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.

The sustainable development discourse has been incorporated into the political programs resulting in many different strategies. The search for a different kind of development is in the core of the discussion about sustainability; therefore, it is based on the participation of different social groups in order to achieve ecological, economical and social goals. With the purpose to contribute to environmental politics analysis, considering the sustainability discourse analysis under empirical and conceptual point of view as a methodological alternative, this research aimed to analyze the environmental discourse in Sustainable Regional Development Program – SRDP in Southwestern Bahia, Brazil and its reflects on territorial planning between 2000 and 2005. This research was carried out with bibliographic review, survey of cartographic documents; search for executed actions, elaboration of thematic maps, interview with government, private company and civil society representatives, and the analysis of collected dates. The SRDP pointed out five sustainable dimensions: environmental, economic-social, historic-cultural, scientific-technologic and political-institutional. However, the sustainable discourse defended by the PDRS valorizes essentially the economic competitively with repercussions on territorial ordination. The investigation into community participation in SRDP Bahia permitted to verify the weak actuation of associations and syndicates on problems discussion concerning the solutions to regional development supported by sustainability. This reality showed the devaluation of the democratic management. Among the actions focused on sustainability, it was pointed out the production and commercialization of regional products as a result of direct action of local associations. According to official report analysis, the government actions focused on sustainability occurred in different state segments, each working in isolation. According to the stakeholders’ report, these actions occurred in vertical form and predominantly incompatible with regional community reality. Thus, the Program served to legitimate a sustainability discourse to attend just a few stakeholders. The results permitted clarify the interest in competition on nature appropriation, with repercussion on target-territory of this environmental policy. Finally, it is essential to admit the necessity of reflection on environmental policies on which the sustainability should have a multidimensional character, and should be focused on legitimate participation in decision-making, as well as in management of production in order to attend social needs. / O discurso do desenvolvimento sustentável penetrou nas políticas estatais resultando em estratégias diferenciadas. A busca por outro tipo de desenvolvimento está no centro das discussões acerca da sustentabilidade, fundado na participação dos diferentes atores sociais a fim de atender aos objetivos sociais, econômicos e ecológicos. Buscando contribuir para a análise das políticas ambientais, considerando conceitual e empiricamente a análise do discurso da sustentabilidade como alternativa metodológica, essa pesquisa teve por objetivo geral analisar o discurso ambiental no Programa de Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável – PDRS da Região Sudoeste da Bahia e seus reflexos no planejamento territorial no período de 2000 a 2005. Foi feita a revisão bibliográfica; levantamento da documentação cartográfica; pesquisa sobre as ações implementadas; elaboração de mapas temáticos; realização de entrevista semiestruturada com representantes do Estado, da iniciativa privada e da sociedade civil; sistematização e análise dos dados coletados. O PDRS destaca cinco dimensões da sustentabilidade: geoambiental, econômico-social, histórico-cultural, científicotecnológica e político-institucional. Entretanto, o discurso da sustentabilidade defendido no PDRS valoriza primordialmente a competitividade econômica com repercussões no planejamento territorial. A investigação sobre a participação de entidades comunitárias no PDRS Sudoeste da Bahia permitiu constatar que houve uma fraca atuação de associações e sindicatos na discussão dos problemas e na busca de soluções para o desenvolvimento regional fundado na sustentabilidade o que representa a desvalorização da gestão democrática. Dentre as ações voltadas para a sustentabilidade na Região Sudoeste da Bahia se destacam a produção e comercialização de produtos regionais como resultado da ação direta de associações locais. As ações governamentais voltadas para a sustentabilidade na Região ocorreram de forma fragmentada nos diferentes setores do governo, conforme análise de relatórios oficiais. Os depoimentos da maioria dos atores regionais revelam que essas ações se deram de forma verticalizada e predominantemente incompatíveis com a realidade das comunidades da Região. Desse modo, o Programa serviu para legitimar um discurso de sustentabilidade para operacionalizar demandas de alguns atores. Os resultados permitiram explicitar os interesses em disputa na apropriação da natureza, com repercussões para o territórioalvo dessa política ambiental. Finalmente, é essencial admitir a necessidade de reflexão sobre políticas ambientais nas quais a sustentabilidade tenha um caráter multidimensional e seja pautada na participação legítima na tomada de decisões e na gestão da produção a fim de atender as necessidades sociais.

Poland is known for its hesitant attitude towards the Green New Deal. Such approach is often expressed in the political discourse of the governing party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość. Despite approval of the European Green Deal, Polish action plans for energy transition are not ambitious. A significant part of Polish society, characterized by low environmental awareness, opposes decarbonization. This paper examines factors limiting and enabling a Green New Deal in Poland as seen through the perspective of Polish media discourse. Content analysis was applied to identify the frequency of aspects mentioned in national newspapers supporting or hindering the agenda of a Polish Green New Deal. The study is focused on media coverage of the ecological crisis, the European Union effect, neo-pluralist mobilization, or green conversion prospects, as factors potentially enabling a Green New Deal in Poland. It concentrates on media coverage related to the Soviet legacy, dependency on dirty energy, and the domestic power of energy firms and corporatist links between the ruling party and state- owned companies, and Euroscepticism, as prospective factors disenabling a Green New Deal in Poland. The findings raise a question if the promotion of universal environmental and energy standards is possible given countries’ differences in economic profile and level of development.

