Dr. Almut Schilling-Vacaflor

My work revolves around business and human rights, environmental governance and global supply chains. I am particularly interested in the question of how globalized economic sectors can be regulated and governed in a way that contributes to environmental justice and just transformation. I use methods from different social science disciplines (political science, anthropology, sociology) and combine in-depth case studies with intra-country and cross-country comparisons. While I set the main geographical focus on Latin American countries and regions, I have also carried out research into transnational linkages and into processes surrounding the governance of commodity chains from countries in the Global South to Europe.

Research interests:

- Environmental politics
- Business and human rights
- Regulation and governance of global supply chains
- Indigenous peoples, indigenous peoples’ rights
- Participation and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)
- Environmental justice
- Corporate accountability
- Latin America, with a focus on the Andean countries and Brazil

Recent publications:

Journal articles

Gustafsson, M.-T., Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (shared first authorship) and A. Lenschow (forthcoming). “The politics of supply chain regulations: Towards foreign corporate accountability in the area of human rights and the environment?”. Regulation & Governance.

Cotta, B., J. Coenen, E. Challies, J. Newig, A. Lenschow and A. Schilling-Vacaflor (forthcoming). “Environmental Governance in Globally Telecoupled Systems: Mapping the Terrain”. Earth System Governance.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (2021). “Integrating human rights and the environment in supply chain regulations”. Sustainability. doi.org/10.3390/su13179666.

Gustafsson, M.-T. and A. Schilling-Vacaflor (shared first authorship) (2021). “Indigenous Peoples and Multi-Scalar Environmental Governance: The Opening and Closure of Participatory Spaces”. Global Environmental Politics. doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00642.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. and A. Lenschow (2021). “Hardening foreign corporate accountability through mandatory due diligence in the European Union? New trends and persisting challenges”. Regulation & Governance. DOI: doi.org/10.1111/rego.12402.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A., A. Lenschow, E. Challies, B. Cotta and J. Newig (2021). “Contextualizing Certification and Auditing: Soy Certification and Local Communities’ Access to Land and Water in Brazil”. World Development. doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105281.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (2020). “Putting the French Duty of Vigilance Law in Context: Towards Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Violations in the Global South?”. Human Rights Review. doi.org/10.1007/s12142-020-00607-9.

Newig, J., E. Challies, B. Cotta, A. Lenschow and A. Schilling-Vacaflor (2020). “Governing Global Telecoupling Towards Environmental Sustainability”. Ecology and Society. doi.org/10.5751/ES-11844-250421.

Schilling, J., A. Schilling-Vacaflor, R. Flemmer and R. Froese (2020). “A Political Ecology Perspective on Resource Extraction and Human Security in Kenya, Bolivia and Peru”. The Extractive Industries and Society. doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.10.009.

Newig, J., A. Lenschow, E. Challies, B. Cotta and A. Schilling-Vacaflor (2019). “What is Governance in Global Telecoupling?”. Ecology and Society 24(3): 26. doi.org/10.5751/ES-11178-240326.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. and R. Flemmer (2019). “Mobilising Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from Below: A Typology of Indigenous Peoples’ Agency”. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 27(2): 291-313.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A., R. Flemmer and A. Hujber (2018). “Contesting the Hydrocarbon Frontiers: State Depoliticizing Practices and Local Responses in Peru”. World Development 108: 74-85.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. and J. Eichler (2017). “The Shady Side of Consultation: Tactics of ‘Divide and Rule’ in Bolivia’s Resource Extraction”. Development and Change 48 (6): 1439-1463.

Leifsen, E., M.T. Gustafsson, M.A. Guzmán Gallegos and A. Schilling-Vacaflor (2017). “New Forms of Participation in Extractive Governance: Between Technologies of Governance and Resistance Work“. Introduction to Special Issue. Third World Quarterly 38(5): 1043-1057.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (2017) “Who Controls the Territory and the Resources? Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as a Contested Human Rights Practice in Bolivia”. Third World Quarterly 38(5): 1058-1074.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (2017). “‘If the company belongs to you, how can you be against it?’ Limiting Participation and Taming Dissent in Neo-Extractivist Bolivia”. Journal of Peasant Studies 44(3): 658-676.

Book chapters

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (forthcoming). “The sustainability governance of global supply chains: Transnational approaches and the neglect of local development agendas”, in: Bull, B. and M. Aguilar Stoen (eds.). International Handbook of Development and the Environment. Edward Elgar. 

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. and M.-T. Gustafsson (forthcoming). “Indigenous peoples in multi-scalar environmental governance: implications for self-determined development”, in: Postero, N., I.A. Velasquez Nimatuj, J.-A. McNeish and K. Ruckstuhl (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Development. Routledge.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (2019). “The coupling of prior consultation and environmental licensing processes: Corporate appropriation and knowledge gaps”, in Wright, C. and A. Tomaselli (eds.). The Prior Consultation of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America. Inside the Implementation Gap. Routledge, 77-90.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (2019). “Norm Contestation and (Non-)Compliance: The Right to Prior Consultation and FPIC in the Extractive Industries”, in: Feichtner, I., M. Krajewski and R. Roesch (eds.). Human Rights in the Extractive Industries: Transparency, Participation, Resistance. Springer’s Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights, 311-337. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11382-7.

Schilling-Vacaflor, A. and C. Steinert (2017). “(Neo-)Extraktivismus statt Nachhaltiger Entwicklung: Grenzen des Lateinamerikanischen Wachstumsmodells” [(Neo-)Extractivism Instead of Sustainable Development: Limits of Latin America’s Growth Model], in: H.-J. Burchardt, S. Peters and N. Weinmann (eds.). Entwicklungstheorie Heute – Entwicklungspolitik von Morgen. Baden-Baden: NOMOS, 241-256.

Ongoing research projects:

2021-2025:     Interdisciplinary research project on “New Forms of Governing Environmental Sustainability and Interconnected Food Security Risks”, MISTRA Geopolitics program hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research. www.mistra-geopolitics.se

2020-2023      Research project “Bringing the Social Dimension into Deforestation-Free Supply Chain Initiatives: Lessons from Europe’s Beef and Soy imports from Brazil”, funded by the Swedish Research Council FORMAS. www.su.se/english/research/research-projects/bringing-the-social-dimension-into-deforestation-free-supply-chain-initiatives