#  Livio Silva-Muller 

Academy Scholar, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies.

PhD in Sociology, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The Geneva Graduate Institute.

Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion (2025-2026). 

 

 

 



   ![Headshot of Livio Silva-Muller in front of a grey background](/sites/g/files/omnuum8346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-09/silva-muller-livio.jpg?itok=nld8jc5f) 

 



 

 email [livio\_silvamueller@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:livio_silvamueller@fas.harvard.edu) 

 laptop\_windows [Personal website](https://www.silvamuller.com/) 

 

 



 

**Research interests**: Decarbonization and redistribution in global and comparative perspectives, with an emphasis on Latin America.

**Research summary:** I am a mixed-methods sociologist eager to understand how states, markets and societies can decarbonise and redistribute. With a focus on the Global South, my research agenda is driven by an abiding interest in the transnational, national, and cultural processes connected to making the global economy cleaner and more just.

In a book project with Prof. Graziella Moraes Silva, we explore the interaction between material conditions and symbolic processes underpinning elites' support for redistribution. We designed, fielded, and analysed a unique survey with random samples of CEOs, legislators, and high-level bureaucrats in South Africa and Brazil. We asked them about their views of poverty and the poor, merit, and trust. This is the work I hope to develop further with the cluster.

My own research, in turn, unpacks environmental state-building in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest since 1985. You can read more on my website ([www.silvamuller.com](http://www.silvamuller.com)).

*This information is accurate as of the affiliate year indicated. (last updated 12.28.2025)*



 

 

 





 

 

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