Lorena De la Puente Burlando is a Peruvian sociologist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). Through her work of two and a half years as a research assistant at the PUCP’s Department of Social Science, she focused on the study of extractive industries, social conflicts and state institutions in Peru. Her personal projects have used qualitative methods to develop a deeper understanding of social and political processes between civil society and state members to build political institutions. Today she is working on a thesis dealing with the characteristics of participatory governance strategies for extractive industries across the Andean Region.