Supporting youth to develop environmental citizenship within/against a neoliberal context

TLDR: In this paper, the relationship between neoliberalism and environmental citizenship is analyzed and a discussion of pedagogic and curricular practices that educators can use to support youth in developing forms of environmental citizenship that actively disrupt neoliberalism's privatization of responsibility for the environmental commons.

Abstract: What aspects of environmental citizenship do educators need to consider when they are teaching students about their environmental responsibilities within a neoliberal context? In this article, I respond to this question by analyzing the relationship between neoliberalism and environmental citizenship. Neoliberalism situates citizen participation as an individual concern that removes states from responsibility for public goods, such as the environment, while environmental citizenship scholarship runs the risk of promoting a diluted form of environmental engagement similar to that found within neoliberal ideology. This can result in negative consequences for the environment and for environmental participation among citizens. I conclude with a discussion of pedagogic and curricular practices that educators can use to support youth in developing forms of environmental citizenship that actively disrupt neoliberalism’s privatization of responsibility for the environmental commons.