After university studies in Chile, Poland and México, I obtained my PhD degree in Sociology at Uppsala University (Sweden), where I was also promoted to associate professor. I was promoted to professor in Environmental Sciences at Södertörn University. In a nutshell, my research focuses on the use of natural resources in the interface between rural and global, the redefinition of land and sea ownership/possession with a focus on agro-pastoral communities and small-scale fishing.

Before moving to Södertörn University, I was the Director of Research Studies for Cemus Research Forum (Cefo), part of the Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD) – an educational and research platform for interdisciplinary studies on sustainable development jointly funded by Uppsala University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). I was appointed in 2000, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Rural Development Studies at SLU, where I was also Program Director for the International Masters Program in Development Research, Application and Theory (MADRAT). In addition, I have worked, among others, as a Lecturer at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, and at the Department of Ecological Economics at Mälardalen University.

My present research concerns the political economy and ecology of mining conflicts in Chile together with an interdisciplinary group of researchers with the aim to develop theory and methodology to support empirical research involving co-production of knowledge and sustainable transformation strategies related to natural resource access and use.

I work presently as Senior Lecturer and professor in Environmental Sciences with focus on Global Development Studies at the School of Natural Sciences, Technology and Environmental Studies (NMT), where I teach in various courses such as Modern Development Theories, Research Design, Qualitative Methods, B-level Essay Writing, Contemporary Development Theories, etc. I am presently member of the Educational Advisory Group of ACCESS’s Research school − an academic collaboration between fourteen Chilean and Swedish universities and contact person for ACCESS at Södertörn University.

Research areas

My scientific works has been published various international journals and I have collaborated with various configurations of researchers in the following research areas:

• Natural resource use: historical development of the commons, land and water grabbing processes, gentrification and natural resource conflicts (empirical focus in Chile and Sweden).
• Small-scale fisheries: fisheries crisis, economic globalization, sustainable fisheries, use rights, governance, transformation towards sustainability, transdisciplinary research and future perspectives (empirical focus on Chile, South Africa, Vietnam and Poland), and new gender relations in fisheries (empirical focus on Chile).
• Knowledge generation in contexts of socio-environmental challenges and conflicts: co-creating knowledge; methodological, ethical, and epistemological reflections on doing inter- and transdisciplinary fieldwork; comparison of the meta-assumptions of political ecology and socio-ecological systems research (empirical focus on Sweden, Chile, South Africa, Vietnam and Poland).

Recent Publications

• Co-creating actionable science: reflections from the field, a forthcoming anthology at Cambridge Scholars (UK). Editors: Gallardo G. L., T. Sokolova and F. Saunders. A collaboration between UU and SH with researchers UU, SH, SU, SLU and NIBIO (Norsk Institut för Bioekonomi), and Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Cochabamba, Bolivia.
• 2018. Gallardo F. G. L., F. Saunders, M. Ávila, A. Isakson, I. Greco, P. Moscoso and D. Rodríguez. Granjeras del Mar: Luchas y Sueños en Coliumo. Historia del Área de Manejo del Sindicato No 2. Editor: G. L. Gallardo F. Andros Impresores Santiago de Chile. http://sh.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?dswid=7544&pid=diva2%3A1281545&c=3&searchType=RESEARCH&language=en&query=&af=%5B%5D&aq=%5B%5B%7B%22personId%22%3A%22*shgago17*%22%7D%5D%5D&aq2=%5B%5B%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D&noOfRows=50&sortOrder=dateIssued_sort_desc&sortOrder2=title_sort_asc&onlyFullText=false&sf=all External link.
• Gallardo F. G. L., & F. Saunders. “Before we asked for permission, now we only give notice”: Women’s entrance into artisanal fisheries in Chile, Special Issue in (En)Gendering Change in Small-Scale Fisheries and Fishing Communities in a Globalized World. Editors: K. Frangoudes & S. Gerrard. Maritime Studies. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40152-018-0110-z External link.,
• Gallardo F. G.L. and F. Saunders. ‘Förändringens horisont’ Epilogue to the bok ”Ekonomi för Antropocen – Skiftet till en hållbar värld” Editors: Robert Österbergh and Mikael Malmaeus, Carlsson Bokförlag.
• Gallardo F. G. L., F. Saunders. Commoditization of Rural Lands in the Semi-Arid Region of Chile — The Case of the Huentelauquén Agricultural Community, Agriculture 8(2), 26. http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/2/26/pdf External link.

Recent research projects

• 2018: Researcher-teacher mobility grant from the Chilean CONICYT. Entrada de mujeres en la pequeña pesca artesanal en Chile: ¿cooperación o conflicto? MEC80170082 with M. Avila from Universidad Arturo Prat, Chile.
• 2016-2018: Co-creation of a sustainable fisheries future through TURFs. A comparison between Vietnam, Chile and South Africa, from the Swedish Research Council/Swedish Research Links, VR/SRL. This also includes an interdisciplinary group of researchers from Södertörn University (Sweden); Hue University (Vietnam); Cape Town University (South Africa) and Universidad Arturo Prat (Chile).