How a Brazilian Public University Understands Sustainability: A Study Based on Sociological Discourse Analysis

This paper aims to analyze the sustainability discourse manifested by a public institution dedicated to higher education located in the northeastern region of Brazil, the Federal University of Paraiba, during the time interval between the years 2009 and 2020. It used Sociological Discourse Analysis as a research method. It also used the documentation produced by the institution as a data source, in particular its Institutional Development Plans and Management Reports, as well as the media content produced and broadcast by its television channel and magazine. The research also used conversations held with employees linked to organizational management and observations recorded through photographs. Some questions were the basis for the data analysis: Who is the speaker; What is the position of the speaker; Which audiences did the speaker target; What did the speaker silence in the discourse; How did the speaker organize the speech; The research discovered discursive positions, narrative configurations, and semantic spaces that revealed an institution focused on its social function. It used teaching, research, and extension activities to be active in contact with society but placed its internal challenges in the background. It emerged that, despite understanding the importance of sustainability, internal actions to transform the organization into a laboratory for experimentation in this sense decreased due to the prioritization of combating recurrent socio-economic problems.


Introduction
Language has one of its manifestations in the discourse: it assumes a prominent role in expressing a network of relations between ideology and power. The discourse displays the concept of the linguistics of meaning, one that goes beyond the words by entering the modality of the underlying persuasive exchange, an integral part of the word in context. Discourse is the object of appreciation of some research methods like the Discourse Analysis: this qualitative methodology seeks to unveil how what is said is produced, going beyond just seeking to understand or interpret, but seeking to highlight historical and ideological aspects (Barros, 2015).
Although it is a banality to hear about sustainability, scholars like Ferrer, Moreira, and Jesus (2019) warn of the lack of understanding of the general public about the scope of the expression. Some researchers tend to link the term to the environmental issue, forgetting its sphere in several other dimensions. Social actors develop their interpretation of sustainability and use it in their speeches to legitimize their actions as correct. Among the actors subject to investigation regarding their sustainability discourse, universities stand out as they face the challenge of reconciling the production of knowledge and the development of learning models more committed to the planet (Arroyo, 2017).
training and certification as a way to develop skills both in leaders as well as others involved in the institutions' daily lives, thus encouraging their systemic use; evaluation of the impacts of the Triple Bottom Line approach on the organization's results, both ex-ante, through the analysis of risks and scenarios, and ex-post, using reports and metrics; encouraging research that relates the systematic use of TBL to organizational results.
In 2000 the Millennium Summit took place, under the sponsorship of the United Nations. The member countries signed the so-called Millennium Declaration: this document defined the fight against hunger as the central global challenge, recognizing the existing inequality between industrialized, developing nations and economies in transition (Roma, 2019). The Declaration originated, in 2001, the Millennium Development Goals: these should be achieved by the signatory countries by the year 2015 and covered actions to combat poverty, health policies, sanitation, education, housing, promotion of gender equality, sustainable development. Carvalho and Barcellos (2015) note that the goals had the intention to act as a stimulus to help from rich countries to the poor and to a higher commitment by both groups to increase human development rates. However, they note an excessive focus on goals that did not take regional inequalities into account and paid little attention to differences between social groups.
In 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Summit launched a new agenda, known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Carvalho and Barcellos (2015) interpret them as more ambitious than the Millennium Development Goals as sixteen are themed and structured in the dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line. Furthermore, one addresses the need to create partnerships for the implementation of others, ranging from governments to civil society and multinational organizations. According to the authors, the process of elaborating the SDGs was more democratic because it allowed space for discussion and social participation, although the result was too long. Carvalho (2019) identifies two visions for sustainability and sustainable development definitions. One understands that sustainable development is the way to obtain sustainability, the long-term objective. The other understand sustainability as the balance of the Triple Bottom Line and sustainable development as the goal, whereas sustainability is the process to achieve it. This research followed the path that sees sustainability as an objective and sustainable development as an intermediary to complete the first. This way, sustainability is understood as a broader concept, which does not place economic growth as a cornerstone of debates.

