Gustavo García-López
Biographic Data
| ID | 281399 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gustavo García-López |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gustavo |
| FAMILY NAME | García-López |
| SIGNATURE | GARCÍA-LÓPEZ G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8005-1574 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 264 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Carbon-washing sustainable mobility: The case of Metro Mondego in Coimbra, Portugal
Cities and urban transportation in particular are increasingly viewed as key arenas for sustainability and climate action. However, ‘sustainable’ and ‘carbon-neutral’ measures often emphasize technological solutions, emissions reductions and economic growth, while often failing to confront the wider mobility crisis, and often exacerbating social injustices. In this article, we extend the emerging concept of "carbon-washing", applied to corporate …
Energy sovereignty from below: Visions and practices of socioecological transformation in Puerto Rico and Catalonia
In this paper, we put forward the notion of “energy sovereignty from below” to reflect on the visions and practices of territorial movements mobilizing around corporate energy projects and for reclaiming control over the definition, modalities, and scales of a just socioecological transition. Based on a comparative engagement with the cases of Puerto Rico and Catalonia, first, we explore how movements organize to challenge the undesired impacts o…
Political ecologies of the Green New Deal: Critiques, contentions and radical appropriations
The Green New Deal (GND) emerged forcefully around 2019 as an ambitious, movement-inspired policy framework. Put forward by progressive political parties in the US and Europe, GND programs promised to tackle climate change while advancing social justice through state-led decarbonization efforts. The concrete achievements of such policies have proven disappointing. Yet, the GND framework sparked important debates and ideological and programmatic e…
Neoliberalism, colonialism, and systemic barriers to citizen participation in environmental assessment processes in Latin America: The case of Puerto Rico
The need for greater citizen participation in EIA is well established, as are the numerous barriers to such participation. Yet there are still important gaps in understanding what political-economic power relations undermine participation. In particular, there are few studies linking (neo)colonialism, neoliberalism and austerity to EIA governance and citizen participation. Moreover, there are comparatively fewer studies of EIA from Latin America,…
Becoming a Care-Tizen: Contributing to Democracy Through Forest Commoning
This paper aims to expand current understandings on the relationship between forest commoning, citizenship and democracy. For doing so, it presents a case study of a community forest in the periphery of Vigo city (Galicia, Spain). Using interviews and historical records of the city and the neighborhood, the paper tells the story of the emergence of a forest commons in relation to citizenship claims and struggles. Through time, communal practices …
The coloniality of green extractivism: Unearthing decarbonisation by dispossession through the case of nickel
This article elaborates on the notion of “decarbonisation by dispossession” in order to shed light on the contradictory character of capital-driven energy transitions. First, we suggest conceptualising “decarbonisation” as a “socio-ecological fix” to intersecting, climate-induced crises of accumulation and hegemony, aimed at saving capital rather than the planet. Second, reflecting on the mineral intensity of “low carbon” technologies such as ind…
Social Movements and Commons: In Theory and in Practice
On the frontiers of collaboration and conflict: How context influences the success of collaboration
The increasing scale and interconnection of many environmental challenges – from climate change to land use – has resulted in the need to collaborate across borders and boundaries of all types. Traditional centralized, top-down and sectoral approaches to governance of single-issue areas or species within social-ecological systems often have limited potential to alleviate issues that go beyond their jurisdiction. As a result, collaborative governa…
How politics shapes the outcomes of forest carbon finance
Commons, Commoning and Co-Becoming: Nurturing Life-in-Common and Post-Capitalist Futures (An Introduction to the Theme Issue)
Over the last decade, there has been an expansion of scholarly and activist engagement with the commons. This interest corresponds to a growing quest for alternatives to capitalism in view of ongoing socio- ecological crises. As neoliberal capitalism intensifies enclosure of the commons, local actions to reclaim old commons and invent new ones to counter these processes are also on the rise. However, there are diverse conceptions of the commons, …
Do commons management and movements reinforce each other? Comparative insights from Mexico and Sri Lanka
From concepts to comparisons: A resource for diagnosis and measurement in social-ecological systems
Understanding the context of multifaceted collaborations for social-ecological sustainability: A Methodology for Cross-Case Analysis
