In this thesis, I study the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO) depiction of West African forests in its Forestry Outlook Study for Africa: Subregional Report, West Africa, which attempts to describe all of West Africa's forests simultaneously. The FAO is a large international development agency that produces agricultural and environmental information for individual states and other international agencies, such as the World Bank. The FAO's forestry studies pander to Western fears of environmental degradation, assumptions of African backwardness, and the assumed "rational" behavior of private investors in a free market by depicting West African forests as rapidly, uniformly, and irreparably degrading due to "irrational" resource management. The FAO presents privatization as a natural goal of international development, and requisite for "rational" land use. Unless private investors are given control of forests, the FAO implies, "irrational" deforestation will destroy West African forests. The FAO has thus incorporated Western fears about the environment into their neoliberal economic agenda. Academics have challenged the FAO's description of West African forests and have found that, in many cases, the FAO's attempts to provide generalizations and recommendations over large regions do not adequately reflect the economic and geographical diversity of the region. Current academic literature challenges the representation of West Africa, and the environmental discourse of international development. I find that even critics of environmental discourse do not adequately challenge the underlying neoliberal assumptions that motivate the FAO. I propose that critics must further distance themselves from the assumptions inherent to international development by incorporating economic philosophy into their critique. / Master of Arts

Upon identifying the multifaceted and disparate array of ever-changing environmental informants to architectural discourse, one is confronted with how to unite this dialogue in meaningful ways to current modes of thought and action. The question gains more significance as our knowledge of the greater environmental domain becomes more systemic and complexly heterogenic, while at the same time, approaches to the issues have proved to be progressively more reductivist, disconnected, overtly abstracted or theorized, and universally globalized in regard to multifaceted and content-rich human particularities in situ. This research focuses on the implications and applications of Critical Environmentalism (CE) to propose a corresponding epistemological framework to wide-ranging socio-environmental complexities occurring across architectural endeavors, primarily within urban and community developments as comprising the greatest number of intersections between human constructions and the greater environmental domain. CE addresses environmental issues reciprocally emerging across numerous disciplines and theoretical stances and fosters critical and systemically collective approaches to knowledge integration, amalgamating multiple stakeholder perspectives within an interconnective and operational goal of creative communal development and betterment of the human condition in relation to environmental concerns. Situating the environment (Umwelt) as an interconnecting catalyst between divergent points-of-views, CE promotes a multi-methodological, co-enabling framework intended to foster increased ethical and participatory dynamics, communal vitality, co-invested attention, and productive interchanges of knowledge that cultivate an overall quality of knowing and being within the intricacies of the greater domain. As such, it engages broader definitions for architecture within its social community, significantly embodied and epistemologically co-substantiating within a shared, environmental life-place. Fundamentally a hermeneutic standpoint, this investigation elucidates conceptual connections and mutual grounds, objectives, and modes-of-operation across knowledge domains, initiating an essential, socio-environmentally oriented framework for architectural endeavors. In this, it brings together common threads within critical social theory and environmentalist discourse to subsequently promote distinct interconnective components within a framework of socio-environmental thought for architecture. The research then provides case examples and recommendations toward stimulating progressive environmental initiatives and thus increased capacity to improve existing epistemic conditions for architecture, urban design, and community development within the broader scope of Critical Environmentalism.

It is an undeniable truism that the world at large and Africa in particular is facing serious environmental problems such as deforestation, water pollution, air pollution, wetlands destruction, poaching as well as global warming. These problems are mainly caused by economic pressure for industrialisation, technological advancement, population growth, poverty and ignorance. Efforts to tone down these environmental problems have been largely influenced by the employment and deployment of Western ethical theories like land ethic, deep ecology, ecofeminism and social ecology as well as scientific approaches. Whilst these strategies are credited for forming the foundation of environmental discourse, they have not been a one-size-fits-all approach. As a result, they have registered modicum results in mitigating environmental challenges especially with particular reference to Africa. This is simply because they have proved to be anthropocentric and they are not flavoured with socio-cultural realities which identify the indigenous folk and shape their relationship with the natural environment. It is against this backdrop that the researcher feels that African communitarianism as a theory embedded on Ubuntu, Indigenous knowledge system such as taboos and totems and African traditional religion and morality, can chip-in to supply a home-grown solution to African environmental problems. Conscious of the pejorative effects of colonial hegemony through Christianity and the ever-present modern world of scientific undertakings, the researcher recommends a formulation of an environmental ethic that integrates traditional African religion, Christian ethics and scientific conservation methods to ensure an environmental policy that informs and directs sustainable socio-economic trajectory in contemporary Africa. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.A. (Philosophy)

