As an environmental social scientist and transdisciplinary action researcher at the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Management (INGENIO, CSIC-UV), my work focuses on understanding the patterns, interactions, and feedback between human systems and nature, and on how collective action can be organised toward equitable and sustainable outcomes in social-ecological systems.

My specialisation is policy and institutional analysis, combining evolutionary and resilience thinking, power analysis, and a commons perspective. Complexity science and a pluralistic lens underpin my research, alongside the co-production of knowledge to understand and tackle challenges together, and the embrace of uncertainty and surprise through adaptive approaches to decision-making, management, and governance. A core thread of my conceptual work examines why social-ecological systems become "locked in" to unsustainable pathways—through path dependence, rigidity traps, and power imbalances—and what institutional conditions, pluralistic approaches, and transformative governance arrangements can help unlock change toward more sustainable and regenerative trajectories.

Several interacting realms currently structure my work: agriculture and food systems, coastal wetlands, water management, biodiversity and nature conservation, and the soil commons. I coordinate and contribute to European research projects bringing together universities, research institutes, public bodies, farmer organisations, and civil society across multiple countries, developing governance models, monitoring and learning tools, and theories of change that support transformative innovation.

In practice, resolving complex problems with others is what I enjoy most. My role is that of an analyst and facilitator, finding ways to improve policy and decision-making under uncertainty to promote sustainability across sectors: natural resources, nature conservation, agriculture, ecosystem management, environmental and coastal planning, biodiversity, fisheries, tourism, and emergency aid. I have experience facilitating and organising social interaction in meetings and workshops, including situations involving significant power asymmetries.

I am part of the coordinating team of LTER-Spain, the Spanish node of eLTER RI, and an active contributor to TIPC, the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium exploring how innovation policy can support deep sustainability transitions. I am also a founding member of SocSES, a community dedicated to advancing social-ecological systems research, and I'm associated with IASC, the International Association for the Study of the Commons, whose work on collective governance of shared resources closely informs my own.

You can get in touch with me at pfmendez@gmail.com, pfmendez@ingenio.upv.es

ORCID: 0000-0003-1825-6496

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