Cockburn, J., M. Schoon, G. Cundill, C. Robinson, J. A. Aburto, S. M. Alexander, J. A. Baggio, C. Barnaud, M. Chapman, M. Garcia Llorente, G. A. García-López, R. Hill, C. Ifejika Speranza, J. Lee, C. L. Meek, E. Rosenberg, L. Schultz, and G. Thondhlana. 2020. Understanding the context of multifaceted collaborations for social-ecological sustainability: a methodology for cross-case analysis. Ecology and Society 25(3):7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-…
The Multiple Layers of Environmental Injustice in Contexts of (Un)natural Disasters: The Case of Puerto Rico Post-Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria has had devastating impacts in Puerto Rico. Yet this catastrophe has not been felt equally by all. The vulnerability to impacts and ability to recover from hurricanes and other disasters are directly shaped by existing socioeconomic and racial inequalities. The situation post-Maria in Puerto Rico has been labeled a clear case of environmental injustice. This article documents the hurricane's nexus with environmental justice (EJ). …
Between Grassroots Collective Action and State Mandates: The Hybridity of Multi-Level Forest Associations in Mexico
Multi-level collective actions and institutions play an important role in natural resource governance and rural development; however, the origins and transformations of these institutions have only recently begun to receive systematic research attention. To address this gap, we trace and analyse the historical processes driving formation and change of Mexican inter-community forestry associations over time, drawing on survey data and in-depth cas…
Social movements as key actors in governing the commons: Evidence from community-based resource management cases across the world
Rethinking power and institutions in the shadows of neoliberalism
Rethinking elite persistence in neoliberalism: Foresters and techno-bureaucratic logics in Mexico’s community forestry
Thinking the Commons through Ostrom and Butler: Boundedness and Vulnerability
In this paper we propose an 'undisciplinary' meeting between Elinor Ostrom and Judith Butler, with the intent to broaden the theory of the commons by discussing it as a relational politics. We use Butler's theory of power to problematize existing visions of commons, shifting from Ostrom's 'bounded rationality' to Butler's concepts of 'bounded selves' and mutual vulnerability. To be bounded - as opposed to autonomous being - implies being an (ambi…
The influence of community-based resource management institutions on adaptation capacity: A large-n study of farmer responses to climate and global market disturbances
Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy, Community and Forests in Puerto Rico
Political ecologists have developed scathing analyses of capitalism’s tendency for enclosure and dispossession of the commons. In this context commons are analyzed as a force to resist neo-liberalism, a main site of conflict over dispossession, and a source of alternatives to capitalism. In this paper we elaborate a view of the commons as the material and symbolic terrain where performative re-articulation of common(s) senses can potentially enac…
Synthesizing theories of natural resource management and governance
Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012
While Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory has been widely applied to forestry, there are few examples of using the theory to study large-scale governance. In this paper we test the applicability of CPR theory to understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012. Indonesia contains one of the world’s largest tropical forests, and experienced rapid deforestation during this time frame, with forest cover dropping from clo…
Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012
While Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory has been widely applied to forestry, there are few examples of using the theory to study large-scale governance. In this paper we test the applicability of CPR theory to understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012. Indonesia contains one of the world’s largest tropical forests, and experienced rapid deforestation during this time frame, with forest cover dropping from clo…
Governing large-scale social-ecological systems: Lessons from five cases
This paper compares lessons drawn from five case studies of large scale governance of common-pool resources: management of forests in Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Rhine River in western Europe, the Ozone layer (i.e. the Montreal Protocol), and the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (i.e. the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna). The goal is to assess the applicability of Ostrom’s design principles for sustainab…
Thinking the Commons through Ostrom and Butler: Boundedness and Vulnerability
In this paper we propose an 'undisciplinary' meeting between Elinor Ostrom and Judith Butler, with the intent to broaden the theory of the commons by discussing it as a relational politics. We use Butler's theory of power to problematize existing visions of commons, shifting from Ostrom's 'bounded rationality' to Butler's concepts of 'bounded selves' and mutual vulnerability. To be bounded - as opposed to autonomous being - implies being an (ambi…
