Ethos socioambiental: um estudo com populações vulneráveis

Abstract

The complexity of the individual-environment relation has brought about uneasiness and a search for strategies in order to minimize or avoid the negative impact of human actions upon the environment. The quest for some understanding on this complexity makes it possible to widen knowledge upon these two facts, stimulating the discussion about a proposition that one will be able to establish healthier and less aggressive ways of living as far as environmental issues are concerned based on environmental-related conceptions and their effects upon the environment .Therefore, it all starting out from a conception that environmental commitment demands engagement, be it in the production of such knowledge or in the rational use of the natural resources. That information is relatively available does not mean that people in general may feel compelled to making use of it or applying it. It is understood that the problem behind environmental issues is complex and interdependent on the social problematic issues arising from population growth, poor income division, allocation of people in big city centers being the spaces smaller and smaller and social inequity larger and larger each day. The various technical-scientific transformations have triggered ecological unbalances and a progressive deterioration on both single and collective ways of living. These changes and the population growth have led to changes in the way people feel or perceive reality. The objective of this study was to analyze people´s environmental forms of commitment at moments of vulnerability and, how these constitute the socio environmental ethos of this population. The issues on vulnerability to which the poorer classes are exposed have represented a challenge in the search for strategies after risk reduction and applicable ways that people can actively develop. The methodological strategy adopted was of a filed research of the descriptive exploratory qualitative type, carried out in an urbanized city zone in the vicinities of the Ouro Verde residential area, Coroado III, Zona Leste in Manaus. The environment is muddy, located in a flooding area and several water streams run across it and wind up in a creek that gets polluted with tossed waste and trash, causing major environmental problems and bringing about a great deal of difficulty to the dwellers. The techniques for the collection of information were the participative observation and semistructured interview, being Content the method of the analysis. A set of ethical phenomena was identified in the current study in order to justify the proposed commitment and three categories emerged from the socio-environmental reality were named after active passivity ; supportive passivity and controlled passivity , which, after all constitute the socioenvironmental ethos built by this population and browses through the environmental-related issues, their understanding and engagement. The questions arisen do not only contribute to the discussion of these people´s engagement to sharing the possibilities of facing their own problematic, but also to giving greater visibility on this process so there can be more effective and efficient interventions.