Nature and Environment in Collective Perception. Study on the Plain Countryside of the Northern Half Crisana Province, Romania

Abstract The main objective of this study is geared toward how the public understands the nature and the environment, and relates to them. The research universe is represented by the inhabitants of the plain step in the northern half of Crisana Province (north-western Romania). It started from the idea that social representations generate attitudinal and behavioral patterns and the way in which people interact with the environment and nature has a significant influence on quality of life and social development. Therefore, the social representations about the environment and nature have direct effects on our future and can be oriented towards the active participation to the efforts to protect the environment and the nature in general. There were 671 residents of 34 villages questioned and their answers have set a certain socio-geographical pattern on the specifics of life environment belonging to plain. The life environment was perceived by us as a way of reporting to the nature and the environment. The rural respondents from the plain come up with the most common answers, even identical in content, drawing the nature and the environment as ambience, as the space around them.