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Environmental Governance and Latin American Politics
Environmental Governance and Latin American Politics
Doctoral Dissertation
My doctoral dissertation investigates how social movements influence policymakers regarding the construction and management of large dams in the Brazilian Amazon. Using a multi-methods approach, I compared social movements to identify which campaigns and strategies are most effective in influencing policymakers.
Social network map developed during my doctoral research
I used social network analysis (SNA) to map the structure of these social movements and to examine the flow of information and resources within networks. I also conducted extensive fieldwork in the region, interviewing activists, representatives of grassroots organizations, members of local communities, and high-level policymakers to assess their perceptions of various social movements’ achievements. By employing a process-tracing method, I was able to determine if and how policymakers changed their positions because of the pressure exerted by social movements. My results show that social movements that successfully influence policymakers build dense, diverse, and diffuse social networks.
I investigate Latin American politics from the perspective of Environmental Governance
Ontologically, my research holds that societies compete for power embedded in the control of natural resources. Thus, understanding how people manage these resources explains a wide variety of power dynamics.
Latin America is marked by its colonial past and the political institutions that emerged thereafter. To understand this historical process and current issues in the region, I analyze how natural resources are extracted, which groups secure and maintain control over them, and the social, environmental, and economic consequences that follow.
My research invites scholars of democracy and Latin American studies to evaluate the vitality of democratic systems from the perspective of those leading environmental social movements. The ways that resistance movements organize their protests and campaigns reveal much about how governments are structured, how democracies function, and how those outside formal power structures regulate and control elected officials.
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