María Luisa Méndez Layera

Research interests: Social mobility and stratification, construction of belonging in urban neighborhoods, and urban conflicts. 

Bio: Associate Professor at the Institute of Urban and Territorial Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Director of the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES), and Principal Researcher at the "Geographies of Conflict and Cohesion" research line at the same centre. Prof. Méndez is also Corresponding Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, IJURR and Senior Visiting Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute, LSE. Prof. Méndez is PhD in Sociology at the University of Manchester, MPhil in Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham and Master in Anthropology and Development at the University of Chile. She is also Principal Researcher of the Fondecyt Project N°1191440, “Cultural Repertoires, Socio-spatial Trajectories and Politics: Fragmentation and Conflict within the Upper Middle Class in Chile”. She is author of Upper Middle Class Social Reproduction (Palgrave, 2019) as well as several papers in journals such as Cities, Urban Studies, City and Community, The Sociological Review, among others. Her research topics include subjective aspects of social mobility and social stratification, place attachment, and urban conflicts.

This information is accurate as of the affiliate year indicated. (update 09.01.2026)