Environmental issues, interdisciplinarity, social theory and intellectual production in Latin America

Abstract

While dealing with both interdisciplinarity and environment and society area as fields that harbor scientific contentions regarding ideas, practices, institutions and habitus (Bourdieu), this paper aims at providing an account of the multifaceted processes implied in the institutionalization of environmental concerns in Latin-American academia and research centers. The paper discusses the extent to which one can legitimately talk about "a Latin- American scientific specificity", supposedly resulting from peculiar theoretical approaches or even from particular socio-environmental features (such as widespread poverty and high rates of social inequality, along with unparalleled levels of biodiversity). Last but not least, the paper seeks to draw a sort of thematic map (via bibliographical review) as well as a consideration of the levels of scientific institutionalization of environmental issues in six different research centers located in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil.

Le paysage intellectuel du développement durable en Amérique latine. Une analyse de réseau à partir des citations d’auteurs latino-américains

“…Nous étudierons également les dynamiques des auteurs régionaux dans ces débats ainsi que le rôle vital joué dans certains cas par les institutions qui ont accueilli des projets, des groupes et des programmes de recherche. Ces dernières ont en effet facilité l'émergence d'une « pensée environnementale latino-américaine » (Heyd, 2005 ;Ferreira et al, 2006 ;Leff, 2012 ;Rozzi, 2012), caractérisée par ses tonalités, ses harmonies et ses dissonances par rapport au discours dominant au niveau mondial.…”

Pesquisas em gestão ambiental: análise de sua evolução na Universidade de São Paulo

“…Entre 1991 e 1996 surgiu um grupo voltado ao setor público e outros dois entre 1997-2001. No quinquênio 2002-2006 surgiram quatro grupos voltados ao setor público e outros quatro ao privado.…”

“…Em estudo sobre cinco centros de pesquisa em ambiente e sociedade da América Latina, Ferreira et al (2006) notaram a existência de abordagens híbridas e interdisciplinares nos estudos de problemas socioecológicos. Na área das Ciências Sociais, segundo os mesmos autores, o Brasil foi influenciado pelo construcionismo desde o fim da década de 1980, sendo que na década de 1990 alguns trabalhos já se inspiravam na modernização reflexiva em suas duas divisões, a modernização ecológica e o conceito de sociedade de risco.…”

The research on human dimensions of global environmental change in Latin America

“…Although social science concerned with the environment have evolved in different ways across Latin America, it was around the 1960s when social scientists started to give attention to environmental problems and it spread rapidly to other societal domains. The institutionalization of the research field on environment and society in Latin America begins between the years of 1980s and 1990s (Ferreira, 1997) and assessments on the intellectual production of the region show the adoption of different theoretical and methodological approaches (Ferreira et al, 2006b). Hogan (2007Hogan ( , 2009 states that although many social scientists have begun to study the social aspects and consequences of environmental change, they were "unprepared" to incorporate global challenges in the scope of their work.…”