As environmental issues and the communities that confront them increasingly transcend borders, environmentalists in the North (wealthier countries) and the South (poorer countries) face the challenges of effective communication and collaboration. Acknowledging differences in how environmentalists culturally construct the environment is an important starting point; particularly given the tendency on the part of Northern environmentalists to assume (a) that environmentalism is essentially the same in different cultures i.e., it is all like Northern environmentalism; and (b) that environmentalism is more developed in the North. This study examines and compares the constructed environments of a sample of Mexican and Canadian environmentalists. Some significant differences are identified. The environmentalists in the two countries constructed the environment differently as a result of their distinct histories, economies and use of technology. Cultural constructions of the physical environment overlap with and cannot be separated from constructions of the social, cultural, political and economic environment.

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The media has had a significant impact on spreading environmental awareness internationally. The issues covered in the media can be seen as both representative of and an influence upon the heterogeneous public. This paper describes the environmental reporting in the South African provincial newspaper, the Natal Witness, and considers the results to both represent and influence South African environmental ideology. Environmental reporting in South Africa has been criticised for its focus on 'green' environmental issues. This criticism is rooted in the traditionally elite nature of both the media and environmentalists. However, both the media and environmentalists have been noted to be undergoing transformation. This research tests the veracity of assertions that environmental reporting is elitist, and has found that the assertions accurately describe reporting in the Witness. 'Green' themes are most commonly found, and sources and actors tend to be white and men. However, a broad range of discourses were noted, showing that the paper gives voice to a range of ideologies. These results hopefully will make a positive contribution to the environmental field by initiating debate, further studies, and reflection on the part of environmentalists, journalists, and academics on the relationship between the media and the South African environment. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Orientadores: Leila da Costa Ferreira, Roberto Pereira Guimarães / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-12T15:45:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Albuquerque_AntonioCarlosCarneirode_D.pdf: 2983033 bytes, checksum: 1c5e8b505bfe487d81f5831ce7724802 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Nesta tese estabeleceu-se o objetivo de pesquisar a construção da abordagem socioambiental, na perspectiva da sociedade civil da América Latina no âmbito internacional, com o recorte nas conferências internacionais e reuniões organizadas pelas Nações Unidas sobre meio ambiente. Neste sentido, o que se pretendeu nesse trabalho foi compreender as origens, os significados e os desdobramentos das discussões sobre a sustentabilidade, o desenvolvimento, a temática ambiental, ocorridas nas fases preparatórias e durante a realização desses encontros, e de que forma levaram à formação de uma perspectiva socioambiental na arena internacional. Também são apresentadas as alterações no contexto, nos elementos constitutivos e nos referenciais teóricos criados pelos atores participantes dos fóruns internacionais patrocinados pela ONU ao longo de cerca de cinco décadas, especialmente no que diz respeito à sociedade civil. Procurou-se, assim, realizar a análise dos registros e produtos gerados nas fases preparatórias e durante a realização de cada um dos eventos internacionais, tanto na agenda oficial quanto nos eventos paralelos de cada um deles. A tese também faz uma análise segundo cada um dos períodos históricos vinculados às conferências e reuniões da ONU e cobertos pela pesquisa (1960 e 1970, 1980, 1990 e século XXI), procurando construir uma caracterização dos movimentos e das organizações sociais em relação a sua forma de organização, a sua agenda, ao seu modo de atuação e as suas relações com os demais atores sociais, com especial atenção para a realidade Latino-Americana. Na parte conceitual, formulou-se um breve panorama acerca das principais correntes de pensamento que procuraram refletir sobre a sociedade civil e os movimentos sociais na transição do século XX para o século XXI, onde são apontados os elementos mais significativos de como tais linhas de pensamento procuravam analisar e compreender suas características, suas relações com seus pares e com os demais atores sociais da esfera pública e privada, além deressaltar as diferenças em relação à sociedade civil de outras épocas. O objetivo principal era salientar que são conceitos em constante alteração e objeto de grande debate por parte do campo acadêmico e em várias áreas do conhecimento, reflexos da complexidade que tais atores vêm ganhando ao longo do tempo. Por ser a América Latina o foco de análise da tese, são apresentadas informações sobre os fatores sociais, econômicos e políticos da região a partir de eixos temáticos comuns, característicos do continente e que têm significância para o surgimento da abordagem socioambiental: elementos sociais, políticos e econômicos históricos, as relações entre os campos públicos e privados e a relações da sociedade civil com o Estado, na democracia e em regimes autoritários. Tal apreciação abrange os seguintes países: Argentina, Bolívia, Brasil, Chile, Colômbia, Equador, México e Peru. A esse painel soma-se um quadro sobre a situação e os desafios ambientais na América Latina e suas relações com a esfera internacional. Finalmente, são apresentados os elementos que pautaram a formulação da abordagem socioambiental e os desafios para que esta visão seja efetivamente implantada por atores sociais, propondo-se, para tanto, da adoção de um paradigma pautado pela Ecopolítica, capaz de enfrentar a questão ambiental, sua complexidade e seu caráter global. / Abstract: In this thesis objective was to investigate the construction of the social environmental approach in the perspective of the Latin America civil society at international level, with the cutting out in the international conferences and meetings organized by the United Nations on environment. In this sense, the intent was to understand the origins, the meanings and the ramifications the debate about sustainability, development, environmental issues taken place in the preparatory phases and during the realization of these meetings and, in which form they led to the formation of a social environmental perspective at the international level. It also shows the changes on the context, in the constitutive elements and in the theoretical referential created by the actors along five decades, especially regarding civil society. Therefore an analysis of the registers and products produced in the preparatory phases and during the realization of each one of the international events was carried out, both in the official scenario and in the parallel events. The theory also does an analysis following each one of the historical periods linked to the conferences and meetings of the United Nations and covered by the research (1960 and 1970, 1980, 1990 and century XXI) in order to build a characterization of the movements and social organization regarding their form, agenda, way of acting and of their relationship with other social actors, with special attention for the Latin-American reality. In the part conceptual part a short view was formulated about the main theoretical groups that tried to explain civil society and social movements during the transition of the century XX for the century XXI, where the most significant elements were highlighted referring to their characteristics, relations with their peers and with other social actors of the public and private sphere, besides emphasizing the differences regarding the civil society of other times. The main objective was to point out that those are concepts in constant alteration and object of great discussion on the academic field and in several areas, which reflects the complexity those actors have gained along the time. Since the Latin America is the focus of analysis of the theory, information about historical, social, economical and political reality of the region have been presented from a thematic axles referring common characteristic of the continent and that have signification for the appearance of social environmental approach: historical social, political and economical elements, relations between the public and private fields and relations of the civil society with the State in the democracy and in authoritarian regimes. Such an appreciation includes the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. A picture is added up to this panel on the situation and the environmental challenges in the Latin America and its relations with the international sphere. Finally, the thesis presents the elements that ruled the formulation of the social environmental approach and the challenges so that this vision might be effectively implemented by social actors, being proposed the adoption of a paradigm ruled by Ecological Politics, able to face the environmental issue, its complexity and global character. / Doutorado / Aspectos Sociais de Sustentabilidade e Conservação / Doutor em Ambiente e Sociedade