Our Future Environment

Psychological ownership is defined as a sense of ownership or responsibility not bounded by legal right or static place (Pierce, Kostova & Dirks, 2000). Psychological ownership for a particular place may also promote feelings of responsibility that include feelings of being protective, caring, and nurturing and the proactive assumption of responsibility for that place. When an individual’s sense of self is closely linked to the place, a desire to maintain, protect, or enhance that identity will result in an enhanced sense of responsibility (Dipboye, 1977; Korman, 1970). Another way to talk about a sense of responsibility are the feelings of stewardship where individuals feel responsible as the caretakers of a property, even though they are not the legal owners. As recently proposed by Davis, Schoorman, and Donaldson (1997) in their stewardship theory, in certain situations when individuals feel like stewards they are motivated to act in the best interest of a place rather than in their personal interests. Psychological ownership is likely to create the same situation.
A recent recreation study compared a local community and recreational tourists’ perspective of the strength and nature of place attachment (a concept correlated with psychological ownership) and how this relates to reasons for resource protection. (Bricker & Kerstetter 2000). Bricker found that the perceived importance of resource protection objectives was positively correlated with increasing levels of place attachment.
For this research paper I would like to explore stewardship as a function of psychological ownership and place attachment. I will discuss stewardship using a few case studies of natural resource management stakeholders (mostly in the western U.S.) who must balance the needs and viewpoints of landholders with the needs and viewpoints of recreational groups.
I would like to also work from Elizabeth Povinelli’s writing on aboriginal Australians whose sweat and labour in the land constitutes their relationship and claim to it. I will investigate whether a recreational and conservation group (such as the Sierra Club) who ‘sweat’ in the land and develop a sense of psychological ownership, place attachment and stewardship are similar or different to Povinelli’s claim about aboriginal land relationships.

Filed under: anthro of property, natural landscape, environmental planning on April 14th, 2008