Stockholm university
Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies

NILAS Research seminar - Gianfranco Selgas

Seminar

Date: Friday 17 October 2025

Time: 14.00 – 15.30

Location: Library of the Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies (House B, Floor 5) & Zoom*

Development under Scrutiny: Growth, Planetary Boundaries, and Socio-ecological futures from Latin America (1960–2020)

Mainstream development models have failed to address escalating inequality and the ecological crisis. Latin America has long generated alternative theories grounded in equity and participatory governance, yet these contributions remain largely overlooked in climate change debates. Sitting at the intersection of global history, political economy/ecology, and critical social theory, this presentation introduces my new research project, which recovers and analyses neglected Latin American development theories to show how they anticipated critiques of growth-driven paradigms and imagined socio-ecological alternatives. As global and EU initiatives (e.g., Green Deal, Just Transition Mechanism) face dilemmas of rising resource extraction and growing economic inequality, recovering Latin American development theory today is crucial to move beyond technical fixes and generate politically and conceptually informed approaches for global socio-economic transformation.

Gianfranco_Selgas_foto_Fernanda Almeida_2024
Gianfranco Selgas. Foto: Fernanda Almeida, 2024

Dr. Gianfranco Selgas is a Researcher at the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), an Affiliated Researcher at the Centre for Energy Ethics (University of St Andrews), and a Guest Researcher at NILAS. He recently completed a project as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow on the social and political history of extractivism and development in modern Venezuela (University College London). He is the author of Regionalismo ensamblado: Cultura, ecología política y extractivismos en Latinoamérica (1930-1940) (Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2025).

 

The research seminar on Latin American studies is open to scholars interested in Latin American issues. It welcomes the presentation of papers from researchers and PhD students from different social science disciplines.

The seminar takes place on Fridays every second week (odd numbers) at the Library of the Institute of Latin American Studies (House B, Floor 5).

For further information on the research seminar please contact: researchseminars.nilas@su.se. 

Organizer of the seminar: Thaïs Machado Borges

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Theme
Social and economic sustainability - Theme page
Research subjects
Global Latin American Studies Environmental Humanities with a focus on Latin America Development Studies in Latin America

Last updated: September 12, 2025

Source: Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies

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