Metaphor as tool is a concept that has increasing analysis and support in the past several years. Long before the wealth of contemporary analysis, Rachel Carson produced Silent Spring, a book hailed as the motivation for a new environmental movement in the United States. The use of metaphor in Silent Spring is most apparent in the title. The title's focus, however poignant, even moving and motivating, is complemented by a rich set of metaphorical entailments and implications that reinforce and strengthen the title's metaphor and represent systemic forces and practices that lead to and prevent a spring of silence. Carson skillfully appropriated marketing metaphors used by chemical companies to sell insecticides and pesticides. She transformed these metaphors into powerful criticisms of indiscriminate chemical practices, forcefully undercutting industry arguments for chemicals as a means of guaranteeing "control." The effects of Carson's metaphors, built on a strong, complex foundation of scientific studies, invite reader participation and interaction as outlined by Lakoff and Johnson. The metaphors further entertain, educate, explain, describe in the sense of Wittgenstein's language games, and tightly integrate action and language. More fundamentally, her metaphors helped to establish a systems view and nature-oriented paradigm for analyzing, and resolving environmental issues and problems in the United States, creating a framework for debate and policy development and implementation, in the vein of Schon's and Rein's arguments for framing and policy design. The metaphors also set a stage for personal motivation by connecting individual human homes to nature and the global environment. / Master of Science

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T14:43:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gabriel Ferreira Carvalho.pdf: 1239864 bytes, checksum: 91bb85bb4e726eeb04deee10aabae809 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-22 / The present research is an analysis of the environment theme during Brazil’s presidential election in 2010. At that time, there was a candidate from the Green Party, Marina Silva, who received about 20 million votes. In order to do this analysis, this research aims at studying the presence of environmental issues in political articles published during the electoral process in question. The object chosen for analysis were the pages of the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, which has the largest daily circulation in the country and is set as the public sphere. The research looks at the concerns regarding the environmental issues throughout world history, in Brazil and in politics. The research also presents the main theories underlying the study of journalism, so the articles can be analyzed as journalistic texts by their frameworks, scheduling themed and public opinion. The method used to analyze the articles was Content Analysis, which employs categories to identify in the texts speeches that are compatible with the categories (qualitative results) searched. Furthermore, it allows one to check the count and percentage of categories approached in the text (quantitative). At the end, integrated into the results were integrated, leading to the conclusion that the environmental issue was not discussed by the candidates nor the newspaper. / A presente pesquisa trata da temática do meio ambiente na eleição à presidência da república no Brasil em 2010 . Isto porque, na ocasião havia a presença da candidata do Partido Verde, Marina Silva, a qual conseguiu cerca de 20 milhões de votos. Para tanto, tem por objetivo geral analisar a presença da questão ambiental nas matérias políticas durante o processo eleitoral em questão. O espaço escolhido para a análise foram as páginas do jornal Folha de S. Paulo, por ser o diário de maior circulação no país e, se configurar como a esfera pública midiática. A pesquisa nesse sentido traçou uma configuração da preocupação ambiental ao longo da história mundial, o meio ambiente no Brasil e na política. A pesquisa também traz as principais teorias que permeiam os estudos do jornalismo, para que possam ser analisados os textos jornalísticos a partir de seus enquadramentos, o agendamento temático e a opinião pública. O método elencado foi o da Análise de Conteúdo onde a partir de categorias foi possível identificar no material empírico as falas significativas compatíveis com as categorias (resultados qualitativos), com verificação da contagem e tratamento percentual das categorias do texto. Ao final, integraram-se os resultados qualitativos e quantitativos, demonstrando que a questão ambiental não é debatida nem pelos candidatos nem pelo jornal.