Universities and Their Links with Sustainability
In 2002, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the period between 2005 and 2014 as the International Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (IDESD). They emphasized the challenge of encouraging changes in attitude and behavior in populations, "since man's intellectual, moral and cultural capacities impose responsibilities on other living beings and nature as a whole" (UNESCO, 2017). Reflecting on the IDESD context, Bastos (2016) points out public policy initiatives aimed at environmental education implemented in Brazil since the 1980s, namely: inclusion of it as a right of all and duty of the State in the Federal Constitution; creation of environmental education centers by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources and the Brazilian Ministry of Education in 1992; institution of the National Environmental Education Program in 1994; approval of the National Environmental Education Policy in 1999.
In the 2000s, the Federal Universities Restructuring and Expansion Plans (REUNI), created and expanded by Brazilian governments linked to left-wing ideologies, represented an opportunity for public universities to meet the needs and ideas propagated by the declarations and events that occurred over the years. Paula (2018) analyzes that public universities have prioritized, in their plans, university expansion linked to the size as a way of giving access to higher education to historically marginalized social groups. In a favorable budgetary scenario, federal universities grew, leaving environmental aspects in the background. The social duty was the focus of concerns: from the Triple Bottom Line, plans linked to REUNI turned their lenses to the social field. Aleixo, Leal, and Azeiteiro (2018) recognize that universities play an extensive role in promoting sustainability. Stakeholders expect that these organizations act focusing on sustainability. It may happen by overcoming challenges such as ambiguity and complexity surrounding the notion of sustainability, a factor that has contributed to prioritizing, in REUNI's plans, the social focus. Other challenges are the lack of funds and financing directed specifically at implementing sustainable behavior; resistance by stakeholders to accept changes in behavior and practices; the lack of commitment, interest, and involvement of managers; the lack of training and specialization in sustainability. Adams (2013) understands that some factors are decisive to implant a culture concentrate on sustainability in universities: proactive leadership; clear and consistent communication; the inclusion of sustainability in the organizational strategy; multidisciplinary in courses and research; student and employee engagement; and other initiatives that can develop sustainable practices. Arroyo (2017) summarizes four areas that should be considered by managers when formatting a university committed to sustainability: curriculum, with the integration of topics related to sustainability in courses' pedagogical plans, and the creation of elective courses focused on the theme; research, with the inclusion of sustainability in ongoing projects, with support for interdisciplinarity; dissemination, with community involvement and the promotion of public debates on the topic; and operations, with the implementation of green practices such as recycling, energy consumption, water reuse, transportation sharing.
In 2018, the Federal University of Paraiba approved its environmental policy based on sustainable development; ecological balance; broad community participation; responsibility; internalization of natural issues in all activities (administrative, teaching, research, or extension); adequate and rational management of used resources; governance, control, and risk management . In this document, the University demonstrated some commitment to actions to avoid pollution, conserve and restore the environment. UFPB's Environmental Management Commission developed this policy, which has as one of its objectives "to articulate, guide, prioritize, regulate, monitor, register and evaluate institutional management and environmental education programs" . The Federal University of Paraiba history shows signs that may help the reveal of silences in the sustainability discourses expressed by the institution.

