Guillermo Elgueda Labra

DPhil Research Topic

Environment, Water and socio-political transformations through the Chilean 20th century

Supervisor: Patricia Clavin and Eduardo Posada-Carbo 

Research Interests:

• Law and Political Economy
• Historiography and Political Thought
• Modern Latin America and Chile

I study water management as a lens for understanding power relations, legal frameworks, and socio-environmental conflict. I am also interested in how historiography has influenced political thought in modern Latin America.

My DPhil research seeks to understand how socio-political factors have shaped the historical development of water law. I focus on the management of irrigation water in Chile’s Central Valley during the twentieth century. My work examines significant shifts in legal frameworks—such as successive water codes—and the ways in which these were contested by diverse actors, from rural landowners to urban political movements. These debates, in turn, shed light on evolving ideas about the role of the State, the commons, and the environment in Chilean political thought. Ultimately, my aim is to contribute to a broader understanding of how environmental governance and legal imaginaries developed in Latin America over the twentieth century.

Prior to beginning my studies at Oxford, I completed a BA and an MA in History at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where I also served as a Teaching Assistant in 19th-century Latin American History. I subsequently worked as a researcher on several projects funded by Chile’s National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FONDECYT), most recently serving as Co-Investigator on FONDECYT Project No. 1230536. I have also published several peer-reviewed articles in academic journals.

My time at Oxford is funded by the ANID-Chile Scholarship for Studies Abroad (Becas Chile).

Articles (Peer-reviewed)

(2023). “Historia de la historiografía en Chile y su relación con la política (siglo XX)”, Sur y Tiempo. Revista de Historia de América, 8, pp. 162-184. (with Gorka Villar). DOI:  https://doi.org/10.22370/syt.2023.8.3862

(2023). “Poder hidráulico, riego y medio ambiente: transformaciones ecológicas, económicas y sociales en la cuenca de Santiago de Chile. Siglos XVI-XIX”, Diálogo Andino, 70, 232-249. (with Pablo Camus and Sebastián Castillo). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/s0719-26812023000100232

(2023). “Agua e higiene urbana. La gestión de acequias y epidemias en Santiago de Chile”. Revista Tiempo Histórico, 26, pp. 85-105. (with Sebastián Castillo). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25074/th.v0i26.2398

(2023). “Arturo Alessandri Palma y la teatralidad de lo político durante su segundo gobierno: La estatua de Manuel Bulnes y el Barrio Cívico (Santiago de Chile, 1937)”. Autoctonía. Revista de Ciencias Sociales e Historia, 7(1), pp. 163-198. DOI:   http://dx.doi.org/10.23854/autoc.v7i1.295

(2022). “Arturo Alessandri Palma: balance historiográfico en torno a su construcción heroica (Chile, siglo XX)”, Revista de Historia y Geografía, 47, pp. 81-108. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29344/07194145.47.3341

(2022). “La ciudad en disputa: Espacio y sociabilidades urbanas durante las ‘Marchas del Hambre’ (Santiago, 1918-1919)”, Revista de Historia, 29 (1), pp. 336-369. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.29393/RH29-13CDGE10013

(2021). “La Política Nacional de Desarrollo Urbano de 1979. La discusión en la Junta Militar de Gobierno y la problemática urbana (Chile, 1973-1979)”. Revista Divergencia, 16, pp. 10-29. (with M. Alvarado). Available: https://www.revistadivergencia.cl/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Div_016010-01.pdf  

(2021). “Redes hidrosociales, resolución de conflicto y administración de justicia en los albores del derecho de aguas en Chile (1846-1876)”, Revista Historia y Justicia 16. (with Sebastián Castillo and Pablo Camus). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/rhj.8150

(2021). “La sequía de 1886: Redes hidrosociales, apropiación del agua y conflicto ambiental en la Zona centro-norte de Chile”, Revista Austral de Ciencias Sociales 40, pp. 7-27. (with Pablo Camus). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4206/rev.austral.cienc.soc.2021.n40-01

(2019). “Irrigación y organización social en una sociedad en transición al capitalismo: El caso de la Asociación de Canalistas del Maipo en Chile (Siglo XIX)”, Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana Y Caribeña (HALAC) Revista De La Solcha, 9(2), pp. 95-121. (with Pablo Camus and Enrique Muñoz). DOI: https://doi.org/10.32991/2237-2717.2019v9i2.p95-121

Book chapters (Peer-reviewed)

(2016). “Crisis y refundación del Estado en Chile: Disputas por la memoria nacional en torno a la figura heroica de Diego Portales (1912-1925)”, Seminario Simon Collier 2015, RIL Editores, Santiago, pp. 81-112. Available:  http://historia.uc.cl/images/stories/publicaciones/simon_collier15/gelgueda_simon%20collier%20-2017.pdf

Book reviews

(2022). Gorka Villar Vásquez, Compromiso militante y producción historiográfica. Hernán Ramírez Necochea y Julio César Jobet (1930-1973), Santiago, Editorial Universitaria, 2021, 272 p. Historia (Santiago) vol.55 no.1. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0717-71942022000100399