Representação do domínio da agricultura no contexto da organização do conhecimento

Abstract

This work is an exploratory research that has as main objective to investigate representational models, aiming to obtain particularities of Agriculture as a knowledge domain. Bibliographic and documentary search were done in order to achieve the specific objectives to identify the etymological origin and the historical aspects of Agriculture, to investigate the area of Agriculture in national and international classifications of knowledge, and to observe another reference model application within an educational context. The classificatory instruments analised were: the FAO Categorization scheme AGRIS/CARIS, the CNPq‟s Tabela de Áreas de Conhecimento, and the representation of the Brazilian post-graduate programs in „Agricultural Sciences' in CAPES classification. The analyses revealed the complexity surrounding the representation of a knowledge domain. In the case of Agriculture, the difficulty lies in the plurality of objects of study that transcend disciplinary and interdisciplinary domains. This feature, on one hand, motivates and enriches the scientific and technological development. On the other hand it leads to difficulties in the representation of Agriculture referential and representational knowledge organization models. We conclude that the analysis of different representational models is a valid approach to grasp different visions for the area reflected by the organization and representation of knowledge as practiced by communities of discourse.