Technology as strategy to bring compatibility between economic development and environmental management in a local productive activity

This work analyzes an experience of transference of technological knowledge which occurred during the development of a research project. It compares the principles and motivations that led to the adoption of socioenvironmental practices by an Association of Fishermen and by industrial organizations, thereby rescuing the paradox relation between instrumental and value rationality and its effect on the environmental question. The analysis shows that industrial and associative organizations, sharing the same environment, share differently the effects industrial effluents have on the local ecological systems, the quality of life and the economic production of those whose lives depend on the extraction of natural resources. The researchers, based on the theoretical references which helped to understand the different forms of environmental management, conducted the project by adopting a participative methodology, led the fishermen's community into discussions and collective actions focusing on solutions to the local environmental questions related to the development of their economic activity. The results demonstrated that their newly acquired knowledge was transformed, albeit in a conflicting way, into a technological strategy which makes economic development and environmental management compatible.