Research Methodology
This research is a qualitative work for having an exploratory character, inductive focus, and priority to the social aspects that contributed to the shape of the reality that we seek to understand. It is a case study since it suggests an in-depth examination of a subject through its speeches and the immersion in its daily life. Data exploration took place through Sociological Discourse Analysis, an examination method of Spanish tradition (Alonso, 1998;Conde, 2009;Ibanez, 1985;Orti, 1986).
The Sociological Discourse Analysis enables to capture the unsaid amid speeches, to reveal the ideologies that shape them, and it is up to the researcher to select the relevant contexts for his investigation. In this sense, we researched documents produced by UFPB: in particular, the last two Institutional Development Plans, which were in force between (UFPB, 2010, 2014, as well as the Plan in vogue at the time of the research (UFPB, 2019a), and the Management Reports corresponding to this period until the year 2019, the last one published while the study took place (UFPB, 2019a).
Other sources were the material produced and disseminated via a television channel and editions of UFPB.BR Magazines, quarterly printed booklets that serve to propagate actions carried out by the organization. Immersion in the organization's daily life to witness practices focused on sustainability that happen or not; informal conversations with employees, some of them linked to work-related to sustainability issues, others not. Table 1 shows the sources chosen as well as the reasons for their choices. The IDP is the guiding instrument for the institution's management practices, articulating the other institutional projects in the sense of building a democratic management model that supports the consolidation of its goals Management Reports (MRs) The MR is an integral part of the rendering of accounts to the Federal Government, legally guided by rules: it contains data guidelines on the operation, planning, resources, works, not to mention fundamental areas such as teaching, research, and extension TV UFPB TV UFPB intends to meet the aspirations of society for public television, to offer an informative, educational, cultural, artistic, scientific, and citizenship-forming program UFPB Magazine The editions seek to expose the importance of the environment for Paraiba's society, and consequently for the country, through the diverse actions of the institution On-site observations on campuses Here, it is no longer a matter of separating, trichotomizing text-speech-image. It must be considered that the visual way of life refers to a particular form of construction and expression of meaning, a form that we no longer have to go back (Godoi & Uchoa, 2019) Informal conversations with employees They intend to obtain information of a pragmatic type in the search for how the discursive subjects act and reconstruct the system of social representations and individual practices regarding the sustainability discourse (Coelho, 2012) Source: elaborated by the authors, 2021. jms.ccsenet.org Journal of Management and Sustainability Vol. 11, No. 1;2021 For Sociological Discourse Analysis, the corpus, even in different formats, must be seen as a single entity (Coelho, Coelho & Godoi, .2013). When collecting and analyzing separate entities, the analyst must focus on the totality of the material to understand if there are continuities or ruptures between different discourses or between discourse and practice (Godoi & Uchoa, 2019). Table 2 presents the specific objectives of the research, the data sources selected concerning each goal, and the expected results with the analysis of each one. Presentation of internal practices related to sustainability and aimed at achieving the objectives of its environmental policy Contrast congruences and divergences between discourse and sustainability practice at UFPB Analysis and crossing of the data obtained in the previous steps in the light of Sociological Discourse Analysis Identification of contexts and ideologies that guided the organizational discourse and whether the practice corresponds to the discourses Source: elaborated by the authors, 2021.
Once the Federal University of Paraiba formalized its environmental policy in 2018, we used it as a benchmark for the analysis. Even having the policy as a model for the investigations, because of its formal character, in certain moments, it was necessary to extrapolate it. We exposed links between the discourse and the Triple Bottom Line. We also detailed some connections with global plans like the Sustainable Development Goals.

Data Analysis Procedures
Sociological Discourse Analysis is applicable in investigations based on interviews, triangular groups, and corpus analysis based on writing, news, or even photographs (Coelho, 2012). The methodological and technical aspects of the inquiry are the foundation of the investigation and determine the construction of the discourse system (Alonso, Rodriguez & Rojo, 2016).
The procedural steps are flexible and mix during the work in a continuous coming and going between the theoretical artifact and the collected data, but serve as a guide to practice, preventing the researcher from getting lost in the corpus or confusing creativity with methodological anarchy (Alonso et al., 2016). Thus, we divided the data analysis processes into three stages: initial works, interpretation, and analysis. All the stages have taken place concurrently with the others at certain times, according to the need.
In the initial works, we separated the corpus into two groups. The first dealt with the formal manifestations of the discourse, composed of material produced in an official character by the researched institution-documentation and media material published by the press that is part of the organizational structure. The second investigated the informal manifestations of the discourse-here, the content obtained more spontaneously was grouped, through the employees' speeches collected in conversations and images obtained from non-participant observations carried out in the physical space of the university. From this division onwards, we made general readings and notes in texts and images according to each type of source, respecting their chronological order. This separation of the discursive sources occurred to promote the perception of context's influences in the discourses and its relevance in different media (Coelho, 2012).
As the first procedures for the data interpretation, hypotheses were made, called pre-analytical conjectures (Godoi, Coelho & Serrano, 2014). It was the moment when the first intuitions appeared. They attempted to formalize the more general apprehension of texts and images. They could or could not be correct by the end of the research according to their coherence and consistency with the analyzed material.
We identified the discursive styles within each source from an analysis "of the most expressive, idiosyncratic, singular, enunciative forms, of expressive turns, narrative styles and types of approach / discursive construction of a social phenomenon" (Coelho, 2012, p. 201). This identification pointed to ideologies that shaped the statements, purposeful silences that camouflaged meanings for what was said, providing subsidies for the analysis procedures.
Interpretation works progressed globally through the corpus, happening in a partially simultaneous way to the previous stages. This grade sought to contrast the two types of manifestations studied-formal and informal-to jms.ccsenet.org Journal of Management and Sustainability Vol. 11, No. 1;2021 reveal approximations and distances between discourse and perceived reality. In addition, we deepened the capture of the destination of the manifested speech and the actions or policies interpreted by the institution as priorities.
The discursive positions attempted to apprehend the subjects' perspectives on the theme. They reveal who spoke and the speech position. They also identify the polarization or not of dominant spots, social representation, and the generalization of discourse (Coelho et al., 2013): individual or group positions began to emerge clear, with the social place of everyone.
The narrative configurations tried to answer the questions: What are the subjects addressed in the speeches? What ideologies shaped the discourse? We capture dimensions, axes, or vectors that point to a common direction for the corpus, tensions, conflicts, and differences in positions and opinions expressed by the subjects. The objective of this stage was to identify the leading axis of the message indicated by the discourse.
The analysis of semantic spaces involved simple elements, such as the principal verbal and symbolic expressions that configured the field of meanings of each area and the discursive axes that linked one or another semantic attraction (Coelho, 2012). Here, we found responses to the demands: How is the speech organized? What is not said but perceived in the discourses? We analyzed the use of language, the connection or dissociation of speech in different ways of approaching the research object.

