This dissertation offers a philosophical analysis of the ecological crisis through the lens of Hannah Arendt. It frames the ecological crisis as a struggle for situated cohabitation. By analyzing the work of Arendt, this dissertation shows the ways in which the ecological crisis is entwined with the political crisis of plurality. I suggest that these two issues are interconnected and that we need to address both for situated cohabitation. This dissertation is an interdisciplinary work, drawing from environmental philosophy, feminist philosophy, and educational practice. The work is intended to provide novel insight into the current ecological crisis in three ways. First, it grounds its theory in the work of Arendt, a thinker not usually situated in the prevue of environmental scholarship. Second, by synthesizing Arendt's account of plurality with the work of Judith Butler and Ricardo Rozzi, this dissertation explores a politics of plurality that can take account of social and ecological conditions of plurality. Third and finally, the dissertation merges theory with praxis by offering a practical program for doing environmental philosophy with children, a program derived from my sustained experiences working as a facilitator of a philosophy for children (P4C) program. This dissertation does not seek just a theoretical understanding of the ecological crisis, but also a practice of situated cohabitation in the crisis.

La relation entre l’être humain et son environnement naturel a été explorée dans une multitude de domaines de recherche qui ont mené à différents courants de pensée. Ce mémoire de recherche qualitative explore cette relation en tenant compte autant de la littérature des sciences sociales que de celle des sciences naturelles afin de mieux comprendre ce qui rattache l’être humain aux éléments de son environnement naturel. J’axe plus spécifiquement cette recherche sur l’activité de la photographie animale et la notion de l’amateur. En utilisant un cadre conceptuel des attachements ainsi que les concepts d’activité de loisir sérieux et d’amateur, cette recherche questionne 13 photographes ayant pour sujet photographique les espèces de la faune. Lors d’entrevues semi-dirigées, leurs réponses permettent d’analyser la façon dont les éléments du cadre des attachements (objet, dispositif, collectif et corps) s’imbriquent les uns dans les autres chez des individus québécois pratiquant la photographie animalière comme activité de loisir sérieux. À la lumière de cette analyse, je présente un cycle d’investissement dans lequel ces photographes s’engagent et qui les mène à s’attacher davantage à la pratique de la photographie animalière. Cet investissement dans la relation d’attachement et la valorisation qu’ils(elles) font du naturel pourrait aussi leur donner le rôle d’amateurs concernés dans un contexte de crise écologique. Enfin, ce mémoire incite à poser un regard attentif entre la frontière du naturel et de l’artificiel qui, malgré une forte appréciation du naturel ici illustré, peut devenir floue lorsqu’il est question des pratiques post-photographiques. / The relationship between human beings and their natural environments has been explored in various research fields using different research traditions. This qualitative research thesis draws on both social science literature and the natural sciences to better understand what connects human beings to elements of their natural environment. It focuses specifically on photography and the notion of the amateur. Using the sociology of attachment as a conceptual framework and the notions or serious leisure and amateurs, I interviewed 13 wildlife photographers in order to explore 1) the role of photography in the attachment relationship between photographers and wildlife species, and 2) how the elements of the framework of attachments (object, device, collective and human body) overlap with each other for these individuals who practise photography as a serious leisure activity. My analysis reveals a cycle of engagement in which the more amateur photographers invest (emotionally and in terms of time and money) the more attached they become to practising wildlife photography. This commitment and the value they attach to the natural allows them to potentially become engaged as concerned citizens in a context of ecological crisis. Finally, despite the amateur photographers’ strong appreciation of nature and the natural, the thesis invites us to reflect on how distinctions between the artificial and the natural may become blurred, particularly where digital photo treatment is concerned.

