Becoming an Ecological Citizen: The Concept of an Ecological Citizen in the movie Avatar

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54855/ijte.24424

Keywords:

ecological citizenship, environment, Avatar, participation, responsibility

Abstract

Avatar intricately intertwines ecological resistance and citizenship themes on Pandora, presenting a rich avenue for ecological scholarship. Despite its cinematic prowess, there is a research gap in understanding the film's impact on ecological consciousness. This paper aims to explore Avatar within the context of environmental cinema, analyzing its portrayal of ecological themes. Recent trends in film studies demonstrate a growing interest in such intersections, making Avatar a pertinent subject for investigation. Experts like Levinas, Dobson, and Rousseau are selected for their profound insights into ethics, environmental citizenship, and the human-nature relationship, offering relevant, authoritative, and influential perspectives that align with the research goals. By examining existing literature on the urgency of ecological awareness and critical reviews, the paper aims to uncover the film's influence on ecological attitudes. The implications extend to environmental advocacy and education, emphasizing the potential of popular media, like Avatar, to shape attitudes toward sustainable coexistence and ecological citizenship. Integrating Avatar into educational curricula has the potential to enhance environmental literacy among students, fostering a deeper understanding of ecological issues and inspiring proactive engagement. By leveraging the film's themes of interconnectedness and ecological stewardship, educators can instill values of environmental responsibility and citizenship in future generations.

Author Biographies

  • Amar Bahadur Sherma, The University of Texas at Arlington, Texas, U.S.A

    Amar Bahadur Sherma is pursuing a Ph.D. in English at The University of Texas at Arlington, U.S. He also writes and edits school-level English textbooks for Nepal. He has published some of his papers in peer-reviewed journals, and some are still under review. His research interests include rhetoric, gender studies, refugee, migration, critical theories, ecology, technical writing, etc. He is also on the editorial board of three Journals of the Arts.

  • Alok Lamsal, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

    Alok Lamsal is an M.Phil. graduate of Pokhara University, Nepal. He is also a creative director/scriptwriter at The Poet Idol, which is telecast in Nepal's AP1HD. Besides, he serves as an editor, lecturer, and YouTuber. His research areas are in media, democracy, law, technical writing, gender, refugee, etc. (ORCiD: 0009-0004-6870-3981)

  • Devi Prasad Pokharel, Pokhara University, Nepal

    Devendra Pokharel is an M.Phil. graduate at Pokhara University, Nepal. He works as a Corporate Lawyer and a Finance Manager at Agricultural Development Bank Limited. Besides, he works as a part-time lecturer and writes articles for newspapers.

References

Adamson, J. (2012). Indigenous Literatures, Multinaturalism, and Avatar: The Emergence of Indigenous Cosmopolitics. American Literary History, 24(1), 143-62. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41329631.

“Avatar: Reaching the Height.” (2010). Tunza, 8 (1), pp. 6-7. https://wedocs.unep.org/rest/bitstreams/12274/retrieve. Accessed 8 Nov. 2022.

Baird, R. (n.d.). Cries with Indians: Going Indian with the Ecological Indian from Rousseau to Avatar. Academia, https://www.academia.edu/19652734/Cries_With_Indians_Going_Indian_With_the_Ecological_Indian_from_Rousseau_to_Avatar.

Bergthaller, H. (2012). A Sense of No-Place. European Journal of English Studies, 16(2), pp. 151-162. Taylor & Francis, https://doi.org/10.1080/13825577.2012.703820.

Brereton, P. (2022). “Cinema, ecology, and environment.” In The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (pp. 329–342). Routledge.

Brown, W., & Jenna Ng. (2012). Avatar: An Introduction. Animation, 7(3), pp. 221-25. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847712459595.

Chongbang, N. (2022). Mundhum: Exploring the Narratives of Limbu Community in an Urban Setting. International Journal of TESOL & Education, 2(3), 43-62. https://doi.org/10.54855/ijte.22234.

C.N., A. Nature Versus Culture: Mapping Imperialistic Alternatives in The Martian Chronicles and Avatar. Language in India, 18, pp. 33-43.

Collins, M. S. (2014). Echoing Romance: James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ as Ecoromance. Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, 47(2), pp. 103-19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44030144. Accessed 15 Jul. 2022.

Dobson, A. (2003). Citizenship and the Environment. Oxford University Press.

“Emmanuel Lévinas | French Philosopher.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Emmanuel-Levinas. Accessed 12 July 2022.

Erb, C. (2014). A Spiritual Blockbuster: Avatar, Environmentalism, and the New Religions. Journal of Film and Video, 66 (3), pp. 3-17. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5406/jfilmvideo.66.3.0003. Accessed 8 Nov. 2022.

Falquina, S.M., & Zaragoza, U. d. (2014). The Pandora Effect:’ James Cameron’s Avatar and a Trauma Studies Perspective.” American Studies, 36(2), pp. 115-131.

