Cristina Yumie Aoki Inoue

I do research about global environmental governance/politics and socioenvironmentalism in the Brazilian Amazon since 2001. My current work looks at the interplay of networks of actors, power relations, and governance institutions that either have negative socio-environmental impacts on the local peoples, the forest, biodiversity and global climate or offer alternatives/resistance. More specifically, I am interested in transformative change/governance, or how to move from predatory development modes to locally based alternatives to resist deforestation and keep the forest, biodiversity and rivers, whilst improving life conditions through what the forest and rivers can offer to the local populations and beyond. Besides, I have also been doing research on the relations between environmental issues and North-South development assistance and South-South cooperation.

At Radboud University, I joined the Environmental Governance and Politics chair group as an Associate Professor and I hope to contribute by working on the framework of transformative governance as a lens to do research in the Amazon, but also to expand it to South America and other regions in the Global South.

I am part of the Centre for Sustainability Challenges team at RU and I strongly believe that we, as scholars, should try to have wider societal impacts through transdisciplinary and university outreach work.

I am a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Earth System Governance (ESG) network, of the Earth Commission’s Working Group on Transformations and also a voluntary senior researcher of the Center for Global Studies, University of Brasília.

In relation to teaching/education, I have tried to adopt active and contemplative learning approaches. I served as the president and program chair of the Active Learning in International Affairs Section (ALIAS), International Studies Association and have been coordinating the Education portfolio of the ESG network.