Social representations of the environment: A study at the weir spa in Santa Rita-PB, Brazil

The study of Social Representations in Environmental Education has aroused interest in the Scientific community as it has been a way of understanding the behavior of individuals in relation to the Environment. In this sense this research sought to know and understand the social representations of the Environment built by residents, passers-by and frequenters of Balneário do Açude - Santa Rita - PB, Brazil. The instruments used for data collection were a questionnaire with questions or approaches to characterize the socio demographic profile of employees, the Free Word Association Test (FWAT) with an inductive term environment, and unsystematic observation. The analysis of the data obtained was performed using the IRAMUTEQ software as well as the Content Analysis technique, used to build the categories of environmental perception (naturalist, health care, sustainable, affective, managerial) based on the semantic-lexical criterion. The results indicated that the social representations of the environment are formed by nature, its resources, and a concern with the cleanliness and preservation of the environment, a fact confirmed by the apprehension of the environmental perception. It is possible to verify a coherence between the captured SR and the conduct and behavior of these actors in favor of environmental conservation, as well as a degree of awareness of environmental degradation and a certain willingness to take care of this environment, which in his speech has historicalaffective value.