Fritz, J. (1969). Environmentalism and the ‘Ecological Indian’ in Avatar: A Visual Analysis. The Arbutus Review, 3(1), pp. 67-90. https://doi.org/10.18357/tar31201211530.

Harris, A. & Wyn, J. (2010). Special issue of Young on emerging forms of youth participation: everyday and local perspectives. Young, 10, pp. 3-7.

Hayward, T. (2006). Ecological Citizenship: Justice, rights and the virtue of resourcefulness. Environmental Politics, 15(3), pp. 435-446.

Howles, T., and et al. (2018). Creating an ecological citizenship: Philosophical and theological perspectives on the role of contemporary environmental education. The Heythrop Journal, pp. 997-1008.

Hwang, Y. J., & Cho, T. Y. (2021). Analysis of Viewers’ Appreciation for the Imaginary Pandora in the Movie Avatar. Archives of Design Research, 34(2), pp. 5-19. https://doi.org/10.15187/adr.2021.05.34.2.5.

Jagers, S. C. (2009). In Search of the Ecological Citizen. Environmental Politics, 18(1), pp. 18-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644010802624751.

Levinas, E. (1979). Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. 1961. Translated by Alphonso Lingis, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff.

Luzón-Aguado, V. (2022). “Turning Over a New Leaf Exploring Human-Tree Relationships in The Lorax and Avatar.” Screening the Crisis: US Cinema and Social Change in the Wake of the 2008 Crash (pp. 245-262). Bloomsbury.

MacGregor, S. (2006). Beyond Mothering Earth: Ecological Citizenship and the Politics of Care. UBC Press.

May, S. (2008). Ecological citizenship and a plan for sustainable development: Lessons from Huangbaiyu. City, 12(2), pp. 237-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604810802168117.

Melo-Escrihuela, C. (2015). Promoting Ecological Citizenship: Rights, Duties and Political Agency. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 7(2), pp. 113-134.

Middlemiss, L. (2010). Reframing Individual Responsibility for Sustainable Consumption: Lessons from Environmental Justice and Ecological Citizenship. Environmental Values, pp. 147-167. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327110X12699420220518.

Nguyen, K. N. A. , & Truong, D. K. (2021). Exploring the Impacts of Doing Action Research on EFL Teachers’ Professional Identities from an Ecological Perspective. International Journal of TESOL & Education, 1(3), pp. 65-87. https://i-jte.org/index.php/journal/article/view/87.

Potter, M. (2019). Human-Nature-Technology Interfaces within the Avatar Cinema-Scape. Image & Text, (33), pp. 1-16. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1021-14972019000100009.

Revkin, A. C. (2012). Beyond Rio: Pursuing ‘Ecological Citizenship’. The New York Times. https://archive.nytimes.com/dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/beyond-rio-pursuing-ecological-citizenship/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2023.

Schulz, W., Ainley, J., Fraillon, J., Kerr, D., & Losito, B. (2010). ICCS 2009 International Report: Civic Knowledge, Attitudes, and Engagement among Lower-Secondary School Students in 38 Countries. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

Scoville, C. (2016). George Orwell and ecological citizenship: moral agency and modern estrangement. Citizenship Studies, 20(6-7), pp. 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2016.1192105.

Sherrod, L. R., Torney-Purta, J., & Flanagan, C. A. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of research on civic engagement in youth. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470767603.

Tan, C. (2020). Between Green Paradise and Bleak Calamity: Elysium & Avatar. Sinecine: Sinema Araştırmaları Dergisi, 11(2), pp. 301-23. https://doi.org/10.32001/sinecine.741686.

Taylor, B. (2019). An Ecocentric Journey. The Ecological Citizen, 2, pp. 6-10.

Vijayasekaran, P., & Alan, G. (2021). The Study of Advanced Scientific Experiments in Avatar- A Postcolonial Perspective. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 1012(1), pp 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/1012/1/012064.

Wicaksono, Y. T., Ginting, D., & Sunardi, F. D. (2023). Colonialism, Resistance, and Environmental Issues in James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). INTERACTION: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa, 10(1), pp. 289-303.

Wolf, J., et al. (2009). Ecological citizenship and climate change: perceptions and practice. Environmental Politics, 18(4), pp. 503-521.

Wood, Bronwyn E., and Kirsi Pauliina Kallio. (2019). "Green citizenship: towards spatial and lived perspectives." The Routledge companion to environmental planning (pp. 171-180). Routledge.

Downloads

Published

06-04-2024

Issue

Section

Literature Review

How to Cite

Sherma, A. B., Lamsal, A., & Pokharel, D. P. (2024). Becoming an Ecological Citizen: The Concept of an Ecological Citizen in the movie Avatar. International Journal of TESOL & Education, 4(2), 62-77. https://doi.org/10.54855/ijte.24424

Similar Articles

1-10 of 31

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.