Socio-Environmental Conflicts: A Study on the Logistic Center in Paranapiacaba and Involved Social Representations

Abstract Socio-environmental conflicts have been intensifying in the 21st century, which has prompted new approaches seeking to identify the origin of these conflicts and enrich their analyses. This study monitored the environmental licensing of the Campo Grande Logistic Center, in Paranapiacaba, a district in Santo André (SP), in order to identify the social representations of the environment for different actors involved in the licensing process and discuss the interference of the social representations in the established conflict. The case study employed multiple methods of data collection, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. A prototypical analysis was carried out in line with the theory of social representations by Moscovici, Abric, and Reigota’s environment classification. The social representations found were globalizing for civil society and anthropocentric for the entrepreneur, relating the origin of the conflict to different material and symbolic appropriations of environmental resources, in this case, the territory itself.