Esta tese focaliza os itinerários (entendidos como uma sequência de operações que se sucedem no tempo) de catadores de materiais recicláveis integrantes de associações e cooperativas localizadas na região sul do Brasil. Estruturou-se em três arranjos. No primeiro, o trabalho de pesquisa se voltou à compreensão das influências recíprocas entre o campo ambiental e a atividade de reciclagem. No segundo, voltou-se aos modos através dos quais os catadores, desde suas vinculações com a atividade de reciclagem e com o campo ambiental, relacionam-se com variados discursos que os interpelam. Por fim, focalizou as práticas sociais (discursivas e não discursivas) utilizadas por esses sujeitos na (re)invenção de seus cotidianos e suas trajetórias de vida. A investigação foi desenvolvida através do acompanhamento in situ das atividades dos catadores e por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas. Além disso, recorreu à análise documental para a caracterização dos discursos com maior poder de interpelação junto aos catadores. No que tange aos atravessamentos entre o campo ambiental, a reciclagem e os catadores, os resultados interrogam o papel dessa intensa produção simbólica na (re)colocação social da atividade de reciclagem, assim como dos sujeitos que a animam. Sugerem que, a despeito da significativa ampliação do repertório simbólico desde o qual ambos – catador e reciclagem – vêm sendo pensados, as repercussões da incorporação do argumento ambiental para esses sujeitos, em especial sob a forma de oportunidades para reconstrução de si, ainda são pouco sensíveis. A descrição densa das práticas dos catadores, além disso, problematiza a ideia de que estas apenas se conformam às estruturas sociais preexistentes, reproduzindo-as acrítica e inconscientemente. O acompanhamento e a caracterização pormenorizada dessas práticas sublinham aquela sua dimensão criativa, inseparável da estrutura social é certo, mas não completamente determinadas por ela. As catadoras e os catadores de materiais recicláveis, através dos seus itinerários, desafiam-nos a repensar a rigidez dos lugares desde os quais oferecemos leituras acerca dos seus posicionamentos. Desafiam-nos igualmente a rever a rigidez dos lugares que resultam dessas leituras (e que de modo geral são utilizados para “aprisioná-los”). Decorre daí a necessidade, apresentada aqui como sugestão, de tornar mais fluido e móvel o lugar educativo desde o qual tanto as práticas educacionais, quanto as políticas públicas vem sendo pensadas e direcionadas a esses sujeitos. / This thesis focuses on the itineraries (understood as a sequence of operations that take place in time) of recyclable materials collectors members of associations and cooperatives located in southern Brazil. It is structured into three arrangements. In the first arrangement, the research geared toward the understanding of the reciprocal influences between the environmental field and recycling activity. In the second one, it geared toward the ways in which the waste collectors, from their linkages with the recycling activity and the environmental field, relate to various discourses that interpellate them. Finally, it focused on the social practices (discursive and non-discursive) used by these subjects in the (re) invention of their everyday life and their life path. The research was developed through the in situ monitoring of the waste pickers activities and through semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, it was resorted to documentary analysis to characterize the discourses with greater power of interpellation with the waste collectors. With regard to the crossings between the environmental field, recycling and waste collectors, the results interrogate the role of this intense symbolic production in the (re) placement of social recycling activity, as well as the subjects that animate it. It is suggested that despite the significant expansion of the symbolic repertoire from which both collector and recycling have being designed, the effects of the incorporation of the environmental argument for these subjects, particularly in the form of opportunities to rebuild themselves, are still poorly sensitive. The thick description of the practices of collectors also questions the idea that they just conform to existing social structures, reproducing them uncritically and unconsciously. The monitoring and detailed characterization of these practices emphasize its creative dimension, certainly inseparable from the social structure, but not completely determined by it. The women and men collectors of recyclable materials through their itineraries, challenge us to rethink the stiffness of the places from which we offer readings about their positionings. They also challenge us to revise the rigidity of the places that result from these readings (and they are generally used to "capture them"). Hence the need, presented here as a suggestion, to make it more fluid and movable the education place from which both educational practices and public policy have been designed and targeted to those subjects.

