O poder simbólico das representações sociais: territorialidades conflitivas nas relações homem e natureza no distrito de Lavras Novas-MG

• Ano de defesa: 2012
• Autor(a) principal: Dutra, Carina Amorim
• Orientador(a): Laschefski, Klemens Augustinus
• Banca de defesa: Civale, Leonardo , Pedlowski, Marcos Antonio
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Mestrado em Extensão Rural
• Departamento: Instituições sociais e desenvolvimento; Cultura, processos sociais e conhecimento
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: Representações sociais; Turismo no meio rural; Território e conflitos ambientais; Meio ambiente
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Social representations; Tourism in rural areas; Planning and environmental conflicts; Environment
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::AGRONOMIA::EXTENSAO RURAL
• Link de acesso: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/4177

The presence of non-agricultural economic activities impacted the new rural Brazil. Tourism in particular has become more important, and its unmanaged exploitation were the cause of various environmental, social and cultural impacts. Tourism as a public policy, should have released the tensions produced by the current system of economic development, however, paradoxically, the activity has intensified social strife. The landscape at the origin of our research was the region of Lavras Novas - MG, which is inserted into the path of the Estrada Real, regionalization of a national public policy whose goal is to position Brazil among the important places for tourism in the world. The region of Lavras Novas is constantly changing due to the intensification of exploration of this activity in the last twenty years. "Neo-rural" groups coming from the cities are moving to the region to live from the tourism or sometimes only in search of the peace and tranquility offered by small villages. Through the Theory of Social Representations, we try to understand the different conceptions of the environment at stake in the social field of tourism, and investigate whether there are potential environmental conflicts between the actors involved in this activity. The field research took place between October and December 2011, when we conducted the surveys. The semi-structured interviews that we used as a method of data collection indicated the existence of tensions between the different social groups. It appeared clearly that the local population was globally satisfied with the progress made concerning the infrastructures. However, they also listed various problems that arose from the unmanaged development of the activity, including the contamination of water resources by sewage. The potential for environmental conflicts is also manifest in the loss of autonomy in decision making by the natives in favour of the group of entrepreneurs "from outside" who make the decisions for them. These neo-rural groups are endowed with a differentiated cultural, social and economic capital, which allows them to occupy a privileged position in the social structure of the field and thus dictate the rules and prevailing social representations. Important socio-cultural differences organize the forms of appropriation of natural resources represented by proposals for exploration diverging from those that are within reach of the local population. We noticed that another area of conflict is in the discrepancy between the groups of social imaginaries about the perception of the xii region. The configuration of territoriality resulting from these different views have moved the groups in the region in search of hegemony by the dominant social representations. The State is also involved in the social field with its expectations and responsibilities in terms of public policy, and as a mediator for the conflicts. Its positioning sometimes comes as an aggravating factor for tensions. So what we find is that there are several interests surrounding the countryside in Lavras Novas, confronting expectations and lifestyles of different social groups that do not always coexist peacefully.