This thesis attempts to problematize the power relations in environmental administration and decision making through the analytical lens of environmental discourse and ethics. It argues that developments in environmental politics reveal a marked increase in democratic involvement through an emerging ecological civil society as reflected in the case study of the proposed King William Reservoir in Virginia. An ecological civil society could become the leaders and educators in communities to develop the expertise needed for responsible democratic participation in environmental decision making at the local level. As reflected in the case study, however, official political marginalization and exclusion of the public are continued features of federal and state environmental processes and structures. These processes and structures should be re-formed to include new democratic elements which would increase local control and responsibility for environmental transformations, and reduce conflicts overall. / Master of Science

Published in 1977, Wendell Berry's book The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture gained widespread popularity. More than half a century later, many of the notions of the body and the earth presented in its seventh chapter, "The Body and the Earth," remain relevant and important for environmental discourse today. Berry's discussion of the body and the earth examines their mutuality and codependence from an ontological, theological, agricultural, and even biological perspective. The coupling of this text with Judith Butler's, Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? contemporizes his argument through its more socio-political and philosophical claims regarding life and the body. Through the discussion of societal frames that often prescribe the value of life and bodies, Butler introduces the concept of precarity, or the imposition of violence and its resultant instability of the body. Driven by the external forces of society, precarity weakens, commodifies, and exploits the body, creating unsustainable social systems. As we learn from Berry, this bodily precarity parallels the violence and mistreatment of the earth. The body, and its ecological and anthropological interconnectedness, establishes both material and immaterial ties to the earth, suggesting that any damage done to the body affects not just itself, but the entire system. In bringing together Butler and Berry through an ecocritical dialogue, a new ethic regarding the formation and meaning of a life emerges, prompting revision of the current societal parameters that establish the definitions of the body and the earth. Berry's resurgent relevance comes from his admonitions to repair the relationships of all bodies and the networks of which they are a part. Thus, the connection between an individual and their body, other bodies, and the earth must be restored for an environmental ethic to both persist and establish productive environmental change.

Yes / What is the nature and extent of engagement within peace research with the unfolding global environmental crisis, as captured in discourses about the ‘Anthropocene’(Bonneuil & Fressoz, 2017; Dalby, 2015)? Is the peace research scholarly community connecting with significant debates taking place in the earth sciences or among social and political movements? If it is, in what ways? Are concepts of violence and peace evolving in line with the major trends driving change this century, including climate change? This article seeks answers to these questions through a systematic survey and thematic analysis of publications in key peace-related journals and book series.What is the nature and extent of engagement within peace research with the unfolding global environmental crisis, as captured in discourses about the ‘Anthropocene’(Bonneuil & Fressoz, 2017; Dalby, 2015)? Is the peace research scholarly community connecting with significant debates taking place in the earth sciences or among social and political movements? If it is, in what ways? Are concepts of violence and peace evolving in line with the major trends driving change this century, including climate change? This article seeks answers to these questions through a systematic survey and thematic analysis of publications in key peace-related journals and book series.

Environmental quality is a construct that has currency at the interface between science and policy—it is used both to describe current conditions as well as prescribe desired future conditions. However, environmental quality has a multiplicity of definitions, owing to: a) the fact that there are a number of terms (or "sub constructs") taken to be synonymous with environmental quality (i.e. environmental health, sustainability, biodiversity, integrity, and the like), and b) the fact that each of these sub constructs, in turn, have multiple meanings. Many in the field of natural sciences have been working on this problem of ambiguity—attempting to develop precise and powerful definitions. Still others argue that environmental quality is a concept open to societal negotiation (in addition to scientific discovery). In this thesis, I argue that environmental quality can be understood and discussed by examining understandings of Nature and evaluations for Nature that seem to contribute to the ambiguity of meanings and outcomes for environmental quality. To reach these conclusions, I interviewed 24 stakeholders who represented a broad range of concerns about and interests in environmental quality on private forest land in Southwest Virginia. I reviewed nearly 300 pages of interview text, looking for emerging themes and structures from their hour-long (on average) discussions of environmental quality. I found that among these 24 stakeholders, there were indeed, many ways of defining environmental quality (i.e. health, biodiversity, site productivity, et cetera). Additionally, I found that these different definitions for environmental quality seem to correlate with different understandings of Nature (what is Nature like?) and different values for Nature (how should Nature be used?) I conclude by discussing these implications, using examples from forestry outreach and extension. / Master of Science

