Social Practices for Climate Mitigation: A Big Data Analysis of Russia’s Environmental Online Communities

Olga Zakharova (), Olga Prituzhalova, Anna Glazkova and Lyudmila Suvorova
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Olga Zakharova: Carbon Measurement Test Area in Tyumen’ Region (FEWZ-2024-0016), University of Tyumen, 625003 Tyumen, Russia
Olga Prituzhalova: Carbon Measurement Test Area in Tyumen’ Region (FEWZ-2024-0016), University of Tyumen, 625003 Tyumen, Russia
Anna Glazkova: Carbon Measurement Test Area in Tyumen’ Region (FEWZ-2024-0016), University of Tyumen, 625003 Tyumen, Russia
Lyudmila Suvorova: Carbon Measurement Test Area in Tyumen’ Region (FEWZ-2024-0016), University of Tyumen, 625003 Tyumen, Russia

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 22, 1-23

Abstract: Addressing climate change necessitates a shift in everyday social practices, which are significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. While social media platforms are crucial for the emergence and dissemination of such practices, their role in the Russian context remains underexplored. This study employs a big data analysis to identify and systematize climate-related social practices discussed within Russian environmental online communities on the VKontakte platform. Using BERTopic topic modeling on a corpus of nearly 190,000 posts from 103 communities, followed by expert evaluation, we identified 80 distinct social practices. These practices were systematized according to actors, objects, and types of activities, revealing a rich ecosystem of grassroots initiatives focusing on waste management, sustainable consumption, education, and digital mapping. The findings demonstrate that online communities compensate for the lack of institutionalized citizen participation in Russian climate policy by fostering shared meanings and practical knowledge. The study concludes that these bottom-up practices represent a significant resource for climate policy, offering ready-made algorithms for behavioral change. We propose that public authorities leverage these communities to enhance public support and effectively implement climate mitigation and adaptation measures.

Keywords: social practices; climate change mitigation; big data analysis; online communities; topic modeling; grassroots initiatives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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