Andrea Freites, a doctoral student in Political Science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and thesis researcher at the Millennium Nucleus ICLAC, conducted a 20-day research internship in Barcelona. During her stay, she presented advances in her doctoral thesis, titled "Structural Power Dynamics Between State and Companies: the boom of Chinese investments and the implementation of environmental regulation in Chile“.
The researcher's agenda included activities at three prominent centers in the country. Her first presentation was at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), where she shared the preliminary results of her work with researchers Víctor Burguete, Inés Arco, and Anna Ayuso.
Subsequently, she participated in a seminar at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), organized by academic Andrea Bianculli. During this instance, in addition to debating with master's and doctoral students, Freites held a valuable meeting with Mariana Walter, co-author of the Environmental Justice Atlas, a key cartographic tool that the researcher has used as a data source for her investigation.
Finally, her internship concluded with an academic exchange with the Department of International Law at the University of Barcelona, in a session coordinated by Professor Monika Prusinowska, the normative aspects of environmental regulation and business internationalization were examined in depth.
"My objective was to strengthen the analysis of power dynamics between foreign companies, especially Chinese ones, and the Chilean State in the field of environmental governance. Likewise, to expand international academic networks, incorporate new theoretical and methodological perspectives, and contribute to knowledge exchange to enrich both my research and cooperation between participating centers", highlighted the researcher.