Conservação da biodiversidade nas ciências sociais brasileiras: um campo em construção

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the main issues under discussion in the Brazilian social sciences on the subject of biodiversity conservation. The research started from a systematic review of the literature accessed by a careful survey of the articles published in the leading journals of social sciences in Brazil between 1992 and 2010. It was observed that the late inclusion of social sciences in this context is pervaded by their relationship with the natural sciences, since it is an inherently multidisciplinary theme built from various epistemological. The goal is to make an investigation that serve the social sciences as a means of reflection and self-knowledge, in an attempt to explain the discursive specificity of this type of knowledge in the setting of the arguments about the biodiversity conservation. Making a cross-sectional analysis of the main arguments advanced by the authors in the survey, it was revealed that there is heterogeneity in the formulation of problems and research procedures used, which is linked to a variety of disciplinary training, the research centers where they work and context of the field. This heterogeneity has demanded a greater reflection on the relationship between social sciences and natural sciences and on the practical consequences of forms of representation used.