SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS AND HISTORICAL MATERIALISM: CONTRIBUTIONS TO CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Abstract

The need for observance of the historical and cultural conditioning of the material processes of a society comes from the capacity to know about the real history. The production of meaning is the central figure, as the effects of meaning produced by discursive practices will coordinate processes of symbolization and meaning in social groups, which will promote and maintain ideological processes. The importance of knowing the social representations of the subjects involved in an educational process is based on processes of symbolization and objectification (or reification). Thus, the study of social representations, in addition to the goals of recognition of rationalities and knowledge that predominate in the group, could make, united to historical materialism, the process of overcoming alienation and ideological domination possible. Hence the importance of critical and emancipatory environmental education, since it is based on historical materialism, which is relational and integrator, to examine the situations in a practical way, linking the process of building knowledge to the emancipatory purpose.

Key words: Social representations. Critical environmental education. Historical materialism.