When: Thursday, 13 November 2025, 18:00 - 19:30, followed by a vino de honor
Where: ÖFSE, Sensengasse 3, 1090 Vienna
Speaker: Grettel Navas Obando (Department of Political Science, University of Vienna & University of Chile, Santiago)
Introduction: Ulrich Brand (Department of Political Science, University of Vienna)
Moderation: Karin Küblböck (ÖFSE, Vienna)
Discussion: Valerie Lenikus (Department of Political Science, University of Vienna), Herbert Wasserbauer (DKA Austria)
Abstract:
What can environmental conflicts reveal about socio-environmental inequalities in Latin America? And how are local communities organising to resist them? This lecture explores these questions through an analysis of environmental conflicts related to agrarian and mining extractivism in Central America and Chile. As a political ecologist, Grettel Navas defines environmental conflicts broadly as collective mobilisations against perceived environmental and social harms caused by extractive or development projects. These conflicts often involve struggles over access to, control of, and the meaning attributed to natural resources. Therefore, rather than viewing environmental conflicts as isolated incidents to be managed, mediated, or repressed through institutional or coercive means, she adopts a Marxist perspective on social conflicts, which understands conflicts as a fundamental arena of social transformation and whose analysis is useful for illuminating the structural conditions that produce them.
Grettel Navas Obando is a political ecologist specialising in toxic pollution, public policy, and environmental justice. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the School of Government, University of Chile (Santiago, Chile), and an Associate Lecturer in the interdisciplinary Master's programme in Planetary Health at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) (Spain). In November 2025 she holds a Paul Lazarsfeld Visiting Professorship at the University of Vienna, Faculty of Social Sciences in the area of International Politics / Research Group Latin America. Grettel Navas earned her PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where she was part of the ENVJustice project (ERC-GA 69544). She also holds a Master's degree in Socio-Environmental Studies from FLACSO-Ecuador and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the National University of Costa Rica. Grettel is an active member of the Latin American Political Ecology Group (CLACSO–Abya Yala) and serves on the leadership and coordination team of the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas), a global initiative documenting environmental conflicts and resistance movements. In her talk "Landscapes of Extractivism and Resistance," she will reflect on her long-standing fieldwork in Central America and her more recent research in Chile.
This event has been organised by the Research Group Latin America, University of Vienna in cooperation with ÖFSE - Österreichische Forschungsstiftung für Internationale Entwicklung and LAI - Österreichisches Lateinamerika Institut.
We kindly ask to register by 5th November 2025.
More information: Landscapes of extraction and resistance: insights from Central America and Chile. Latin America Lecture with visiting professor Grettel Navas, University of Chile
