Introduction:
Ulrich Brand, Research Group Latin America, University of Vienna
Keynote lecture:
Grettel Navas, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad de Chile
Input:
Valerie Lenikus, Research Group Latin America, University of Vienna

Facilitation: Karin Küblböck, ÖFSE

What can environmental conflicts reveal about socio-environmental inequalities in Latin America? And how are local communities organizing to resist them? This conference explores these questions through an analysis of environmental conflicts related to agrarian and mining extractivism in Central America and Chile. Grettel Navas will begin by examining the concept of extractivism, a term developed in Latin America to expose the violence embedded in dominant modes of production—what is extracted, how, and at what cost. She will also reflect on the temporal dimensions of extractivism, showing how environmental change is co-produced by asymmetrical power relations, including the historical and colonial legacies of resource extraction and socio-ecological exploitation. The talk will then turn to how these unequal power dynamics are resisted from below—who the actors are, how they organize, and what outcomes they achieve. As Political Ecologists, Grettel Navas defines environmental conflicts broadly as collective mobilizations 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 is a political ecologist specializing 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 program in Planetary Health at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) (Spain). In November 2025 she holds a Paul Lazarsfeld Visiting Professorship at the 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.

We kindly ask to register by 5^th November 2025: Ingrid.fankhauser@univie.ac.at

This event has been organized by the Research Group Latin America, University of Vienna in cooperation with ÖFSE – Österreichische Forschungsstiftung für Internationale Entwicklung