The nature of communication and the communication of nature: revisiting critical theory and nature through decolonial environmental communication and human rights education in Brazil

Abstract

The ways in which Western capitalist societies have exploited communication practices and media are similar to the exploitation and instrumentalisation of nature. In this paper, we want to argue that critical theorists’ concepts such as instrumental reason and communicative reason do not allow for sufficient critiques of current lifeworld colonisation processes, hindering the prevention of more significant forms of violence against peoples, communication, and natural environments. We begin by problematising Western philosophy and its anthropocentric and instrumental approaches to nature, and contrast them with Global South concepts such as Amerindian perspectivism and good living. Then, through case studies of the Amazon news agency Sumaúma and the Human Rights Observatory in Schools Project (PODHE), we reflect upon how decolonial and original peoples’ concepts and principles may enable us to draw the elements of new relations between people, communication, and nature, which may embody a radical critical theory of communication and nature.