Pre-Analytical Conjectures
The first readings carried out, when this research started, made it possible to awaken to the investigation that Conde (2009) calls sociological imagination, an action that admits to thinking conjectures capable of demarcating the lines of work and that is changing as new ideas go arising from the data analysis. For Coelho (2012), the hypotheses are anticipations guided by the possibilities of answers to the questions proposed in the research, derived from the researcher's theory, observations, or experience, and are also called pre-analytical conjectures. The researcher seeks to find ways to weave together a set of elements that, at first, might be different in origin or content.
The central conjecture assumes that the Federal University of Paraiba's concern and involvement with sustainability has gradually increased over the years. This theory guided the perception we had about discursive sources and supported a continuous dialogue between the imagined and the observed reality. We considered this for the interpretation of the discourse found in the selected sources. It follows the inference that the institution's sustainability discourse has evolved as more attention and more interventions have taken place. The more recent the period, the more prominent UFPB's level of influence on issues related to sustainability, and therefore the lower the negative impact generated on the nature of its surroundings and social issues.
The research corpus, in particular Institutional Development Plans and Management Reports, when analyzed by the Sociological Discourse Analysis, must demonstrate greater attention to the subject year after year, thus validating the conjecture raised here. We presume that, while the discourse evolved, the same occurred with interventions practiced for socio-environmental sustainability. In this sense, the university seeks to reduce its aggression towards nature and the negative impact of its actions, keeping its discourse and practices aligned.

Results' Introduction, Analysis, and Discussion
After data collection, there was a confrontation between the formal and informal manifestations of the UFPB sustainability discourse to contrast congruences and divergences between expression and practice. Therefore, we attempted to understand, from the perspective of Sociological Discourse Analysis, the discursive positions, narrative configurations, and semantic spaces that delimit points and manifestations of the sustainability discourse of the federal institution of higher education studied here.

Discursive Positions
The discursive positions are associated with a kind of general orientation to scrutiny different forms of manifestation of the sustainability discourse. The investigation of the distinct materials collected, formal and informal, allowed to establish comparisons that exposed approximations and distances between points of view and rhetoric. These comparisons were possible when asking the material what kind of logic appears in the UFPB discourse through each source. The questioning led to a graph (Figure 1) where we positioned the organization's relationship with the sustainability discourse over time.  Implementation of a body with autonomy and resources for the coordination and implementation of actions, projects, and research related to sustainability; negotiation with water and energy companies to implement policies for generation, reuse, and reduction in consumption Source: elaborated by the authors, 2021.
Any discourse manifestation carries interests and cannot be considered naive (Coelho, 2012). In this sense, a public organization, funded and maintained with government resources, tends to carry its discourses with the responsibility of giving back to society the money invested there. It may happen with quality education and actions that could accelerate socio-economic development. The Federal University of Paraiba respects laws related to sustainable habits. It also demonstrates interest in being an avant-garde organization in its relationship with socio-environmental responsibility and the spread of knowledge and technologies that contribute to sustainable development. However, the presence of contradictions in the manifested speech reveals a delay in applying the existing environmental policy and difficulties in the management of communication focused on the theme. Its recognition as a sustainable university acquires a myth bias in the academic community, demonstrating the need for adequate, transparent, and well-publicized actions that can, over time, change this view.

