Informação, desenvolvimento sustentável e sociedade: os parques estaduais de Minas Gerais e a circulação da informação entre gestores e moradores do entorno

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the management of protected areas classified as state parks, in the state of Minas Gerais, from an informational approach. The purpose was to derive a theoretical framework for the methodological study of supply, demand and use of needs and development of information competency that meet the actors that influence the actions of management and preservation of these parks. The theoretical support for the research was sought in user studies in Information Science, studies of demand and supply as well as in Economic Science and Information Science in management studies of conservation and environmental policy that addresses these parks. It became an initial premise that the studied activity was intensively based on information, and could be approached from parameters relating to the informational work. The qualitative epistemology guided the research. Means of investigation included: documentary research, interviews, participant observation, and survey of social network that permeates these actors. The results were described according to the constructs of the research and the design of data collection. Based on the theoretical framework chosen, the information flows between the surrounding population and managers were characterized and permeate social network has been raised. The description and analyses revealed the importance of qualitative epistemology to provide the construction of knowledge during all phases of research, the feature of interactivity and the constructive-interpretive sense. Gaps in the informational process were identified culminating in the fragmentation and lack of information necessary for the preservation and sustainability of the parks and as a result of the surveyed areas. The analyses also allowed the conclusion that a new network design can be determined and a new theoretical synthesis can be offered trough the final research constructs, definitions, new conceptual relations established and theoretical and methodological approach. Thus the results could bring contributions in order to build knowledge in a subject in need of academic research.