Relação afetiva pessoa-ambiente na Prainha do Canto Verde: processos de participação comunitária

Abstract

This study discusses community participation and affectionate relationship (feelings and emotions) between the subjects and the environment in Prainha do Canto Verde, Beberibe, Ceará. The objectives involve, besides the analysis of the interrelation of these two factors, a survey about the community way of living, and the study of the implications of the participatory/absence participation on the subjects’ representations and affections related to the place. For that, we use theoretical reference from Social Psychology, Community Psychology, Environmental Psychology, and authors who study the category affectivity, with the attempt to overcome the dualism that is present traditionally in Psychology that dichotomizes subjectivity and objectivity, reason and emotion. The target group was the adult local residents, of both genders and different educational levels, from the mentioned location, and they were analyzed according to what follows: participants of community action and non-participants of community actions. For that, we use the following methodologies: participant observation, investigating the local way of living and community functioning; individual interviews and focus groups, used to understand the differences between the positioning of the two groups about the participatory actions and the perception of the place; and the application of the instrument that generates the affective maps, investigating the feelings and the emotions of the subjects related to the environment, starting from the following images: belonging, pleasantness, contrast, insecurity and destruction. In Prainha do Canto Verde, we observed a great feeling of community and bonds of solidarity and cooperation among the residents. A difference between the participants and non-participants of the community actions was found concerning the following: community feeling, attachment to the place, sensation of security and insecurity, preoccupation with the environment preservation and the perception of local problems. Community participation, which is massive and engaged, was most of the time highlighted with a link to the identity of these subjects, shaped since childhood, especially because of the parents’ participation. The participation was showed through feelings like desire and passion, and motivated by the will of preserving the location and the way of living to their children. As a result of the affective maps the image of belonging was significantly associated to the group participant of the community action, whereas the images of contrasts, insecurity and destruction to the group of the non-participants. The image pleasantness was present in both of the groups. Among the participants, we found the following feelings related to the place: love, peace, tranquility, happiness. Among the non-participants, we also found those feelings although sadness and unhappiness were present. Thus, community participation interferes in the feelings and emotions of the subject in relation to the place, supporting Bomfim’s thesis, which correlates the esteem of the place and the social participation and its consequent potentiation of human action.