Segments of Environmental Concern in Kuwait

Abstract

This discussion examines segmentation by environmental attitudes in Kuwait using a survey (n = 1121) of adult Kuwaiti citizens. Attitudes were measured with a shortened version of the Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI) scale as adapted in prior work about the UAE. Consistent with research suggesting that environmental attitudes frequently reflect local conditions, the dimensional structure in Kuwait was not very similar to that of the UAE case. The Kuwait data do, however, yield a dimensional structure which reflects the broader debate in the sustainability literature on the relative balance of environmental vs. socio-economic concerns. Cluster analysis on these dimensions yielded five distinct segments ranging from not very strong concern about either to strong concern about both, for focusing on one or the other. Policy implications of addressing different views about environmentalism are discussed.