The main objective of my dissertation is to analyze and compare the socio-ecological implications of the adoption of genetically modified (GM) seeds and alternative agroecological farming methods for farming communities in Alberta, Canada and Andhra Pradesh, India localities situated in contrasting geopolitical, socio-cultural, and structural-institutional contexts in the global economy. For this research, the adoption of GM canola in Alberta and GM cotton in Andhra Pradesh are used as comparative case studies to explore the qualitative impact of agricultural biotechnology on farming communities. Many studies have examined the potential impact of GM crops, but few have looked beyond economic cost-benefit analysis. In this dissertation, I examine social and cultural aspects of farmer decision-making in the adoption of the new seed technology, farmer receptivity to new cropping methods, knowledge translation between laboratory and farmer, and the impact of global knowledge-based technology on local knowledge systems, socio-cultural practices, the nature-society relationship, and gender relations. I use a global ethnography methodology and draw on a series of field interviews with farmers to provide sociological insight into how global processes of the Gene Revolution impact different farming communities in different localities in the world-economy. In this dissertation I argue that the debate about the new agricultural technologies (e.g. GM seeds), the environment and agrarian crises should not be narrowed to the question of new technologies per se. Rather it should be understood from an agrarian political ecology perspective articulating political economy (neoliberal governance at global, national and provincial levels, and the processes of dispossession of primary agricultural producers from their means and conditions of production), socio-cultural systems (the construction of hegemonic discourse about genetically modified organisms, agricultural deskilling, gender relations), and ecosystems (a process of mastering nature, monoculturization, environmental risks, metabolic rift) in the context of neoliberal globalization. My fieldwork study of the Gene Revolution provides closer, more fine-grained research and analysis of its impacts with sensitivity to local class and status, gender and cultural issues, and the ways in which farmers technology adoption decisions can dramatically alter overall quality of life, local knowledge systems, community development, the sustainability of agriculture and the ecosystem itself.

No description available.

Submitted by Priscilla Araujo (priscilla@ibict.br) on 2016-08-09T16:03:56Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) cassia costa rocha_mestrado_2014.pdf: 3735326 bytes, checksum: d3e67d743c134b69403ba23833a51cac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-09T16:03:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) cassia costa rocha_mestrado_2014.pdf: 3735326 bytes, checksum: d3e67d743c134b69403ba23833a51cac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-28 / No contexto da crise ecológica, aponta os principais impactos socioambientais, ocasionados pelo modelo de produção e consumo baseados no crescimento econômico. Aborda o escopo das propostas do desenvolvimento sustentável, economia verde e decrescimento, que por caminhos distintos visam conter o agravamento da crise ecológica. Denuncia o quadro de desinformação programada sobre os efeitos da exploração dos recursos naturais. Por esse motivo, ressalta a importância da informação ambiental para tomada de decisão e mobilização social em prol da preservação dos ecossistemas. Destaca o papel estratégico das energias renováveis, sobretudo, da energia eólica no cenário da crise ecológica. Identifica as propriedades da tecnologia eólica, bem como o panorama mundial em relação ao uso dessa fonte, com ênfase para sua participação na matriz elétrica brasileira. Discute as dinâmicas do processo de inovação, e evidencia sua relevância para a estruturação do setor eólico no Brasil. Associa as inovações promovidas no referido setor as eco-inovações. Evidencia a contribuição da PD&I ao aperfeiçoamento tecnológico referente ao aproveitamento da energia eólica. Realiza um mapeamento dos grupos de pesquisa que tratam sobre energia eólica no Diretório de Grupos de Pesquisa no Brasil do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), e avalia as informações compiladas. Investiga se as pesquisas desenvolvidas pelos grupos contemplam as demandas tecnológicas do setor eólico, delineadas no estudo "Análises e percepções para o desenvolvimento de uma política de CT&I no fomento da energia eólica no Brasil", publicado pelo Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos (CGEE). Conclui, a partir da análise dos resultados do questionário aplicado, que existe um ambiente favorável ao avanço do setor eólico brasileiro, no que concerne as pesquisas científicas desenvolvidas em áreas consideras estratégicas / In the context of the ecological crisis, highlights the main environmental impacts caused by the production and consumption model based on economic growth. Discusses the scope of the proposed sustainable development, green economy and decrease, which in different ways seek to contain the worsening ecological crisis. Denounces the box programmed misinformation about the effects of the exploitation of natural resources. For this reason, emphasizes the importance of environmental information for decision making and social mobilization in favor of the preservation of ecosystems. Highlights the strategic role of renewable energy, especially wind power in scenario of ecological crisis. Identifies the properties of wind technology, as well as the world stage regarding the use of this source, with emphasis on its participation in the Brazilian energy matrix. Discusses the dynamics of the innovation process, and demonstrates its relevance to the structure of the wind industry in Brazil. Associates promoted innovations in that sector of eco-innovations. Evidence the contribution of PD&I to the technological improvement regarding the use of wind energy. Performs a mapping of research groups that deal with wind energy in the Research Groups Directory at Brazil 's National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and evaluates the compiled information. Investigates if the research developed by the groups include the technological demands of the wind industry, outlined in the study "Analyzes and insights for the development of a policy of CT&I in promoting of wind energy in Brazil", published by the Center for Management and Strategic Studies (CGEE). Concludes, from the analysis of the results of the applied questionnaire, there is a favorable environment for the advancement of Brazilian wind industry, regarding the developed scientific research in strategic areas.

