Violeta Gutierrez Zamora

I am an environmental sociologist and political ecologist with research interests in forests, conservation, development, socio-ecological changes and environmental justice and governance. My work combines qualitative and ethnographic methods to explore how culturally-specific understandings and practices regarding forests, trees, and other plants create patterns of conflict, care and coexistence.  

I am currently researching the plural values of bamboo, exploring the relationships and values that people in different social and geographical contexts have with this diverse grass. As member of the project EnVi(r)oCare: feminist analysis of commodity frontiers and ’living green’ (Research Council of Finland, 2023-27), I am exploring issues of ecological care and justice in the production and utilization of bamboo as a natural fiber and material. I engage with the possibilities of ecological care and multispecies justice amidst violent environments, exploring how relational values and practices with and between more-than-human others, such as bamboo, can foster more equitable and caring forms of coexistence.

I conducted my doctoral research on community forestry in Mexico at University of Eastern Finland, and a postdoctoral research project on bamboo value chains in Laos at the Natural Resources Institute Finland/Luonnonvarakeskus (LUKE), as part of the Justice and Politics in Global Bioeconomy (Just GLOBE) project.

My teaching engages with critical approaches to human–nature relations and the politics of sustainability. I teach in courses on political ecology, environmental justice and conflicts, sustainable development, and decolonial and feminist perspectives on global change.

• Human-Nature relations
• Natural resource governance and environmental policy
• Socio-ecological change and community-based management
• Environmental Justice and Ecological Care
• Qualitative and ethnographic methods in socio-environmental studies

Political Ecology

Feminist Political Ecology

Environmental Sociology

Rural Sociology

Global Development Studies

Jauhola, Marjaana, Aslihan Oguz, Satu Sundström, Ilona Steiler, and Violeta Gutiérrez Zamora. “Centering Feminist Ethic of Care in Socio-Ecological Transformative Movements.” In Just Socioecological Transformations, edited by Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen. Routledge, 2025.

Gutiérrez-Zamora, Violeta. “The Coloniality of Neoliberal Biopolitics: Mainstreaming Gender in Community Forestry in Oaxaca, Mexico.” Geoforum 126 (November 1, 2021): 139–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.07.023.

Gutiérrez-Zamora, Violeta, and Mara Hernández Estrada. “Responsibilization and State Territorialization: Governing Socio-Territorial Conflicts in Community Forestry in Mexico.” Forest Policy and Economics 116 (July 1, 2020): 102188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102188.

Mustalahti, Irmeli, Violeta Gutiérrez-Zamora, Maija Hyle, Bishnu Prasad Devkota, and Nina Tokola. “Responsibilization in Natural Resources Governance: A Romantic Doxa?” Forest Policy and Economics 111 (February 1, 2020): 102033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2019.102033.

Doctoral Dissertation:

Gutiérrez Zamora, Violeta. “Interweaving Environmentalities in the Heart of Mountains: Community Forestry in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, Mexico.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Eastern Finland (UEF), 2023. Publications of the University of Eastern Finland. Dissertations in Social Sciences and Business Studies, 292. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-61-4733-8.

Gutiérrez-Zamora, Violeta. “Lectio Praecursoria: Recognizing the Plurality of Knowledge, Values, and Experiences Interwoven in Mexican Community Forestry.” Fennia - International Journal of Geography 201, no. 1 (June 22, 2023): 134–39. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.129243.