Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

In this interview, the sociologist Maristella Svampa, one of the great exponents of the Latin American political ecology, presents reflections on the realization that we are living through a global ecological collapse, the limits and omissions of the social sciences in the Anthropocene, as well as the need for transdisciplinarity and the connection of agendas of struggle at different scales to build new horizons.

Disinformation caused by the predatory, environmentally and socially unfair development model becomes the setting for a critical reflection aimed at greater environmental awareness and an urgent paradigm shift. Considering the importance of public policies aimed at environmental sustainability and the role of dialogue with various actors that higher education institutions (HEIs) promote, this article seeks to evaluate the perception of managers of university campuses of Cefet-RJ regarding compliance with the recommendations of the Sustainable Logistics Management Plan (PLS). In this context, a questionnaire was applied, based on the Likert scale, from a descriptive perspective, it was consolidated. Although the practices are already aligned with environmental governance, there is still a need to promote new actions that increasingly stimulate environmental awareness, not only 'inside institution', but also towards a citizen education. Although this study brings a reflection based on managers’ perception who evaluate the implementation of initiatives, the results do not allow consistent generalizations, but aim to contribute to eventual works, which seek greater robustness, by increasing the number of respondents

The last four years, in Brazil, have been marked by profound setbacks in environmental policies. An aggravating element was the spread of false information that aimed to misinform about the direct impacts of human action on nature. In this context, the general objective of the work was to understand how Fake News, by denying human interference in the environment, has contributed to the acceleration of this process. To this end, the met hodology of documentary and bibliographic research was used with content analysis on the narratives uttered by the Brazilian president, between the years 2018 and 2021. The results pointed out that antiscience and denialist messages have fostered political support for the emptying of monitoring and enforcement in the environmental context, as well as for the successive increases of burns and deforestation in the Amazon Forest. As conclusions, the work puts to the field the importance of considering the impacts of Fake News in attempts to reduce the Anthropocene, emphasizing, however, that its dynamics have proved more complex than the mere emphasis on the scientific and environmental literacy

This article investigates climate science as a cultural object. By pursuing the “logic of its aporias”, it is shown that climate science emerged at the confluence of the objective development of the means of production (constituting a “planetary general intellect”) and the countercultural movement of the 60s, which put ecology at its center, but was broader than mere “environmentalism”. This resulted in the emergence of new forms of sensibility and a qualitative transformation of the natural sciences, which recognized the autonomy and complexity of nature. The constitution of climate science is reconstructed by taking the IGBP’s Amsterdam Declaration as historical archive, and by discussing biographical aspects of representative scientists, in mediation with their work and their world-historical context. Yet, the limits of climate science are those of counterculture. Climate science and its institutions preserve aspects of the previous mechanistic science as well as remaining traces of commodity fetishism

Given the fact that the notion of Anthropocene deals with the effects of human action on climate and the effects of climate on life conditions on Earth, the article tackles the main axis of discussion of sociological dimensions of climate changes from the perspective of four subdisciplines: the sociology of social problems, the sociology of science, the sociology of controversies and the sociology of action. The author interrogates the meaning and place of the “social” in the studies currently elaborated by demand from international institutions involved with the treatment of climate changes in contrast with the richness of possibilities explored by sociological debate independent from governing bureaucratic requests

The indigenous territory of Zinacantán, Chiapas, was transformed beginning in the 1980s by the introduction of greenhouse flower cultivation. This technology displaced the ancestral practice of growing corn in plots, which meant that families had to invest more time in their new livelihood. Flower production increased their income, leading to changes in their diet. A problem that arose from intensive flower production was a shortage of water for human consumption and health problems due to the use of agrochemicals. The objective of our research was to show how these changes in agriculture, food, and environmental problems are intertwined. Our methodology was based on the qualitative method supported by ethnographic descriptions. We conducted thirty surveys with parents of households and eight semi-structured interviews, in addition to using social mapping and satellite imagery. 

This article discusses the results of a study carried out in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, with the aim of analyzing the perceptions of the population regarding environmental deterioration and the concept of sustainable development. This was an interdisciplinary study based on the analysis of perceptions as a data source. The main findings are 1) people detect environmental changes, but consider them necessary for development; 2) they define sustainable development as “environmental care,” undertaken as part of a government program, or as a way of having a job to ensure family wellbeing. Concept building plays an important role in measuring the impact that environmental actions have had; yet perceptions of “sustainable development” currently held by individuals who were interviewed have no impact on the development of environmental programs or their evaluation.

This article outlines an approach that weaves ontological and epistemic elements with a method to propose a potential participatory approach methodology. This methodology would reveal the experiences of self-managed organizations with interests different to those of modern organizations, and would strengthen those processes. Within these organizations, an ethos prevails of changing values tied to an ethic of reciprocity and responsibility towards others, and of enlarging the spaces encountered in life. To this end, we analyze the experience of the Red de Huertos Educativos y Comunitarios [Network of Educational and Community Gardens] of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, based on an analysis of the place where the research was undertaken. This led to examining the diverse decisions and methodological reflections that occurred in order to jointly construct categories of analysis.

This article proposes guidelines to move away from reification and toward the poeticization of life, given its urgency for civilization. As emerging voices from the West and living Mayan thought are again gaining prominence, their ontic, philosophical, and civilizing power is recognized as a path to forge a poetic humanity, given the lack of sufficient up-to-date thought and proposals to understand and to solve the multifaceted planetary crisis. We propose that returning to Life and its poetic nature requires a multi-versal, autopoietic, communal, and transrational civilizational transition. This is possible if we redefine and understanding ourselves as humans in the act of loving, exercising it in every relational process where we forge links and communities among peoples, cultures, and ecosystems in the multi-verse of Life.

This article seeks to enrich the analysis and language surrounding the current devastation of life and territories, based on examples in southern Mexico and Colombia. The objective is to produce a conceptualization that reveals that the absence of people, cultures, ways of life, relationships, kinships, but also of animals, plants, and their memories are ultimately a fundamental part of the establishment of these territories of devastation that we inhabit. This web of absences seeks to break the tapestry of life rooted in the land in order to consolidate a world of owners and fences. Simultaneously, Green Capitalism is a false alternative that reinforces bioprospecting, hyper-concentration of land, and the disappearance of alternative forms of problem solving through philanthropy.