Perception and representation of the risks of air pollution as holistic thinking and analytical thinking

Abstract

The concept of atmospheric pollution as a potentially dangerous degradation for humans and their environment is not inherent to industrial societies. This is an ancient notion, but its view as a body of knowledge capable of identifying the causes and, at the same time, mitigating its consequences is relatively recent, and not ver y well known to the majority of the population. In “traditional†societies, the representations of atmospheric pollution and its risks are shared by the community members, as well as the duties and prohibitions that attempt to preserve air cleanliness in relation to other elements of the environment. This paper establishes a comparison between two types of representations of atmospheric pollution risks: the representation of collectivist societies, and that of individualistic societies ruled by analytical thought.