Submitted by Priscilla Araujo (priscilla@ibict.br) on 2016-10-10T18:49:24Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Wladmir Motta_Doutorado_2016.pdf: 3638681 bytes, checksum: 47a03a7aa9e3d1aa80e14727f96aa9f9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-10T18:49:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Wladmir Motta_Doutorado_2016.pdf: 3638681 bytes, checksum: 47a03a7aa9e3d1aa80e14727f96aa9f9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-04 / A geração de bens e serviços se desenvolve à custa da utilização dos recursos naturais e da produção e geração de descartes ao longo do processo produtivo, o que trouxe como consequências o aquecimento global e o esgotamento crescente dos recursos naturais, dentre outros graves problemas que provocam a deterioração das condições de vida no planeta. Analisar e compreender melhor o processo de geração e adoção de ecoinovações para um planeta sustentável é uma condição necessária para o enfrentamento desta crise ecológica e é nesse contexto que a revisão das práticas industriais se torna um importante elemento para revelar as áreas onde o esforço inovativo pode se concentrar. Esta tese discute a avaliação do ciclo de vida (ACV), uma abordagem de avaliação dos impactos ambientais que vem ganhando cada vez mais aceitação e que examina os impactos ambientais de um produto / serviço, a partir de suas origens, desde a extração das matérias-primas, considerando a produção e uso, até o seu descarte. A tese busca identificar a dinâmica que levou a sua difusão no mercado internacional, compreender seu atual estágio no Brasil, investigar a relação entre a ACV e a ecoinovação, identificar os condicionantes para a efetiva disseminação e uso da ACV no Brasil, identificando assim oportunidades para tal. Assim, seu objetivo principal é identificar as barreiras e oportunidades para a adoção das ferramentas relacionadas à abordagem do ciclo de vida do produto no Brasil, tendo em vista as possibilidades de geração de ecoinovações daí decorrentes. O campo teórico utilizado foi pautado em torno (i) da crise ecológica, com uma crítica ao atual modelo capitalista baseado no crescimento contínuo da produção e consumo; (ii) da ACV, uma metodologia que vem se tornando elemento chave de políticas ambientais ou de ações voluntárias em diversos países; e (iii) da ecoinovação, entendida como um tipo de inovação que resulta, através de sua vida útil, em uma redução do risco ambiental, da poluição e de outros impactos negativos quanto ao uso de recursos naturais. A metodologia da presente pesquisa foi desenvolvida a partir do levantamento teórico e sua discussão, e de uma pesquisa de campo de âmbito nacional e internacional, com utilização de questionários aplicados a especialistas na área de ACV. Os dados coletados a respeito da ACV ajudaram a apontar os condicionantes para seu uso, os impactos ambientais mais contemplados em seus estudos e suas complexidades. Ainda foi validada a inter-relação entre a ACV e a ecoinovação, identificando o ecodesign como a prática que mais evidência este vínculo. Os resultados apontam como determinantes para o uso da ACV: a regulamentação; o mercado; e a utilização das informações provenientes do estudo como insumo para a tomada de decisão. A fim de trazer uma proposta que colabore com a implementação da ACV no Brasil, o estudo sugere a pegada de carbono como precursora de estudos de ACV nas empresas brasileiras. / The generation of goods and services develops at the expense of use of natural resources and the production and generation of discharges during the production process, which brought as consequences global warming and the increasing depletion of natural resources, among other serious problems that cause the deterioration of living conditions on the planet. Analyze and better understand the process of generation and adoption of eco-innovations for a sustainable planet is a necessary condition to face this ecological crisis and it is in this context that a review of industry practices becomes an important element to reveal the areas where innovative efforts can concentrate. This thesis discusses the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), an evaluation approach of environmental impacts impacts of a product / service from its origins, from the extraction of raw raw, considering the production and use to disposal, that is gaining more acceptance. The thesis seeks to identify the dynamic that led to its spread in the international market, understand its current state in Brazil, investigate the relationship between the LCA and eco-innovation, identify constraints and opportunities to the effective dissemination and use of LCA in Brazil. The main goal of this thesis is to identify the barriers and opportunities for the adoption of product life cycle approach methodologies in Brazil, considering the possibilities for eco-innovation generation arising therefrom. The theoretical field used was guided around (i) the ecological crisis, with a critique of the current capitalist model based on continued growth in production and consumption; (ii) LCA, a methodology that is becoming a key element of environmental policies or voluntary activities in different countries; and (iii) eco-innovation, understood as a kind of innovation that results through its life cycle, in a reduction of environmental risk, pollution and other impacts on the use of natural resources. The methodology of this research was developed from theoretical research and discussion, and a national and international field research, using questionnaires given to profissionals and experts in the LCA field. The data collected about LCA helped point out conditioners for it use, the environmental impacts more included in their studies and the LCA complexities. Yet it has been validated the interrelationship between the LCA and eco-innovation, identifying the ecodesign as the practice that more evidence this link. The results show as drivers for LCA use: regulation; the market; and the use of information from the study as an input for decision making. In order to bring a proposal to collaborate with the implementation of the LCA in Brazil, the study suggests the carbon footprint as a precursor of LCA studies in Brazilian companies.

