Manuel Arias-Maldonado is a political theorist focusing on environmental politics writ large. He studied law at the University of Malaga and completed a PhD in Political Science in 2001. After enjoying a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Berkeley in 2003-2004, he returned to the University of Malaga, where he is a lecturer in political science. He has researched at Keele University, Oxford University, and the University of Siena. His research topics include political liberalism, the minimal state, deliberative democracy, social movements, and, as of late, Wikipedia and the sociopolitical implications of information technologies. He is a regular contributor to the journal Environmental Politics, and has just published a study on ecological citizenship in Spain with two other colleagues.
At the Center, Arias-Maldonado finished a book entitled Real Green: Sustainability after the End of Nature (Ashgate, forthcoming). The book is supposed to be a combination of environmental philosophy and green political theory that advocates post-natural green politics—that is, a more realistic and less utopian environmentalism. To this end, it explores socio-natural relationships and the meaning of nature’s end as a departure point for an open view of sustainability that does not conflict with liberal-democratic society; they are, rather, seen as mutually reinforcing elements. He also worked on an article about the concept of nature in politics and the implications of naturalism for the next European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference.
Email marias@uma.es