Biodiversity and Citizenship in an Argumentative Socioscientific Process

Abstract

Socio-environmental issues become evident in countries with megadiversity. Brazil finds itself in this context, adding to the fact that it has severe socioeconomic inequalities, of which we highlight the lack of environmental justice. The present study has education for citizenship and biodiversity as its principles, considering that this interface empowers the students to emerge from socio-political perspectives to overcome environmental injustices. The objective is, therefore, to identify concepts of biodiversity and citizenship present in arguments developed by high school students in a socioscientific discussion. The research participants were nine students from a rural and public school in Brazil. We designed and implemented a Focus Group on the disappearance of bees and its consequences. The participants’ speeches were structured in arguments and analyzed from categories regarding the dimensions of citizenship and biodiversity. We identified the relationship among all categories in the arguments listed. However, we observed that these students are not full citizens since they identify several obstacles to active participation in social transformation actions. This study aims to contribute to research and science education strategies to promote active citizenship and critical perspectives on biodiversity.

Collective Intelligence to Co-Create the Cities of the Future: Proposal of an Evaluation Tool for Citizen Initiatives

“…Today's cities require a change in urban planning to address the complex relationships between citizens' interests and needs, urban transformations, environmental degradation, urban policies, and economic interests in a sustainable approach [1]. Social innovation is one of the pillars of sustainability that is becoming increasingly important as one of the dimensions that merit a multidisciplinary and transversal approach [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], where the active participation of citizens is required not only as recipients [10] but also as co-creators of their reality. In this sense, a series of mechanisms and strategies have emerged that seek to involve citizens in decision-making processes in the city, such as participatory budgets, urban centres, living labs [11,12], and innovation centres, in which synergies are created between civil society, public administration, academia, and companies [13] to seek solutions to social challenges; these strategies and platforms are usually guided by public administration.…”