Rethinking power and institutions in the shadows of neoliberalism
Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy, Community and Forests in Puerto Rico
Political ecologists have developed scathing analyses of capitalism’s tendency for enclosure and dispossession of the commons. In this context commons are analyzed as a force to resist neo-liberalism, a main site of conflict over dispossession, and a source of alternatives to capitalism. In this paper we elaborate a view of the commons as the material and symbolic terrain where performative re-articulation of common(s) senses can potentially enac…
Synthesizing theories of natural resource management and governance
The coloniality of green extractivism: Unearthing decarbonisation by dispossession through the case of nickel
This article elaborates on the notion of “decarbonisation by dispossession” in order to shed light on the contradictory character of capital-driven energy transitions. First, we suggest conceptualising “decarbonisation” as a “socio-ecological fix” to intersecting, climate-induced crises of accumulation and hegemony, aimed at saving capital rather than the planet. Second, reflecting on the mineral intensity of “low carbon” technologies such as ind…
Rethinking elite persistence in neoliberalism: Foresters and techno-bureaucratic logics in Mexico’s community forestry
Commons, Commoning and Co-Becoming: Nurturing Life-in-Common and Post-Capitalist Futures (An Introduction to the Theme Issue)
Over the last decade, there has been an expansion of scholarly and activist engagement with the commons. This interest corresponds to a growing quest for alternatives to capitalism in view of ongoing socio- ecological crises. As neoliberal capitalism intensifies enclosure of the commons, local actions to reclaim old commons and invent new ones to counter these processes are also on the rise. However, there are diverse conceptions of the commons, …
Social movements as key actors in governing the commons: Evidence from community-based resource management cases across the world
Governing large-scale social-ecological systems: Lessons from five cases
This paper compares lessons drawn from five case studies of large scale governance of common-pool resources: management of forests in Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Rhine River in western Europe, the Ozone layer (i.e. the Montreal Protocol), and the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (i.e. the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna). The goal is to assess the applicability of Ostrom’s design principles for sustainab…
The influence of community-based resource management institutions on adaptation capacity: A large-n study of farmer responses to climate and global market disturbances
Scaling up from the grassroots and the top down: The impacts of multi-level governance on community forestry in Durango, Mexico
This paper analyzes the local-level impacts of cross-scale linkages in Mexican community forestry by evaluating the operation of four inter-community forest associations (FAs). Based on one year of fieldwork in Durango, Mexico, the paper focuses on two inter-related issues: (1) the services that each association provides to their member communities and how they impact forest management and the development of communities’ forestry enterprises, and…
Disturbance, Response, and Persistence in Self-Organized Forested Communities: Analysis of Robustness and Resilience in Five Communities in Southern Indiana
Fleischman, F. D., K. Boenning, G. A. Garcia-Lopez, S. Mincey, M. Schmitt-Harsh, K. Daedlow, M. Lopez, X. Basurto, B. Fischer, and E. Ostrom. 2010. Disturbance, response, and persistence in self-organized forested communities: analysis of robustness and resilience in five communities in southern Indiana. Ecology and Society 15(4): 9. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03512-150409
Energy sovereignty from below: Visions and practices of socioecological transformation in Puerto Rico and Catalonia
In this paper, we put forward the notion of “energy sovereignty from below” to reflect on the visions and practices of territorial movements mobilizing around corporate energy projects and for reclaiming control over the definition, modalities, and scales of a just socioecological transition. Based on a comparative engagement with the cases of Puerto Rico and Catalonia, first, we explore how movements organize to challenge the undesired impacts o…
How politics shapes the outcomes of forest carbon finance
From concepts to comparisons: A resource for diagnosis and measurement in social-ecological systems
Understanding the context of multifaceted collaborations for social-ecological sustainability: A Methodology for Cross-Case Analysis
Cockburn, J., M. Schoon, G. Cundill, C. Robinson, J. A. Aburto, S. M. Alexander, J. A. Baggio, C. Barnaud, M. Chapman, M. Garcia Llorente, G. A. García-López, R. Hill, C. Ifejika Speranza, J. Lee, C. L. Meek, E. Rosenberg, L. Schultz, and G. Thondhlana. 2020. Understanding the context of multifaceted collaborations for social-ecological sustainability: a methodology for cross-case analysis. Ecology and Society 25(3):7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-…
