Former Ecuadorian minister opens communications conference in Sergipe.

Sergipe 247 - “Nature, green economy and environmental justice: contemporary dilemmas” will be the theme of the opening conference of the 2nd Interdisciplinary Meeting on Environmental Communication (EICA), given by economist, professor and researcher Alberto Acosta, former Minister of Energy and Mines of Ecuador – the first country in the world to constitutionally recognize the rights of nature. The inaugural lecture will be this Monday, the 27th, at 19 pm, in the theater of Colégio Módulo. The other activities of the program will take place at the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), on the 28th and 29th of May.

Researchers from 16 Brazilian states, in addition to the Federal District and Sergipe, will participate in the oral communication sessions in the afternoon, in the didactic building 4, and will discuss topics such as ecocritical approaches in environmental cinema; communication of socio-environmental risks; political-environmental activism and media counter-agenda setting. The thematic panels will take place in the morning in the university auditorium and will address the environmental agenda and network communication post-Rio+20, among other current issues involving the society-nature relationship.

Registration for the 2nd Interdisciplinary Meeting on Environmental Communication is open until this Friday, the 24th, at the following address: http://licaufs.blogspot.com.br/p/inscricoes.html. The event will bring together professors, researchers, professionals, and students from Brazil and abroad interested in proposing solutions to contemporary socio-environmental dilemmas. The aim is to discuss the relationship between society and nature today and offer a professional development opportunity for journalists and communication professionals.

According to Sonia Aguiar, PhD in Communication and professor at UFS, general coordinator of the 2nd EICA, the recent climate-related catastrophes in Brazil and other parts of the world make it clear that the relationship between society and nature is undergoing a critical process. “This forces us to rethink the environment not only as a natural environment, but also as the built environment, the result of complex relationships developed over time and across spaces. In this context, the role of information, communication, culture, and media assumes a crucial place, which still requires reflection and action,” she states. 

The initiative to hold the 2nd EICA comes from the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Environmental Communication (LICA), in partnership with the Postgraduate Program in Communication at UFS, and with financial support from the Foundation for Support of Research and Technological Innovation of the State of Sergipe (Fapitec-SE). Planned to be biennial, the event had its first edition in April 2011, with the participation of 110 registrants from 15 Brazilian cities, among whom 40 presented papers approved by a national scientific council. This time, in addition to PhDs from all regions of the country, the evaluation team included researchers from Portugal and Colombia. Check out the complete program: http://licaufs.blogspot.com.br/p/programacao.html