Social representations of the women that catch mussels and their relationship with the environment

Abstract

This paper focuses on social representations of the women that catch mussels at Mambape in the municipality of Ilhéus-Ba, about the reality in which they live and their relationship with the environment, seeking to clarify issues oriented to occupation of space, as well as health issues, and factors of environmental degradation. It discusses how the absence of public policy appears in the discourse and representations of these women. For this research it was used the history of life as a technique for collecting primary data. Thus, social representations about being both mussels catchers and closely related to the environment where they live and on which they depend win some materiality in defining new possibilities for action. This takes in account the need for public policies that address both the conservation and sustainability of estuarine environments, as the guarantee of basic social rights of the people who inhabit this space.