest lecturers. Students are required to work outside the school to identify various problem-solving methods .
3 The rate of adoption is measured by the length of time required for a certain percentage of the members of a social system to adopt an innovation. Within the rate of adoption, there is a point at which an innovation is considered to reach critical mass to self-sustain. Innovators are the earliest adopters who are willing to take the highest risks, and will typically account for the first 2.5 percent of the adoption rate curve. Early adopters have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the adopter categories and account for the second 13.5 percent of the adoption rate curve. The early majority adopt an innovation after varying degrees of time that is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters and accounts for the third 34 percent of the adoption rate curve. The late majority adopt an innovation after the average participants and account for the fourth 34 percent of the adoption rate curve. Laggards are the last to adopt an innovation. Individuals in this category show little to no opinion leadership and are typically the last 16 percent of the adoption rate curve.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Hiroshi Ito
Dr. Hiroshi Ito is a professor at the NUCB Business School, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business. He received an MA in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a PhD in Education from University of California, Los Angeles, an MBA from Université Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, and PhD in Environmental Studies from Nagoya University. He worked as an education expert for UNESCO (France), UNICEF (the Philippines), JICA (Ecuador and Paraguay), an NGO in Guatemala, and an educational service company in USA before joining the NUCB Business School. He has published articles in the following journals: Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, Urban Research and Practice, Applied Environmental Education & Communication, Policy Design and Practice, Journal of Further and Higher Education, and Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, as well as many others.
Alan Reid
Dr. Alan Reid works at Faculty of Education, Monash University. He edits the international research journal, Environmental Education Research, and publishes regularly on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) and their research. Recent examples include editing Environmental Education: critical concepts in the environment, which reviews 50 years of activity in this area, and Curriculum and Environmental Education: Perspectives, Priorities and Challenges. Alan's interests in research and service focus on growing traditions, capacities and the impact of ESE research. A key vehicle for this is his work with the Global Environmental Education Partnership, and via eePRO Research and Evaluation. Find out more via social media, pages or tags for eerjournal. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2954-6424.