<p>During recent years, resilience theory – originally developed in systems ecology – has advanced as a new approach to sustainable development. However, it is still more of an academic theory than a discourse informing environmental politics. The aim of this essay is to study resilience theory as a potential environmental discourse in the making and to outline the political implications it might induce. To gain a more comprehensive knowledge of resilience theory, I study it in relation to already existing environmental discourses. Following earlier research on environmental discourses I define the discourses of ecological modernization, green governmentality and civic environmentalism as occupying the discursive space of environmental politics. Further, I define six central components as characteristics for all environmental discourses. Outlining how both the existing environmental discourses and resilience theory relates to these components enables an understanding of both the political implications of resilience theory and of resilience theory as an environmental discourse in relation to existing environmental discourses. The six central discourse components I define are 1) the view on the nation-state; 2) the view on capitalism; 3) the view on civil society; 4) the view on political order; 5) the view on knowledge; 6) the view on human-nature relations. By doing an empirical textual analysis of academic texts on resilience theory I show that resilience theory assigns a limited role for the nation-state and a very important role for civil society and local actors when it comes to environmental politics. Its view on local actors and civil society is closely related to its relativist view on knowledge. Resilience theory views capitalism as a root of many environmental problems but with some political control and with changing perspectives this can be altered. Furthermore, resilience theory seems to advocate a weak bottom-up perspective on political order. Finally, resilience theory views human-nature relations as relations characterized by human adaptation to the prerequisites of nature. In conclusion, I argue that the empirical analysis show that resilience theory, as an environmental discourse, to a great extent resembles a subdivision of civic environmentalism called participatory multilateralism.</p>

During recent years, resilience theory – originally developed in systems ecology – has advanced as a new approach to sustainable development. However, it is still more of an academic theory than a discourse informing environmental politics. The aim of this essay is to study resilience theory as a potential environmental discourse in the making and to outline the political implications it might induce. To gain a more comprehensive knowledge of resilience theory, I study it in relation to already existing environmental discourses. Following earlier research on environmental discourses I define the discourses of ecological modernization, green governmentality and civic environmentalism as occupying the discursive space of environmental politics. Further, I define six central components as characteristics for all environmental discourses. Outlining how both the existing environmental discourses and resilience theory relates to these components enables an understanding of both the political implications of resilience theory and of resilience theory as an environmental discourse in relation to existing environmental discourses. The six central discourse components I define are 1) the view on the nation-state; 2) the view on capitalism; 3) the view on civil society; 4) the view on political order; 5) the view on knowledge; 6) the view on human-nature relations. By doing an empirical textual analysis of academic texts on resilience theory I show that resilience theory assigns a limited role for the nation-state and a very important role for civil society and local actors when it comes to environmental politics. Its view on local actors and civil society is closely related to its relativist view on knowledge. Resilience theory views capitalism as a root of many environmental problems but with some political control and with changing perspectives this can be altered. Furthermore, resilience theory seems to advocate a weak bottom-up perspective on political order. Finally, resilience theory views human-nature relations as relations characterized by human adaptation to the prerequisites of nature. In conclusion, I argue that the empirical analysis show that resilience theory, as an environmental discourse, to a great extent resembles a subdivision of civic environmentalism called participatory multilateralism.

Overfishing is not an exclusive topic of big fishing industry. Overfishing by small-scale fishers is also happening. The Territorial Use of Rights – TURFs was implemented in Chile to protect the Chilean abalone from overfishing. Through the implementation of the TURFs Chilean abalone are no longer threatened by overfishing. The challenge to protect the resource thus seems to be solved. However, while some problems are solved others persist or new ones arise. The thesis explores the discourses of the Chilean social actors in regard to the development and challenges of the TURFs. The empirical data is formed by a group of interviews, where social issues such as TURFs accomplishments, resource availability, diversification, tenure issues, access to the coast, lack of infrastructure, competition for the space and future expectations, are milestones arising from the empirical material. These issues are analysed through the lens of fishers and stakeholder‟s perception. The paper confirms what other studies such as Cereceda and Czischke 2001, Gallardo 2008, Gallardo and Friman 2012, González et al. 2006, and Meltzoff et al. 2002 have found. Fishers organised nationally through confederations, regional federations and local associations have become active social actors in the artisanal fisheries arena. Similarly, it is also corroborated that through good leadership some fishing organisations are diversifying related and no-related fishing activities to secure better living conditions, thus, constantly evolving, encapsulating more and more benthic fishers‟ social and economic needs. The study concludes that the fishers, even though the difficulties and challenges encountered (heterogeneity of the richness of the seabed and different land issues) during the co-management of some TURFs and due to the fact that they are working in the same designated and exclusive place, they have developed a collective sense of permanent attachment and sense of „property‟ or tenure to the water body where the TURFs are located. Due to their development, the TURFs seem to be more than temporary, raising the question of the land tenure and associated infrastructure development where fishers place their activities, especially in rural areas where settlements do not exist.

