The environmental protection movement faced with political and social reconfiguration in Brazil (1985-2002)

Abstract

The present article studies the process of affirmation of social movements and seeks to understand the paths taken by the environmentalist movement after the return to democracy, as well as the place that it occupies more recently, with the arrival of the PT on the state and the national political arenas. This approach leads us to a reflection about the relationship between the social and political contexts and its effects on the operations of social movements. The article analyses theses questions through the study of two environmentalist groups in Sergipe: the Popular Ecological Movement (MOPEC) and the Association of Environmental Protection of Sergipe (ASPAM). It tries to assess the gains obtained by the leadership of these movements in the timeframe of this work. The methodology used consisted of interviews and surveys, based on a previous mapping of the main agents involved in the environmental movement in Sergipe.