This dissertation examines the environmental discourse of the USDA Forest Service, focusing on the language of ecosystem management (EM). A two pronged approach was employed: eleven interviews were conducted with agency executives (chapter two); thirty-three interviews were conducted with agency staff specialists and decision-makers, working at the agency's operational levels (chapter three and four). Differences between how agency executives view EM and how agency operators view EM were identified. Chapter two shows that agency executives generally believed that the process of EM is ingrained in the agency. Chapter three explores this assertion at the forest and district levels, and reveals conflicting stories concerning the current practice of EM. Agency operators explained EM as a process driven by ecological science, but also revealed an alternate planning process. The alternate planning process is driven by the agency's budget and strict employee roles. Through qualitative analysis of interviews with agency operators, a model of how agency operators construct agency planning was created. It illustrates the potential mismatch between planning focused on ecological science and an agency focused on budgets, cost-benefit calculations, and strict employee roles. The model also shows that agency operators described active and passive publics in their constructions of agency planning. Chapter four focuses on these constructs of the public, and shows how they are partly created by agency interpretations of the public involvement processes required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In some cases, the agency applies a standard for public participation (substantive sieve) that requires publics to couch their concerns in scientific or legal terms. Publics that are able to navigate the substantive sieve are typically viewed as active publics, while those that cannot meet this standard are viewed as passive publics. A feedback mechanism was identified between constructs of the public and agency process; constructs of the public shape agency process and agency process shapes agency constructions of the public. The dissertation concludes by showing that agency focus on budgetary targets and the use of the substantive sieve can be understood as attempts to instill accountability into a decentralized agency with an ambiguous mission. / Ph. D.

This study tries to increase the understanding on how expansionist aviation policies are rationalized against the background of climate change politics. The study executes a case study on the Netherlands, focusing on the Royal Schiphol Group aviation expansion project. In order to aid the understanding of the rationale justifying the expansion project, a discourse analysis inspired by environmental discourse theory, is employed. The methodological framework is grounded in John S. Dryzek’s literature on environmental discourses and supported by Fairclough’s school of critical discourse analysis. This framework allows the study to touch upon elements of knowledge and power and incorporates elements of explanatory critique. The results of the discourse analysis uncover that the Royal Schiphol Group expansion project is justified by two dominant narratives. The first is a rather practical argument that excludes the aviation sector from the countries national emission reduction pledges, based on the notion of economic competition. The second and most dominant narrative appears to be a reproduction of the discourse of ecological modernization, promoting the idea that ecological conservation and economic growth have a harmonized and even empowering relationship. Yet, the discussion uncovers that these discursive elements are largely grounded in false claims. It furthermore explains that, even though the knowledge claims appear to be flawed, they still prevail as alternative knowledge is neglected from the debate. Supported by literature of Geels, it argues that the dominance of these narratives is largely motivated by an attempt to resist structural change to low-carbon futures.

Med sin grund i klimatutmaningen och en utbredd klimatångest, försöker den här uppsatsen förstå hoppfullhet i miljödiskursen genom en socialkonstruktivistisk lins. En diskursanalys har genomförts av tre videokällor med talare som på olika sätt agerar som röster för miljörörelsen. Materialet som har analyserats i det här arbetet är ett TED-talk, ett tal från Climate Innovation Summit 2016 och ett avsnitt av det svenska tv-programmet Idévärlden. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hur en medvetenhet av begreppet Planetens hållbara gränser påverkar hoppfullhet och hopplöshet inom miljödiskursen. Resultatet visade att de flesta talarna tog del av en hoppfull diskurs med en viss tilltro till ekologisk modernisering och att en medvetenhet om Planetens hållbara gränser kan påverka hoppfullhet och hopplöshet på olika sätt. Studien är viktig för att en förståelse för miljödiskursen är ett steg mot att öka miljömedvetet beteende och minska klimatångest i en tid då vi behöver agera mot klimatförändringarna. Studien ger en genomgång av tidigare forskning samt en översiktlig historisk presentation av miljödiskursen och avslutar sedan med reflektion av det egna arbetet och förslag för fortsatta studier. / In light of the climate challenge and widespread climate anxiety, this thesis seeks to understand hope in the environmental discourse through a lense of social constructivism. A discourse analysis has been conducted of three video sources, with speakers who in different ways are voices for the environmental movement. The material investigated in this study is a TED talk, a speech from Climate Innovation Summit 2016 and an episode from the swedish tv-show Idévärlden (eng. The Idea World). The purpose of the study has been to investigate how an awareness of the concept of Planetary Boundaries affects hope and hopelessness within the environmental discourse. It was found that most speakers are part of a hopeful discourse with a belief in ecological modernisation and that an awareness of the concept of planetary boundaries can affect hopefulness or hopelessness in different ways. This is of importance because understanding the environmental discourse is a step towards pro-environmental behaviour and decreasing climate anxiety in a time when we need to take action against climate change. The thesis gives a review of previous research in the field as well as a brief historical presentation of the environmental discourse.