JUSTYNA KĘPSKA
Research interests: relationship between humans and the nature, nature preservation and socioeconomic development, social and ecological conflicts, biodiversity and functioning of the natural environment
Contact: justyna.kepska@doctoral.uj.edu.pl
phone: 12 664-52-95
Doctoral Project:
Title: Attitudes of student youth in Kenya towards the natural environment and their determinants
The research objective is to identify the attitudes of student youth in Kenya towards the natural environment, their determinants, and to define their current and potential responses to changes occurring in the natural world. The subject of the study is student youth who constitute a special social category due to their age defined as early adulthood, education and direct access to scientific information. This group in the society generally forms a distinctive kind of youth subculture. In the future, some of its representatives will form the intellectual and managerial elites of the country, shape the culture and raise new generations, as well as influence their attitudes. Environmental attitudes, as a theoretical and analytical category, have the character of an implicit construct that can be related to each of the components of the notion of "attitude". This concept examines various issues that describe and predict behavioral intentions, specific behaviors, value judgments (evaluations, choices), opinions, knowledge, and social beliefs in relation to the natural environment. Natural conditions, socio-economic situation, cultural characteristics and conservation policy in Kenya create a particular geographical context and determinants for the formation of social attitudes towards the natural environment. Important problematic issues arise from the complex spectrum of human-environment relations in this country. The determinants of attitudes towards the natural environment are not only related to the value system represented by individuals and their knowledge, but also to the transformations that are taking place in the natural world. The theoretical basis for this study can be seen in the concept of the New Environmental Paradigm, whose methodological assumptions and analytical proposals (measurement scales) allow for the identification and assessment of attitudes in surveyed social groups in the relationship: natural-centric (biocentric) attitudes versus anthropocentric attitudes.
Selected publications:
Adamus J., Kępski T., Mika M., 2018, Aglomeracja a park narodowy. Trudna relacja w warunkach afrykańskich – przypadek Nairobi i Parku Narodowego Nairobi, Konwersatorium Wiedzy o Mieście, 3 (31): 23–30.
Kępski T., Adamus J., Mika M., 2022, Postawy Samburu wobec Conservancies w perspektywie bilansu korzyści i strat, Prace Geograficzne, 166: 43–61.
Kępska (Adamus) J., Kępski T., Mika M., 2022, Między buntem, społeczną misją a produktem turystycznym. Umoja – osada kobiet (Kenia), Prace i Studia Geograficzne, 67(3): 65–76.