Becoming a Care-Tizen: Contributing to Democracy Through Forest Commoning
This paper aims to expand current understandings on the relationship between forest commoning, citizenship and democracy. For doing so, it presents a case study of a community forest in the periphery of Vigo city (Galicia, Spain). Using interviews and historical records of the city and the neighborhood, the paper tells the story of the emergence of a forest commons in relation to citizenship claims and struggles. Through time, communal practices …
Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012
While Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory has been widely applied to forestry, there are few examples of using the theory to study large-scale governance. In this paper we test the applicability of CPR theory to understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012. Indonesia contains one of the world’s largest tropical forests, and experienced rapid deforestation during this time frame, with forest cover dropping from clo…
Participatory processes in the soy conflicts in Paraguay and Argentina
Disturbance, Response, and Persistence in Self-Organized Forested Communities: Analysis of Robustness and Resilience in Five Communities in Southern Indiana
Fleischman, F. D., K. Boenning, G. A. Garcia-Lopez, S. Mincey, M. Schmitt-Harsh, K. Daedlow, M. Lopez, X. Basurto, B. Fischer, and E. Ostrom. 2010. Disturbance, response, and persistence in self-organized forested communities: analysis of robustness and resilience in five communities in southern Indiana. Ecology and Society 15(4): 9. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03512-150409
Scaling up from the grassroots and the top down: The impacts of multi-level governance on community forestry in Durango, Mexico
This paper analyzes the local-level impacts of cross-scale linkages in Mexican community forestry by evaluating the operation of four inter-community forest associations (FAs). Based on one year of fieldwork in Durango, Mexico, the paper focuses on two inter-related issues: (1) the services that each association provides to their member communities and how they impact forest management and the development of communities’ forestry enterprises, and…
Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012
While Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory has been widely applied to forestry, there are few examples of using the theory to study large-scale governance. In this paper we test the applicability of CPR theory to understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012. Indonesia contains one of the world’s largest tropical forests, and experienced rapid deforestation during this time frame, with forest cover dropping from clo…
Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012
While Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory has been widely applied to forestry, there are few examples of using the theory to study large-scale governance. In this paper we test the applicability of CPR theory to understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012. Indonesia contains one of the world’s largest tropical forests, and experienced rapid deforestation during this time frame, with forest cover dropping from clo…
Governing large-scale social-ecological systems: Lessons from five cases
This paper compares lessons drawn from five case studies of large scale governance of common-pool resources: management of forests in Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Rhine River in western Europe, the Ozone layer (i.e. the Montreal Protocol), and the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (i.e. the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna). The goal is to assess the applicability of Ostrom’s design principles for sustainab…
Synthesizing theories of natural resource management and governance
The influence of community-based resource management institutions on adaptation capacity: A large-n study of farmer responses to climate and global market disturbances
Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy, Community and Forests in Puerto Rico
Political ecologists have developed scathing analyses of capitalism’s tendency for enclosure and dispossession of the commons. In this context commons are analyzed as a force to resist neo-liberalism, a main site of conflict over dispossession, and a source of alternatives to capitalism. In this paper we elaborate a view of the commons as the material and symbolic terrain where performative re-articulation of common(s) senses can potentially enac…
The Multiple Layers of Environmental Injustice in Contexts of (Un)natural Disasters: The Case of Puerto Rico Post-Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria has had devastating impacts in Puerto Rico. Yet this catastrophe has not been felt equally by all. The vulnerability to impacts and ability to recover from hurricanes and other disasters are directly shaped by existing socioeconomic and racial inequalities. The situation post-Maria in Puerto Rico has been labeled a clear case of environmental injustice. This article documents the hurricane's nexus with environmental justice (EJ). …
Between Grassroots Collective Action and State Mandates: The Hybridity of Multi-Level Forest Associations in Mexico
