Abstract

PAOLOCA, Iván. Everything around us: A Study of Social Representations of both Environment and Nature in a College of Natural Sciences. Folia [online]. 2020, n.37, pp.107-126. ISSN 0325-8238.  http://dx.doi.org/10.30972/fhn.0374167.

In this paper I analyze the social representations of both environment and nature among senior undergraduate students and recent graduates of the College of Natural Sciences and Museum of the University of La Plata (FCNyM-UNLP), which is one of the few academic units that has Natural and Social Sciences embedded in their careers, including Anthropology, Biology (with four orientations), and Geology. For this analysis, I applieed qualitative techniques of semi-structured interviews and concepts of anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, and biocentrism as analytical categories. Of the total of interviewees, 63% presented a biocentric perspective; the hegemonic vision turned out to be ecocentric (anthropocentric in geology), therefore dualistic, being "everything that surrounds us" the most repeated definition of environment. To conclude, in order to train professionals in a biocentric vision, a critical perspective is important, which combines the Natural Sciences with History and Philosophy, and teaching and community outreach practices should be interdisciplinary, political, territorial and empathetic. This work is expected to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the renewal of the curricula from the FCNyM careers. In this regard, the socio-environmental problems become a cross cutting pillar at the time of developing them. The academic formation of conscious and critical subjects is the only way to overcome the current environmental crisis.

Keywords : Environment; Nature; Social Representations; Biocentrism.