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Dr. Juan Felipe Ortiz-Riomalo

School of Business Administration and Economics
Environmental Economics
Barbarastr. 12
49076 Osnabrück

Room: 66/E24
Tel: +49 541 969 2424
Fax: +49 541 969 2599
juanfelipe.ortizriomalo@uni-osnabrueck.de

Research interests

My work focuses on the research and practice of processes whereby actors – individuals or organisations – craft and enforce institutional arrangements for environmental and natural resource management. I am particularly interested in how such processes (can) involve, weigh in and even transform different understandings, beliefs, values, motivations and preferences through various methods and at different stages to realise socially desirable social-ecological outcomes. Ultimately, I seek to analyse and contribute to designing and implementing policies, policy processes and (polycentric) governance systems that foster and sustain individual and collective pro-social action for socially desirable social-ecological outcomes. For my research, I have drawn on insights from economic history, political economy, policy sciences (institutional analysis, in particular), resource and environmental economics and behavioural sciences (behavioural economics and social psychology, in particular). And I have employed a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods such as participant and non-participant observation, key informant semi-structured interviews, systematic comparative case studies, economic experiments and statistical analysis to examine and disentangle the impacts and mechanisms associated with specific policy and process features.

Research projects

Current Work

Together with S. Engel and A.-K, Koessler, I have been researching on the workings and impacts of participatory policy interventions for environmental and natural resource management. We are primarily interested in disentangling the impacts of participatory processes on pro-social behaviour in social dilemma situations, and their potential underlying mechanisms.

Current projects:

• "Envisioning collective action for natural resource management." A project on participatory vision-building in social-environmental dilemmas funded by the DFG. (Submitted by Stefanie Engel. I was heavily involved in the drafting of the research proposal and am now the postdoctoral researcher in charge of helping her coordinate the project implementation.) Project duration: 01 May 2022 - 30 April 2024.
• "Can Conversations Change Perceptions? A Social Experiment in the Inequality Territorial Dialogues in Colombia." Co-author and methodological advisor together with Allison Benson. Funded by the TREES initiative, Universidad de los Andes. Project duration: September 2023 - September 2024

My PhD thesis ("Participatory interventions for pro-social and collective action in natural resources management. An institutional and behavioural approach") advances this objective. In the thesis, I review the literatures on participatory governance, collective action and pro-social behaviour, and report, analyse and discuss the results of a series of lab and lab-in-the-field economic experiments.

Past projects

With Juan Camilo Cárdenas, Stefanie Engel, and Ann-Kathrin Koessler. “Prosocial behaviour and collective action for water management in Peru. A participatory intervention based on economic games and economic experiments”. Funding provided by the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation for the Alexander von Humboldt-Professorship of Environmental Economics at the Osnabrück University (Germany). Complementary funding to carry out the planned multi-actor workshops was primarly provided by the Environmental Program of GIZ in Peru (Pro Ambiente); the MERESE-FIDA project and the Institute for Nature, Earth and Energy (INTE) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). The management committee of the Nor Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve (RPNYC), L+1, the steering committee for the formation of the Cañete River Water Resource Council and CELEPSA provided additional logistical support for the workshops we conductd in the Lima region. Video of the multi-actor workship (Spanish)

In 2015, together with Juan Camilo Cárdenas:  Consensus building and citizen monitoring in Santander, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program “Addressing Biodiversity – Social Conflict in Latin America (ABC-LA)”. Previous related activities were either supported or funded by IBM, the German International Cooperation (GIZ), the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS), and the Research Institute on Biological Resources Alexander von Humboldt in Colombia. Video of the economic games used in the projects (by Juan Camilo Cardenas and Uniandes; Spanish).

Between 2012 and 2013, together with Juan Camilo Cárdenas and Angelika Rettberg: A study of the mining policy-making process in Colombia between the end of the 20th Century and the 21st Century. This project was funded by the Vice – Presidency for Research and the Vice – Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the School of Social Sciences, Universidad de los Andes.

Between 2012 and 2013, together with Angelika Rettberg: A study on the relationship between gold mining, armed conflict and criminality in Colombia in the 21st Century. Funded by the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs (CESED), Universidad de los Andes.

Research Gate       ORCID