Multi-level collective actions and institutions play an important role in natural resource governance and rural development; however, the origins and transformations of these institutions have only recently begun to receive systematic research attention. To address this gap, we trace and analyse the historical processes driving formation and change of Mexican inter-community forestry associations over time, drawing on survey data and in-depth cas…
Social movements as key actors in governing the commons: Evidence from community-based resource management cases across the world
Rethinking power and institutions in the shadows of neoliberalism
Rethinking elite persistence in neoliberalism: Foresters and techno-bureaucratic logics in Mexico’s community forestry
Thinking the Commons through Ostrom and Butler: Boundedness and Vulnerability
In this paper we propose an 'undisciplinary' meeting between Elinor Ostrom and Judith Butler, with the intent to broaden the theory of the commons by discussing it as a relational politics. We use Butler's theory of power to problematize existing visions of commons, shifting from Ostrom's 'bounded rationality' to Butler's concepts of 'bounded selves' and mutual vulnerability. To be bounded - as opposed to autonomous being - implies being an (ambi…
Do commons management and movements reinforce each other? Comparative insights from Mexico and Sri Lanka
From concepts to comparisons: A resource for diagnosis and measurement in social-ecological systems
Understanding the context of multifaceted collaborations for social-ecological sustainability: A Methodology for Cross-Case Analysis
Cockburn, J., M. Schoon, G. Cundill, C. Robinson, J. A. Aburto, S. M. Alexander, J. A. Baggio, C. Barnaud, M. Chapman, M. Garcia Llorente, G. A. García-López, R. Hill, C. Ifejika Speranza, J. Lee, C. L. Meek, E. Rosenberg, L. Schultz, and G. Thondhlana. 2020. Understanding the context of multifaceted collaborations for social-ecological sustainability: a methodology for cross-case analysis. Ecology and Society 25(3):7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-…
On the frontiers of collaboration and conflict: How context influences the success of collaboration
The increasing scale and interconnection of many environmental challenges – from climate change to land use – has resulted in the need to collaborate across borders and boundaries of all types. Traditional centralized, top-down and sectoral approaches to governance of single-issue areas or species within social-ecological systems often have limited potential to alleviate issues that go beyond their jurisdiction. As a result, collaborative governa…
How politics shapes the outcomes of forest carbon finance
Commons, Commoning and Co-Becoming: Nurturing Life-in-Common and Post-Capitalist Futures (An Introduction to the Theme Issue)
Over the last decade, there has been an expansion of scholarly and activist engagement with the commons. This interest corresponds to a growing quest for alternatives to capitalism in view of ongoing socio- ecological crises. As neoliberal capitalism intensifies enclosure of the commons, local actions to reclaim old commons and invent new ones to counter these processes are also on the rise. However, there are diverse conceptions of the commons, …
Social Movements and Commons: In Theory and in Practice
Becoming a Care-Tizen: Contributing to Democracy Through Forest Commoning
This paper aims to expand current understandings on the relationship between forest commoning, citizenship and democracy. For doing so, it presents a case study of a community forest in the periphery of Vigo city (Galicia, Spain). Using interviews and historical records of the city and the neighborhood, the paper tells the story of the emergence of a forest commons in relation to citizenship claims and struggles. Through time, communal practices …
The coloniality of green extractivism: Unearthing decarbonisation by dispossession through the case of nickel
This article elaborates on the notion of “decarbonisation by dispossession” in order to shed light on the contradictory character of capital-driven energy transitions. First, we suggest conceptualising “decarbonisation” as a “socio-ecological fix” to intersecting, climate-induced crises of accumulation and hegemony, aimed at saving capital rather than the planet. Second, reflecting on the mineral intensity of “low carbon” technologies such as ind…
Neoliberalism, colonialism, and systemic barriers to citizen participation in environmental assessment processes in Latin America: The case of Puerto Rico
The need for greater citizen participation in EIA is well established, as are the numerous barriers to such participation. Yet there are still important gaps in understanding what political-economic power relations undermine participation. In particular, there are few studies linking (neo)colonialism, neoliberalism and austerity to EIA governance and citizen participation. Moreover, there are comparatively fewer studies of EIA from Latin America,…
Political science (23 works) · Economics (19 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (17 works) · Politics (17 works) · Geography (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Law (12 works) · Business (11 works) · Corporate governance (9 works) · Ecology (9 works)