The paper presents a preliminary overview of graduate programs in environment and development registered in CAPES in 2004-2006. Issues arising from these programs include: a) a methodology focused on the dialectical relationship between theoretical and empirical issues in the research process, b) an effort to approximate the dynamics of interdisciplinary production as well as the different methodological procedures utilized in such programs (ie, what kind of interdisciplinarity is being practiced within them), and c) questions and hypotheses that allow for the continuity of research through qualitative analysis of the concepts of “nature” and “development” adopted within these programs. The partial result of this article suggests that the approach in question is indicative of the establishment and institutionalization of a socio-environmental field and that the article can be characterized as an open “model” for the analysis of research programs.