Final Remarks
This research started with concerns that asked about the management focused on sustainability in federal institutions of higher education and how these entities would manifest their discourse related to the theme. As a procedure for the study of data collected during the investigation, we used Sociological Discourse Analysis, a qualitative research method based on practices derived from sociology, to understand discursive manifestations.
Based on the results presented, it is evident that the discourse of sustainability expressed by the Federal University of Paraiba prioritizes the social field in what concerns research, extension projects, and joint policies with public and private companies. These priorities could help regions that experience environmental problems (the northeastern semi-arid, riverside areas that suffer from pollution, or areas that need to preserve biomes and animal species) and socioeconomic difficulties arising from a history of exclusion and few opportunities for professional development. The institution seeks to spread knowledge about sustainable plans such as the Sustainable Development Goals by promoting events aimed at public managers, despite the lack of robust planning linked to their implementation in the structure itself.
We based this study on some questions. They clarified the capture of speeches and silences while allowed the observation of the reality constructed by the organization: a. Who speaks? The Federal University of Paraiba, an organization responsible for the discourse elaboration. It prioritizes one of the dimensions of sustainability expressed in the Triple Bottom Line, the social, which is beyond the understanding of researchers such as Arroyo (2017) and Adams (2013), for whom systemic and holistic thinking must prevail in sustainable universities.
b. What is the position of the speaker? A public, non-profit organization with planning to reduce social inequalities and promote social welfare and economic development with its services: teaching, research, and extension. The largest and oldest university in its state, the university aims to be a propagator of knowledge and an accelerator of regional development, prioritizing socioeconomic sustainability.
c. What are the subjects addressed in the speeches? Organizational planning to achieve its objectives, linked to quality education and involvement with society to reduce social inequalities and encourage regional economic development. It is evident in the speech that the university aims to be the developer center for technologies and policies that preserve regional culture and ecosystems, which contradicts the low implementation of sustainable actions at home. d. What is not said but perceived in the speeches? The easing of regional socioeconomic inequalities and the inclusion, in the economic process, of historically excluded layers of society. The links between economy and new technologies, professions, and working methods to raise environmental, social, political, and economic issues around long-term sustainable development. The continuity and expansion of the works developed suffer setbacks due to contexts of financial difficulties, which expresses the institution's lack of clarity regarding benefits in this sense that could result from sustainable practices.
e. How is the discourse organized? The speech seeks to manifest the understanding of the organization's socio-environmental responsibility and its role as a sponsor of transparency and dialogue between different organizations. Over the years, the eminently social discourse has given space to environmental aspects, remaining politically correct and with lenses turned to the outside world. The silence about presumed benefits from sustainable actions carried out at the domestic level gives low attention to the relevance of sustainable universities, a theme studied by several entities at the international level.
One limitation of this study is the evidence that we captured the analyzed images from our perspective, actively inserted on the observed reality. This circumstance makes it challenging to keep the distance expected when carrying out a study of this size. The option for stock images can give future researchers a broader view of the object of study since their perspective -which carries their ideologies -would not influence the abstractions. Despite considering this a limitation, the personal capture of images, even if it brings the researcher's own bias, does not invalidate the research or the interpretation of the facts since the university is a space open to visitation, allowing ample research possibilities to interested parties.
The temporary lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 made it impossible to make in-depth observations on all the UFPB's campuses. We prioritized campus I, the largest of them, located in Paraiba's capital. This fact may have compromised to some degree the perception of actions taken or omissions by the university administration. For the same reason, we conducted conversations with employees electronically. This eliminated part of the spontaneity of responses on certain occasions -we believe that communication conducted in person can stimulate a feeling of intimacy between the interlocutors, with a consequent more detailed and in-depth reply. However, the material collected proved to be adequate for the analysis.