Contornos do conhecimento ambiental: uma contribuição da Sociologia.

Current essay is part of the contemporary environmental debate, specifically with regard to discussions on the institutionalization of the environmental field in Brazil. The formation and consolidation process of environmental knowledge as an autonomous field is debated. The paper draws up on research in a subfield of sociology, namely environmental sociology, which takes as its 'issue' the interface between biophysical and socio-cultural environment. Results show that the social representation of environmental issues may contribute towards the process of the constitution and consolidation of environmental knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]