Editorial

Abstract

Social conflicts and environmental injustices explored through interdisciplinary studies have been a recurring theme in previous issues of Ambiente & Sociedade/ Environment & Society. In volume n. 16-2 we develop this theme in a critical analysis of socio-environmental contexts, conflicts of interest and the diverging views which are inherent to the management of environmental resources. We look at the processes social actors employ in dealing with environmental issues which determine their quality of life. Our approach is characterized by taking a critical and participative perspective of threatened subjects within contexts where hegemonic and developmentist expectations prevail. There has been criticism both on the part of society and academics in response to asymmetrical conflicts inherent to the "over-development" of modernity, that is, in relation to the capacity of modernity to optimize and exploit resources and make profit while concomitantly heightening social inequalities and environmental injustice, as well as generating and exacerbating risk. This response allows for the delineation of aspects inherent to reflexive modernization. Thus, it can be observed that threats arising out of modernization lead to a process of self-confrontation in relation to the certainties of industrial society. As a means for disseminating academic production in the promotion of a fairer society Ambiente & Sociedade/Environment & Society, and more specifically this issue, provides the opportunity to debate issues which range from socio-environmental problematization to conceptions for advancing a reflexive society, within the perspective oIn face of these risks-the collateral effects of modernity-there is a need for critical control in how academic knowledge provides support to industrial society, for example, in substantiating policy decisions for development plans. This critical control appears to be particularly important in order to set standards of pre-emptive conduct in which social actors, recognizing the limits of science, are able to mediate conflicts and decisions in situations where both levels of uncertainties and stakes are high, and from which groups in power (the elites) generally benefit. It should also take into account situations which may emerge, such as large ruptures of the socio-environmental system, disasters, eThus, the first group of articles debate socio-environmental contexts, conflicts of interest and aspects inherent to the management of environmental resources. The article by Jeroen Warner, Antoinette Sebastian and Vanessa Empinotti explores events situated between the global and the local in the context of two African countries, in terms of geopolitical pressures and the responses of each country in claiming and maintaining access to their rights to land and virtual water.