EcoTypes: exploring environmental ideas, discovering deep difference

The EcoTypes initiative, launched in early 2017, is a joint research and educational effort focusing primarily on students enrolled in undergraduate environmental courses in US institutions of higher education. EcoTypes was designed for participants to explore the fundamental ideas that shape how they approach environmental issues. They do so via a survey consisting of 15 key scales or axes (e.g., Aesthetics, Change, or Diversity); in the last 2 years, the EcoTypes survey has been completed approximately 3000 times by students in roughly 50 institutions. These 15 axes can be gathered via statistical analysis into three themes, including Place (human/nonhuman), Knowledge (old/new), and Action (small/big). The tensions and contradictions inherent in each theme suggest deep difference, an unsettled environmental contradiction with plural truths that cannot readily be harmonized. EcoTypes themes offer participants an opportunity to discover and engage across deep difference in a manner resonant with the coproduction of knowledge, though never toward some static consensus. EcoTypes suggests that the disagreement and difference we commonly experience today are inherent in environmental issues, not simply a matter of differing opinion, challenging us to take seriously the necessity of engagement across difference.