Oliver Duarte Herrera Anthropology, social research and international cooperation ES

Anthropology, social research and cooperation

Understanding complex contexts. Turning knowledge into action.

PhD in Psychology and Anthropology, anthropologist and social researcher. I work across ethnography, international cooperation, public policy, cultural heritage and diversity studies to understand how people, communities and institutions build and transform their reality.

Explore my work See publications

I step into complex contexts to understand them from within, connect people with institutions and turn what I learn into knowledge that is useful for projects, policies and organisations.

Oliver Duarte Herrera

Introduction

Research that connects territory, institutions and people.

My work starts from a simple conviction: complex social problems cannot be understood through data, rules or institutions alone. They require listening to people, observing contexts and analysing the power relations, discourses and practices that shape everyday life.

Throughout my career I have worked with communities, public institutions, universities and civil-society organisations in Venezuela, Spain and Nicaragua, combining ethnographic research, participatory methods and critical analysis to produce knowledge that is useful, situated and actionable.

  • +20 years across research, institutions and fieldwork
  • +20 works publications and academic works listed on public profiles
  • 19 municipalities covered in the doctoral research in La Serena
  • 26 life histories documented in the research on repression of LGBTI people

Venezuela, Spain and Nicaragua: main documented research territories.

Areas of work

Six fields, one way of looking.

  1. Design and delivery of qualitative research to understand practices, meanings, social relations and cultural processes in complex contexts.

    Ethnography, participant observation, interviews, focus groups, documentary analysis, critical discourse analysis.

    La Serena, Extremadura Qué sabe nadie / Voces que no callan

  2. Research, intervention and analysis of social contexts from an intercultural and participatory perspective, connecting territory, community, institutions and rights.

    UNICEF Venezuela, URACCAN, Erasmus+ Americampus, AEXCID, Fundación Triángulo.

    Bluefields, Nicaragua Venezuelan Amazon

  3. Analysis of institutions, discourses, bureaucracies and policy implementation, with particular attention to tensions between regulatory frameworks and everyday life.

    Venezuelan public administration, social management, ethics and institutions, bureaucracies of international adoption.

  4. Research on heritage-making, intangible cultural heritage, cultural landscapes, memory, community knowledge and the relations between culture, economy and territory.

    La Serena, Merino cultural landscape, Palo de Mayo, sacred landscape.

    La Serena, Extremadura Bluefields, Nicaragua

  5. Applied research on sexual and gender diversity, discrimination, wellbeing, democratic memory, institutional violence, migration, repression and rights protection.

    Democratic memory, international protection, intersectionality, wellbeing.

    Qué sabe nadie / Voces que no callan Diversity and the workplace

  6. Bringing anthropological methods to the study of organisations, experiences, behaviours and contexts of use, including user experience research (UX Research).

    Organisational ethnography, corporate culture, people research, applied qualitative research.

    Diversity and the workplace

Case studies

Project index

Each case brings together context, territory, method and contribution. Not titles: ways into a problem.

  1. PendingPhotograph pendingF-10
     La Serena, Badajoz (Spain)2021–2025/26 La Serena, Extremadura Cultural heritage, territory and communities What happens when the heritage communities live does not quite match the heritage institutions describe, regulate or promote? Read the case study
  2. PendingPhotograph pendingF-20
     Bluefields, Caribbean Coast (Nicaragua)Fieldwork: March–May 2022 Bluefields, Nicaragua Palo de Mayo: heritage, identity and sacred landscape How are heritage, identity, gender and sacred landscape intertwined in the Palo de Mayo celebration?Pending Read the case study
  3. PendingPhotograph pendingF-30
     Alto Ventuari, Amazonas (Venezuela)2004–2006 Venezuelan Amazon Childhood, child-rearing and the Ye'kuana people How is childhood raised, socialised and imagined among the Ye'kuana?Pending Read the case study
  4. PendingPhotograph pendingF-40
     Spain and international contexts2025–2026 Qué sabe nadie / Voces que no callan Memory, repression and displacement of LGBTIQ+ people What is specific about the repression LGBTI people face in oppressive states and conflict zones? Read the case study
  5. PendingPhotograph pendingF-50
     Multinational company (anonymised)Published: 2022 Diversity and the workplace Emotional wellbeing of young LGBTIQ+ people in organisations What gap is there between what an organisation says about diversity and what its young workers with non-hegemonic identities experience every day? Read the case study

Scroll to move through the five cases · All projects

Method

How I work

Ethnography is not an isolated technique but a way of being in the field. These phases recur, at different scales, in every project.

  1. 1

    Entering the context

    Sustained presence in the territory or organisation. Understanding before interpreting.

  2. 2

    Listening and observing

    Interviews, focus groups, life histories and participant observation to capture how people name their reality.

  3. 3

    Analysing discourse and practice

    Contrasting what institutions say with what is lived, and reading the power relations between them.

  4. 4

    Returning useful knowledge

    Theses, articles, reports, books and audio formats that reach decision-makers and those who live the problem.

Techniques that run through his work

Participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups, life histories, documentary analysis, critical discourse analysis and intercultural methodologies.

See documented methods by project

Geography

Four places, one cumulative practice.

Oliver's career is not a sequence of destinations but a practice built in layers: anthropology and institutions in Venezuela, ethnographic research in Barcelona, heritage and diversity in Extremadura, intercultural dialogue in Nicaragua.

Full career

  1. Venezuela

    2000–2008PendingCaracas · Amazonas10.5° N · 66.9° W

    Anthropology as a craft: archives, Indigenous peoples, childhood and public institutions. Learning to move between the field and the administration.

    Archives and historyIndigenous peoplesChildhoodPublic institutions

  2. Barcelona

    2008–2010Barcelona41.4° N · 2.2° E

    Ethnography as rigorous method: anthropological theory, intercultural relations and participatory methods with institutionalised children.

    Ethnography as methodIntercultural relationsParticipatory methods

  3. Extremadura

    2021–2026Mérida · La Serena38.9° N · 6.3° W

    Research as an applied tool: heritage and territory, organisations and diversity, memory and cooperation.

    Intangible heritageOrganisationsDiversity and memoryCooperation

  4. Nicaragua

    2022–2023Bluefields12.0° N · 83.8° W

    Dialogue of knowledges: intercultural research on the Caribbean Coast, where knowledge is built with the community.

    Dialogue of knowledges

Publications

Selected publications

All publications

PendingPhotograph pendingF-02

Profile

He sees anthropology not only as a discipline that describes reality, but as a tool to interpret contexts, ask better questions and produce knowledge that improves decisions, policies, projects and organisations.

Oliver Duarte Herrera holds a PhD in Psychology and Anthropology from the University of Extremadura, a degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology and a master's in Ethnographic Research, Anthropological Theory and Intercultural Relations. His work sits between social research, international cooperation, public policy, cultural heritage and diversity studies. He has carried out research in Venezuela, Spain and Nicaragua and collaborated with universities, public institutions, UNICEF and civil-society organisations.

Full profile

Contact

Let's talk about research, territory and social change.

Available for research collaborations, consultancy, cooperation projects, qualitative research, teaching and national and international projects.Pending

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