About

Stephen Perz is a Professor of Sociology and serves as the Chair of the department at the University of Florida. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on various aspects of sociology, contributing to the academic community through his leadership and scholarly work. As a faculty member, he is involved in advancing the department's mission and fostering interdisciplinary research within the university.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Geography
• Business
• Sociology
• Ecology
• Environmental resource management
• Environmental planning
• Public relations
• Law
• Forestry
• Agroforestry
• Environmental science
• Environmental protection

Selected publications

• Infrastructure and the diversification and dynamics of crime: the case of the interoceanic highway in the Southwestern Amazon

  GeoJournal · 2026-04-10

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Afro-descendant lands in South America contribute to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation

  Communications Earth & Environment · 2025-07-22 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Over 130 million people in Latin America identify as Afro-descendants, many of whom inhabit lands with potential to mitigate biodiversity loss and climate change. Yet, the role of Afro-descendants is not adequately considered in conservation and climate decision-making. Here, we mapped the biological value of Afro-descendant lands in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Suriname, and conducted a matching analysis to estimate the effect of these lands on deforestation. Afro-descendant lands coincide with areas that have high biodiversity and irrecoverable carbon and were associated with a 29%–55% reduction in forest loss compared to control sites. To contextualize these findings, we present a social-historical assessment of Afro-descendant conservation practices. This assessment highlights the adaptation of African knowledge to the American tropics and the development of sustainable environmental practices. Global environmental institutions, multilateral agencies, and governments should include Afro-descendants in environmental decision-making and support research and policies that enable Afro-descendant management practices. Despite covering less than 1 percent of the total land area, Afro-descendant lands in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Suriname have high biodiversity and carbon content, as well as low deforestation rates, according to spatial mapping and socio-historical assessment.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sustainable Development and Infrastructure: Effective Indigenous Resistance from a Power and Decolonizing Environmental Justice Lens

  Sustainability · 2025-10-15

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Under the discourses of sustainable development and modernization of the Amazon, an iron triangle of governments, companies, and investors often impose large-scale infrastructure projects (LSIPs) on Indigenous peoples to facilitate commodity extraction and market transactions in a context of capitalist market expansion. Indigenous resistance to LSIPs can be understood as a power struggle against coloniality and towards decolonizing environmental justice (DEJ). This study merges DEJ and power frameworks, while involving Indigenous leaders as co-researchers to provide a critical, insider perspective on the (i) motivations, (ii) strategies, and (iii) agency of two effective Indigenous resistance processes: the luchas led by Yunguillo Indigenous Reserve against roads, and by the Mancomunidad de Comunidades de los ríos Beni, Tuichi y Quiquibey against hydroelectric dams. In both cases, motivations reflected DEJ goals: the defense of Indigenous autonomy and territorial sovereignty, as well as Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies, reflecting an alternative vision of sustainability and development. However, locals’ positions regarding the projects were convoluted, partly due to the patronizing and divisive strategies of the iron triangle. To challenge the coloniality of power, both groups applied a diverse, synergistic, and adaptative set of strategies. External and internal alliances (i.e., with other actors and within communities), as well as actions to empower themselves as groups (e.g., self-governance) and individuals (e.g., spirituality) constituted key organizational leveraging strategies to increase their power-with and power-within. The instrumental strategies of collective action, civil disobedience, and direct resistance, in a climate of highly unjust and poorly trusted official institutions, showed great effectiveness to exert pressure on the iron triangle (power-over) and halt the projects (power-to, or agency). Success, nevertheless, was partial and uncertain: one battle won in an unequal war and in a changing context. This study seeks to contribute to previous efforts to decolonize and repoliticize academia, environmentalism, and sustainability, advance debates on strategies that challenge official systems and entrenched power structures, and validate Indigenous perspectives and experiences, producing scientific evidence that contributes to their luchas.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Resilience

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2024-04-03

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Resilience refers to the ability of a system to incur external shocks and retain or recover key functions. The concept has been applied to understanding the dynamics of social-ecological systems, whether in terms of local communities dependent for their livelihoods on natural resources or larger regions, notably as affected by climate change and disasters. Definitions of resilience in social-ecological research have thus been diverse, and the social sciences offer opportunities for innovations in research and applied practice. We outline the origins and diverse concepts of resilience, discuss prominent research and applications of social-ecological resilience, and conclude using the example of precarity as a social science concept that can usefully support future inquiry and practice concerning resilience.

