Eco-social work and the accessibility of ‘Martat’ application in promoting and changing environmental attitudes
Pöllänen, Mari (2022)
Pöllänen, Mari
2022
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022121227907
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022121227907
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis is to study whether the ‘Martat’ application promotes the accessibility of environmental attitudes for its users. The application belongs to Martha organisation, and it is recently launched which means they have a need to study it. Moreover, I chose this topic because I am interested in working with these themes in my future career as a social care professional. My working life partner is Martha organisation which, despite their application being newly born, has been around from the year 1899. They are a non-profit organisation working to promote sustainable actions and cohesion in a society by educating the public about home economics with topics such as environment, nutrition, and finances.
The theoretical framework of the thesis consists of theory on environmental attitudes including attitude accessibility, environmental knowledge and empathy which influences environmental attitudes, and methods to improve, and measurements of, environmental attitudes. Other theories that I will study in this thesis are eco-social work, ecosocial transition, and digitalisation.
Methods used for this research-based thesis are surveys and interviews for data collection methods and content analysis for qualitative data analysis method. My research question is ‘Does ‘Martat’ application promote the accessibility of environmental attitudes for its users?’ Target group of this thesis is ‘Martat’ application users and for this research approximately 28% of its active users were reached. Critical thinking and ethical considerations were implemented throughout the thesis process.
Main findings of the thesis are that majority of the participants showed strong environmental concern and they were actively seeking environmental knowledge which indicates that they possess pro-environmental attitudes. The participants had acquired these attitudes prior to using the application but many reported that the application promoted their actions and corresponded to their values by providing useful, up-to-date advice that fitted their needs.
Further research ideas could be to study how the age groups with lowest participation rate have found the application as majority of the application users are 50-69-year-olds and discover how to make the application more known to their age group as well. All in all, as I conducted my theory part of the thesis, I came across abstract ideas on environmental protection but concrete ways on how eco-social work can be conducted were not found. Therefore, an educational guidebook could be developed to help integrate eco-social work practice in different workplaces.
The theoretical framework of the thesis consists of theory on environmental attitudes including attitude accessibility, environmental knowledge and empathy which influences environmental attitudes, and methods to improve, and measurements of, environmental attitudes. Other theories that I will study in this thesis are eco-social work, ecosocial transition, and digitalisation.
Methods used for this research-based thesis are surveys and interviews for data collection methods and content analysis for qualitative data analysis method. My research question is ‘Does ‘Martat’ application promote the accessibility of environmental attitudes for its users?’ Target group of this thesis is ‘Martat’ application users and for this research approximately 28% of its active users were reached. Critical thinking and ethical considerations were implemented throughout the thesis process.
Main findings of the thesis are that majority of the participants showed strong environmental concern and they were actively seeking environmental knowledge which indicates that they possess pro-environmental attitudes. The participants had acquired these attitudes prior to using the application but many reported that the application promoted their actions and corresponded to their values by providing useful, up-to-date advice that fitted their needs.
Further research ideas could be to study how the age groups with lowest participation rate have found the application as majority of the application users are 50-69-year-olds and discover how to make the application more known to their age group as well. All in all, as I conducted my theory part of the thesis, I came across abstract ideas on environmental protection but concrete ways on how eco-social work can be conducted were not found. Therefore, an educational guidebook could be developed to help integrate eco-social work practice in different workplaces.