Gabriela Merlinsky
Gabriela Merlinsky is a sociologist who graduated from the University of Buenos Aires. She holds PhDs in Geography from the University of Paris 8 and in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. She is a full professor of environmental sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. She also lectures in political ecology in various parts of the world. She is also a Principal Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research in Argentina. Her research combines social science and environmental humanities to study climate action, water, gender and environmental conflicts in Latin America.
Gabriela Merlinsky’s professional career has been closely linked to the social and political construction of environmental issues in Argentina. She has spent more than twenty years conducting research on environmental degradation in the metropolitan basins of Buenos Aires. This experience has given her valuable insight into the complexities of environmental restoration in relation to social inequalities.
She has shared her expertise with several institutions, including the Université de Tours, the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) in Barcelona, the Institut des Hautes Études de l’Amérique latine (IHEAL) at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and Universidad Nacional de la República. She has also held the Richard E. Greenleaf Distinguished Chair in Latin American Studies at Tulane University and been a fellow on the “Summer Programme in Social Science: An International and Interdisciplinary Initiative’ at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala.
She combines case studies with participatory action research, collaborating with environmental activists and advocates. This has allowed her to develop a long-term perspective on the institutionalization of environmental demands in Argentina and other Latin American countries.
Research Interest
Water and Environmental Policies
Climate Justice
Socio-Ecological Transformations
Environmental Conflicts
Gender and Feminist Political Ecologies
Urban Political Ecology
Recent Publications
Martín, F; Merlinsky, G and Milanez, F (2025). Descolonizar la naturaleza. Por una ecología política latinoamericana: textos reunidos de Héctor Alimonda 1982-2017. Buenos Aires, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO), 569 Pages. https://biblioteca-repositorio.clacso.edu.ar/handle/CLACSO/252109
Merlinsky, M.G y Tobías, M (2023). “Trajectories of adaptation to climate change in Latin American cities. Climate justice blind spots”. In: Beatriz Bustos, Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, Gustavo García-López , Felipe Milanez and Diana Ojeda (editors): Routledge Handbook of Latin America and the Environment, London, Routledge. 10.4324/9780429344428-14
Hernández Vidal, N., Merlinsky, G., & Bolados, P. (2023). Defending the Commons: New Frontiers in Latin American Perspectives on Environmental Justice. Sociological Inquiry. 2023-05. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soin.12525
Guerra Flavia and Merlinsky, Gabriela (2022). City Profiles N 1. Buenos Aires. Transformative Urban Coalitions. https://urbancoalitions.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/20221110_TUC_City_Profile_BuenosAires.pdf
Schmidt, M., Tobías, M., Merlinsky, M. G., & Toledo López, V. (2022). Conflicts over water and the use of agrochemicals in Salta and Santiago del Estero, Argentina: a political ecology analysis. [Conflictos por el agua y el uso de agroquímicos en Salta y Santiago del Estero, Argentina: un análisis desde la ecología política]. Agua y Territorio, Issue 21, Pages: 85 – 102. https://doi.org/10.17561/at.21.5889
Merlinsky, Gabriela (2021). Toda ecología es política. Las luchas por el derecho al ambiente en busca de alternativas de mundos. Buenos Aires, Siglo Veintiuno Editores. 200 pages
Melé Patrice et Merlinsky, Gabriela (2021) Environnement et droit(s) dans la ville à Buenos Aires. Cahiers des Amériques Latines, 2021, 97, pp.117-135. ⟨10.4000/cal.13378⟩. ⟨hal-03613801⟩
Merlinsky, G y Serafini, P (editors) (2020). Arte y Ecología Política. Buenos Aires, Colección IIGG-CLACSO, 244 pages. https://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/Argentina/iigg-uba/20200827030621/Arte-ecologia-politica.pdf