Percepções, saberes e práticas sobre o meio ambiente na favela: o caso de uma intervenção ambiental na Grota do Surucucu, Niterói, RJ

Abstract

The present research seeks to understand the environmental issues experienced by the residents of the community of Grota do Surucucu, Niterói-RJ, based on interactions promoted by the action of an NGO (Ecomagente Project). It seeks to list a repertoire of relationships between residents and interveners, which involves frictions between ideas, values and interests, using the notions of “interface” and “epistemic communities” of Long (2001). With a focus on social actors, the research reveals the different meanings and practices about the environment that imply relationships of sociability specific to a livelihood. The focus of this analysis is oriented to the cognitive content that involves the cultivation of plants and animal creations, considering how these practices are inserted in the daily life and juxtaposed in time/space with small dumps, lack of sanitary sewage, among other issues. With this, the research intends to discuss how the environmental issue is (res)signified in relation to the specificities of the slum, both by interactional processes and by the relationship of the residents with their environment.