This diploma thesis deals with the environmental education of young people and it highlights its importance for the transfer towards the sustainable society. It emphasizes the need to get into the core of the problem, which is the emotional alienation of present-day people from the nature and environment. In the theoretical part it proves the existence of many various attitudes towards the world and the possibility of environmental education to bring students to those less self-centred and more considerate. It then presents the basis of environmental education, its development and mainly its trends reflecting today's need to focus on environmental sensitivity and personal responsibility of each individual. It shows that both areas are possible to cultivate in lessons of civics and social sciences, which provide significant space for the integration of environmental education. These subjects stress the need to educate students in the way which would help them to acquire skills of both responsible citizens of the society and considerate inhabitants of this beautiful planet. The practical part therefore suggests concrete ways for integration of environmental education into the subjects of civics and social sciences which would lead students towards sustainable living in the society and in the whole of...

This project engages with the Kogi, an Amerindian indigenous people from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range in northern Colombia. Kogi leaders have been engaging in a consistent ecological-political activism to protect the Sierra Nevada from environmentally harmful developments. More specifically, they have attempted to raise awareness and understanding among the wider public about why and how these activities are destructive according to their knowledge and relation to the world. The foreign nature of these underlying ontological understandings, statements, and practices, has created difficulties in conveying them to mainstream, scientific society. Furthermore, the pre-determined cosmological foundations of Kogi society, continuously asserted by them, present a problem to anthropology in terms of suitable analytical categories. My work aims to clarify and understand Kogi environmental activism in their own terms, aided by anthropological concepts and “Western” forms of expression. I elucidate and explain how Kogi ecology and public politics are embedded in an old, integrated, and complex way of being, knowing, and perceiving on the Sierra Nevada. I argue that theoretically this task involves taking a realist approach that recognises the Kogi’s cause as intended truth claims of practical environmental relevance. By avoiding constructivist and interpretivist approaches, as well as the recent “ontological pluralism” in anthropology, I seek to do justice to the Kogi’s own essentialist and universalist ontological principles, which also implies following their epistemological rationale. For this purpose, I immersed myself for two years in Kogi life on the Sierra, and focused on structured learning sessions with three Mamas, Kogi spiritual leaders and knowledge specialists. I reflect on how this interaction was possible because my project was compatible with the Mamas’ own desire to clarify and contextualise the Kogi ecological cause. After presenting this experience, I analyse the material as a multifaceted, interrelated, and elaborate system to reflect the organic, structured composition of Kogi and Sierra, also consciously conveyed as such by the Mamas. I hereby intend to show how the Kogi reproduce, live, and sustain this system through daily practices and institutions, and according to cosmological principles that guide a knowledgeable, ecological relationality with things, called ‘the Law of Origin’. To describe this system, I develop a correspondingly holistic and necessary integration of the anthropological concepts of cosmology, ontology, epistemology, and ecology. Based on this, I argue that Kogi eco-politics are equally embedded in this system, and constitute a contemporary attempt to maintain their regulatory relations with the Sierra Nevada and complement their everyday care-taking practices and rituals. In Kogi terms, this continuity and coherence is a moral imperative and environmental necessity. Thus framing and clarifying Kogi eco-politics may enrich insights into the nature of indigenous ecological knowledge, and may help address environmental problems.