  PublisherDOI

• Between Maroon Tradition and State Law in Jamaica: A Case Study of Challenges to Environmental Governance in a UNESCO World Heritage Site

  Preprints.org · 2024-03-15 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Keywords: conservation; cultural pluralism; environmental regulation; community-based natural resource management; Indigenous law

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Extended families and demographic explanations for land use-cover change in the Brazilian Amazon

  Population and Environment · 2024-02-15 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Gobernanza de proyectos de infraestructura: pueblos tradicionales y estrategias de conservación y sostenibilidad en la Amazonía

  Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes · 2024-02-28

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Las desigualdades sociales en América Latina siguen siendo evidentes con respecto a los derechos sobre la tierra y la tenencia de recursos. Los proyectos de infraestructura constituyen un elemento clave de las políticas que sirven para mantener tales desigualdades, porque la planificación de la infraestructura está dominada por poderosos intereses y excluye a las partes interesadas subalternas. Esto ha motivado un enfoque en temas de gobernanza de la infraestructura y las estrategias de los grupos subalternos para influir en la planificación. Nos enfocamos en la Amazonía, el objetivo de muchos proyectos de infraestructura y el hogar de muchos grupos subalternos que se han movilizado para resistir la infraestructura y mejorar la gobernanza. Presentamos tres estudios de caso en los que las partes interesadas subalternas siguieron estrategias para intervenir en la planificación de la infraestructura. Dos casos se centran en estrategias instrumentales que buscan un impacto directo por enfoques legales y de comunicación. El tercer caso destaca la colaboración como una estrategia indirecta para apoyar estrategias instrumentales, presentando los factores que afectan la colaboración intercultural. Los casos ofrecen experiencias concretas de diferentes estrategias de los pueblos subalternos para intervenir en la planificación de infraestructura para mejorar la gobernabilidad.

  PublisherDOI

• The Journey to the Interoceanic Highway in Peru: The Perils in Histories of Infrastructure

  2024-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Between Maroon Tradition and State Law in Jamaica: A Case Study of Challenges to Environmental Governance in a UNESCO World Heritage Site

  Conservation · 2024-06-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  In the quest for effective environmental governance, the integration of legal and cultural pluralism within conservation strategies emerges as a critical factor, especially in regions marked by rich ethnic diversity and complex historical legacies. This paper explores the symbiotic relationship between state conservation efforts and the engagement of local communities, with a particular focus on the Indigenous Maroon communities in the Blue and John Crow Mountains (BJCMs) of Jamaica. It underscores the imperative of aligning conservation objectives with the aspirations and traditional practices of these communities to foster sustainable ecosystems and safeguard Indigenous autonomy. Central to this discourse is the development of collaborative frameworks that respect and incorporate the legal and cultural dimensions of pluralism, thereby facilitating a co-managed approach to environmental stewardship. This study emphasizes the role of collaboration and trust as pivotal elements in cultivating a mutual understanding of the interdependencies between state law and Indigenous law. This research advocates for a reciprocal exchange of knowledge between the state and community members, aiming to empower the latter with the resources necessary for effective environmental protection while respecting their legal autonomy. This approach not only enhances conservation initiatives overall, but also ensures that these efforts are informed by the rich cultural heritage and traditional ecological knowledge of the Maroon communities. By examining the conservation practices and governance challenges faced by the Maroons in the BJCMs, this paper reveals the nuanced dynamics of implementing state-led conservation laws in areas characterized by cultural and legal pluralism. The findings highlight the necessity for state regulatory frameworks to enable collaborative governance models that complement, rather than undermine, the traditional governance structures of the Maroons. This research contributes to the broader discourse on environmental governance by illustrating the potential of culturally informed conservation strategies to address environmental threats while respecting and reinforcing the social fabric of Indigenous communities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Road to the Land of the Mother of God

  2023-05-01 · 2 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Agents of Change: Infrastructure Change, Human Agency, and Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems

  NSF · $650k · 2005–2010

• CNH: Global Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis in the Evaluation of Social-Ecological Resilience: Theoretical Debates Over Infrastructure Impacts on Livelihoods and Forest Change

  NSF · $1.4M · 2011–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Robert Walker

  32 shared

• Marcellus M. Caldas

  Kansas State University

  30 shared

• Carlos Valério Aguiar Gomes

  Universidade Federal do Pará

  26 shared

• Jacqueline M. Vadjunec

  University of Oklahoma

  26 shared

• Foster Brown

  17 shared

• Stephen Aldrich

  Indiana State University

  14 shared

• Cynthia Simmons

  University of Florida

  13 shared

• Eugênio Arima

  The University of Texas at Austin

  12 shared

Labs

• Computational Sociology and Criminology LabPI

Awards & honors

• UF Foundation Preeminence Term Professor (2014)
• UF International Educator of the Year for Senior Faculty (20…
• UF Term Professor (2016-2019)
• CLAS Teacher of the Year Award (2018-2019)