Compaso

Abstract: Common sense as well as scientific evidence frequently operates with the enounce that compared to the citizens of the West, citizens of the ex-communist countries are less environmentally concerned because during the communist past they were not socialized to behave in an environmentally conscious manner and thereafter were much more concerned with consumerism than with environmentally responsible attitudes and behaviours. The paper tries to answer the question if new communication technologies, particularly the Internet, can have a decisive role in socializing people towards environmental concern and environmental practices in the post-communist countries. For this purpose the data set of the Special Eurobarometer 68.2 is used. Analysis shown that in the post-communist member states of the EU Internet use has a significant role in enhancing people’s environmental concern both in terms of perceived environmental information, environmental attitudes and especially environmentally friendly consumerism. Energy saving behaviours and environmentally friendly travelling behaviours were not or less dependent on the Internet use when socio-demographics were controlled. Results suggested that technological flux understood in terms of broadband Internet penetration is also a decisive factor in positively enhancing environmental concern.

Keywords: Environmental citizenship, Internet use, post-communist countries