Capacity of social organization in socio-environmental confrontations

Abstract

This article describes the stages of a social research that investigated the organizational capacity of a community, located in Minas Gerais - Brazil, in the confrontation of its socio-environmental problems. As part of a participant survey, a diagnosis was made to identify the community’s most relevant challenges and potentials, which gave rise to interventions involving three priority demands: improvement of environmental education actions at school, community mobilization for electronic waste management, and implementation of socio-environmental policies in the municipality. The results of these interventions showed that the social actors involved, although they make efforts to act in socio-environmental confrontations, are not able to perpetuate actions to the point of concretizing more significant transformations in the community, given that factors such as: superficial view on the subject still prevails, little appreciation of collective participation by the local public power and fragmentation of the work of community leaders prevail in the scenario, which trigger abandonment of actions and discredit of the population in socio-environmental negotiations.

Keywords:
Socio-environmental confrontations; Science Technology and Society; Social participation; Environmental education; Public policies