At present, the environmental question constitutes an important space of catalysis and production of regulatory values of human and non-human life in the earth's biosphere. However, what makes this theme to attain such magnitude in relation to its identification as an important social problem? The hypothesis herein presented is that behind this diffuse environmental sensibility there is the ongoing configuration of a relatively structured environmental field, where legitimacy is increasingly sought to address discussions dealing with all aspects and issues pertaining to the environment. In this sense, such space of symbolic struggles tends to concentrate confrontations around the acknowledgement of certain actions and ways of thinking; what is at stake, in this case, are the very perceptions about what environment is and, conversely, the ontological relations built between human beings and nature. Thus, the gradual structuring of an environmental field - the latter working as a wide, dynamic, unstable, and heterogeneous space for debate and action - tends to make certain concepts and practices to become natural and, at the same time, to be acknowledged as "environmentally correct". In a nutshell, the constitution of this practical/discursive domain will focus the agents and their disputes onto what types of knowledge, behaviors, and procedures should be instituted as the most "appropriate" from an environmental standpoint. However, under this perspective, what would be seen (and adopted) as environmentally "correct" or "appropriate" is, as of now, the object of dispute.
environmental question; environmental field; environmental Sociology