ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY: an analysis of the possible pre-implementation socio-environmental effects of the Marabá Hydroelectric Plant project

Abstract

In the context of the 1972 Stockholm Conference, a movement begins in the human sciences — leading to the foundation of environmental sociology — to produce research related to the environmental problem in contemporary society, whose concern is centered on the globalization of socio-environmental effects and the production of typical risks of this society. In this context, this work focuses on the Amazon region and its inhabitants, who suffer from changes in their ecosystem and their traditional social relations. It analyzes the possible socio-environmental effects to be caused by the pre-implementation of the Marabá Hydroelectric project in the Amazon, more specifically in the traditional fishing community of Vila Apinagés, in São João do Araguaia-PA. The adopted methodology was the review of the literature that discusses the consequences of the advancement of industrial society and its socio-environmental effects linked to the implementation of large projects in the Amazon. As a result of this initial bibliographic research, it was found that the imminent installation of the Marabá hydroelectric plant, if built, will affect areas of several municipalities, leading to the displacement of several traditional communities, such as the residents of vila Apinagés. Therefore, the importance of fostering constant discussions about and how these projects were disseminated in the Amazon region, articulating the debates with the performance of social movements, among other agents of reaction and claim for social and environmental justice.