Francisco Orozco-Mel茅ndez
Position
Phd candidate
Affiliation
Research
I am a PhD Research Fellow with an academic background in Environmental Sciences and Geography. I am interested in how science and other forms of knowledge are coproduced and deployed to address complex problems.
I have researched various environmental problems, including transitions to agroecology, environmental risk governance, climate change adaptation and grassroots innovations. My research鈥檚 conductive thread across these very diverse problems is the contact zone between scientific and 鈥渘on-scientific鈥 knowledge and practices. I look at how science and other forms of knowledge are integrated and excluded from each other in ecologies of knowledge and how they can (or cannot) improve sustainability and environmental justice. Theoretically, I explore these problems through frameworks like Political Ecology and Science and Technology Studies.
My PhD research project analyzes ethnographic observations of EU-funded research projects aiming to co-create knowledge with diverse communities to address complex environmental problems. Broadly speaking, I study what kinds of power dynamics shape the unfolding of collaborative research projects and to what extent they can be addressed by methodological choices. As an example of a relation of power, I am particularly interested in understanding how local or traditional knowledge is incorporated into the making of science and what the implications of this integration are for local practices.
Outreach
Workshop 1: Co-Producing Knowledge for Sustainability: Risks and New Avenues. (The 16th NESS - Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference), 05.06.2024
Conference paper: Can post-normal science help democratize environmental risk management in the Global South? 14th Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics. 06.2022
Conference paper: "Social innovation for food sovereignty in urban and peri-urban contexts". International Congress on Justice and Food Sovereignty in the Americas.
Publications
Orozco-Mel茅ndez, F., Paneque-G谩lvez, J., & Kovacic, Z. (2024). Problematizing post-normal science in the Global South. Environmental Science & Policy, 161, 103867.
Ram铆rez, M. I., 艩piri膰, J., Orozco-Mel茅ndez, F., & Merlo-Reyes, A. (2024). Sustainability of the community model of avocado production in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Michoac谩n, M茅xico. GeoJournal, 89(5), 189.
Orozco-Mel茅ndez, J. F., & Paneque-G谩lvez, J. (2023). Co-producing uncomfortable, transdisciplinary, actionable knowledges against the corporate food regime through critical science approaches. Environment, Development andSustainability, 1-29.
Orozco-Mel茅ndez, J. F., & Paneque-G谩lvez, J. (2022). A role for grassroots innovation toward agroecological transitions in the Global South? Evidence from Mexico. Ecological Economics, 201, 107582.