THE SYSTEMIC ENVIRONMENTAL THOUGHT: AN ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH DEVELOPED BY ESALQ/USP

Abstract

In the 20th Century the perception that the fragmented disciplinary knowledge has been unable to explain and solve environmental problems consolidated. Since then, a major challenge has raised in the educational field: a wide and complex reorientation of process knowledge, ideologies, scientific paradigms and research practices. The environmental and social questions opened a path for systemic thought and interdisciplinary research methods, capable of linking different disciplines in order to understand multiple relations, causalities and interdependence among natural and social processes. This article is part of a research that analyzed the post-doctoral theses developed by the teaching staff at Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, of São Paulo’ University - Campus Piracicaba, SP ESALQ/USP, from 1998 to 2002, looking for to disclose the presence or not of the new scientific paradigm, through the analysis of the boardings adopted in relation to the environmental questions in its complexity.