Wind Energy. Human-Scale Development. Social Management. Fisherman's Colonies.

Wind energy is among alternative and sustainable energy sources, and its production and commercialization are associated with promoting development. This understanding - whether in the marketing or sustainable sense - is problematized in this study, which aims to analyze the consequences of the wind energy production and distribution system in the light of analytical categories of the Human-Scale Development (HSD) by Max-Neef, Elizalde and Hopenhayn, taking as an empirical environment experiences shared by members of fishing colonies in Rio Grande do Norte, in Enxu Queimado and Rio do Fogo. The thesis is organized into three articles, the first being an integrative review of Brazilian academic production on wind energy in Applied Human and Social Sciences; the second, the systematization of applications of the HSD model to build subsidies for research in wind energy; and the third, the elaboration of a theoretical-empirical framework of  HSD  associated with the wind energy production and distribution system from the perspective of Social Management, which occurs through empirical research with collectives, public and private organizations. The first article identified three aspects of wind energy production in applied human and social sciences: technical-economic, political-institutional and critical. The focus of Administration's attention has been mainly on the technical-economic analysis of production. The second article presented possibilities for using  HSD in research on wind energy based on an approach to Social Management and the possibility of using participatory methodologies that bring the discourse of civil society in the relationship with this production process to the center of the theme. The third article identified that the effects of wind production affect all fundamental human needs of participants in fishing colonies, which manifests itself in the expectation surrounding development promises, in the absence of accessible and effective participation mechanisms, in the loss of spaces (and biodiversity of these), in the fears surrounding the asymmetry of the communicative process and in the doubts related to wind production at sea. The findings verify the thesis that the perspective of development occurs not under the dynamics of a human scale, but in a fabric of absences, which reproduces dominant epistemologies that, privileging the developmental and economic perspective of wind production, create silence about the conditions of production and life of impacted communities for this production. The participatory methodology carried out in this research made it possible for the collectives to present mechanisms that enable better coexistence of wind production in communities.