Esta tese focaliza os itinerários (entendidos como uma sequência de operações que se sucedem no tempo) de catadores de materiais recicláveis integrantes de associações e cooperativas localizadas na região sul do Brasil. Estruturou-se em três arranjos. No primeiro, o trabalho de pesquisa se voltou à compreensão das influências recíprocas entre o campo ambiental e a atividade de reciclagem. No segundo, voltou-se aos modos através dos quais os catadores, desde suas vinculações com a atividade de reciclagem e com o campo ambiental, relacionam-se com variados discursos que os interpelam. Por fim, focalizou as práticas sociais (discursivas e não discursivas) utilizadas por esses sujeitos na (re)invenção de seus cotidianos e suas trajetórias de vida. A investigação foi desenvolvida através do acompanhamento in situ das atividades dos catadores e por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas. Além disso, recorreu à análise documental para a caracterização dos discursos com maior poder de interpelação junto aos catadores. No que tange aos atravessamentos entre o campo ambiental, a reciclagem e os catadores, os resultados interrogam o papel dessa intensa produção simbólica na (re)colocação social da atividade de reciclagem, assim como dos sujeitos que a animam. Sugerem que, a despeito da significativa ampliação do repertório simbólico desde o qual ambos – catador e reciclagem – vêm sendo pensados, as repercussões da incorporação do argumento ambiental para esses sujeitos, em especial sob a forma de oportunidades para reconstrução de si, ainda são pouco sensíveis. A descrição densa das práticas dos catadores, além disso, problematiza a ideia de que estas apenas se conformam às estruturas sociais preexistentes, reproduzindo-as acrítica e inconscientemente. O acompanhamento e a caracterização pormenorizada dessas práticas sublinham aquela sua dimensão criativa, inseparável da estrutura social é certo, mas não completamente determinadas por ela. As catadoras e os catadores de materiais recicláveis, através dos seus itinerários, desafiam-nos a repensar a rigidez dos lugares desde os quais oferecemos leituras acerca dos seus posicionamentos. Desafiam-nos igualmente a rever a rigidez dos lugares que resultam dessas leituras (e que de modo geral são utilizados para “aprisioná-los”). Decorre daí a necessidade, apresentada aqui como sugestão, de tornar mais fluido e móvel o lugar educativo desde o qual tanto as práticas educacionais, quanto as políticas públicas vem sendo pensadas e direcionadas a esses sujeitos. / This thesis focuses on the itineraries (understood as a sequence of operations that take place in time) of recyclable materials collectors members of associations and cooperatives located in southern Brazil. It is structured into three arrangements. In the first arrangement, the research geared toward the understanding of the reciprocal influences between the environmental field and recycling activity. In the second one, it geared toward the ways in which the waste collectors, from their linkages with the recycling activity and the environmental field, relate to various discourses that interpellate them. Finally, it focused on the social practices (discursive and non-discursive) used by these subjects in the (re) invention of their everyday life and their life path. The research was developed through the in situ monitoring of the waste pickers activities and through semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, it was resorted to documentary analysis to characterize the discourses with greater power of interpellation with the waste collectors. With regard to the crossings between the environmental field, recycling and waste collectors, the results interrogate the role of this intense symbolic production in the (re) placement of social recycling activity, as well as the subjects that animate it. It is suggested that despite the significant expansion of the symbolic repertoire from which both collector and recycling have being designed, the effects of the incorporation of the environmental argument for these subjects, particularly in the form of opportunities to rebuild themselves, are still poorly sensitive. The thick description of the practices of collectors also questions the idea that they just conform to existing social structures, reproducing them uncritically and unconsciously. The monitoring and detailed characterization of these practices emphasize its creative dimension, certainly inseparable from the social structure, but not completely determined by it. The women and men collectors of recyclable materials through their itineraries, challenge us to rethink the stiffness of the places from which we offer readings about their positionings. They also challenge us to revise the rigidity of the places that result from these readings (and they are generally used to "capture them"). Hence the need, presented here as a suggestion, to make it more fluid and movable the education place from which both educational practices and public policy have been designed and targeted to those subjects.