Since the advent of the environmental crisis, some writers have raised concerns with the moral influence of Christian scripture and interpretive traditions, such as the medieval book of nature, a hermeneutic in which nature and scripture are "read" in reference to one another. Scripture, they argue, has tended to stifle sacred relationships with nature as a non-human other. This thesis argues that such perspectives are reductive of the sacred quality of scripture. Environmental perspectives should be concerned with the desacralization of religious texts in addition to nature. Chapter one suggests that two questions surrounding the medieval book of nature's history can help us address ways that such perspectives reduce religious interpretation of sacred texts. The first question is the tension between manifestation and proclamation, or the question of how scripture and nature reveal sacred meanings. The second is the problem of evil, or the question of where evil and suffering come from. It also proposes that Shakespeare's As You Like It and religious philosophy, particularly Paul Ricoeur's writings, can help us address these problems and provide a contemporary religious perspective of the "book of nature." Drawing on scenes in the play in which nature is "read" as a book and Ricoeur's essay on "Manifestation and Proclamation," chapter two argues how manifestation often works interdependently with proclamation. Chapter three discusses how anthropocentric worldviews in which natural entities are exploited also distort interpretive relationships with scripture. Overcoming desacralization requires giving up desires to suppress contingencies, particularly suffering, in nature and in interpreting religious texts. Only as the characters in As You Like It accept contingencies are they able to engage hidden sources of hope, which is comparable to the need to let go of mastery in interpretation Ricoeur describes. Chapter four discusses problems with attempts to uncover the origins of the environmental crisis by discussing what Ricoeur writes about the problems with theodicy and Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenology of evil. Assumptions that specific human origins for evil can be blamed confirm deceptively human-centered worldviews and can mask valuable messages about how to morally respond to suffering that are taught in Judeo-Christian narratives.

This paper interweaves narrativized readings and experiential narratives as personal and cultural resources for counterhegemonic cultural critique within our historical context of globalization and ecological crisis. Framed by perspectives on epistemology, everyday life, and place, these reflections seek to engage and revitalize our notions of community, creativity, and the individual, towards visioning the human art of community as a counternarrative to globalization. Such a task involves confronting the meanings we have come to ascribe to work and economy which so deeply determine our social fabric. Encountering the thought of key 19th and 20th century social theorists ranging from William Morris, Gregory Bateson, and Raymond Williams, to Murray Bookchin, Martin Buber, and Wendell Berry, these reflections mark the indivisible web of culture in the face of our insistent divisions, and further, iterate our innate creativity as the source for a vital, sustainable culture that might reflect, in Bateson’s terms, the pattern that connects.