Matt is an interdisciplinary social scientist who specialises in ethnographic research on energy and natural resources, urban politics and anthropologies of the state. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2013 and previously held research and teaching positions with the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS), the University of Sussex and the LSE.

Matt's regional interests cover Venezuela and the UK. His work has been funded by the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS), the Camel Trust, the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and the Independent Social Research Fund (ISRF). 

Matt's research focuses on the relationship between macro-level social and economic forces and people's everyday political and moral lives in urban settings. His work has appeared in a range of scholarly publications including Anthropology Today, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Critique of Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnos, Latin American Perspectives and the Radical Housing Journal. He has also written op-ed pieces for Counterpunch, The Guardian and Public Books.

Matt's first monograph examined the lived experience of political change, moral uncertainty, and economic crisis amid Venezuela's controversial Bolivarian Revolution. Titled A Blessing and a Curse: Oil, Politics and Morality in Bolivarian Venezuela (2023, Stanford University Press), the book draws on ethnographic research conducted in an urban barrio over the course of a decade (2008-2018) to explore how Venezuela's contradictory relationship with petroleum shaped myriad aspects of everyday life during a period of complex social upheaval. As well as offering an accessible way of understanding the many paradoxes of Bolivarian Venezuela, the book also provides an original take on current debates about climate justice and energy transitions.

Alongside his work in Latin America, Matt has also carried out fieldwork on the politics of housing insecurity in London as part of a collaborative Europe-wide project looking at advice, governance and care in settings of austerity. He retains a political and theoretical interest in questions of contested urban change.

Matt's current work combines an ongoing interest in Venezuela's multidimensional crisis alongside new research exploring the complex political and moral questions that underpin the drive away from fossil fuels.

Books

Wilde, M (2023) A Blessing and a Curse: Oil, Politics, and Morality in Bolivarian Venezuela. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 

Journal articles

Wilde, M (2022) Eviction, gatekeeping and militant care: moral economies of housing in austerity London. Ethnos 87(1): 22-41.

Wilde, M (2019) Resisting the rentier city: grassroots housing activism and renter subjectivity in post-crisis London. Radical Housing Journal 1(2): 63-80.

Wilde, M (2018) To Fill Yourself with Goodness: Revolutionary Self-Making in Bolivarian Venezuela. Bulletin of Latin American Research 37(2): 130-143.

Wilde, M (2017) Embryonic alternatives amid London's housing crisis. Anthropology Today, 33(5): 16-19.

Wilde, M (2017) Utopian disjunctures: popular democracy and the communal state in urban Venezuela. Critique of Anthropology, 37(1): 47-66.

Wilde, M (2016) Contested Spaces: Participatory Democracy and the Communal Councils in Chávez’s Venezuela. Latin American Perspectives, 212, 44(1): 140-158.

Commentary 

Wilde, M (2020) After Corona: The Ethical Case for a Green New Deal. University of Leicester Research Bites seminar.

Wilde, M (2018) Debt and precarious housing: ending a vicious cycle. UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.

Wilde, M (2017) Why Theresa’s May pledges won’t fix the UK’s housing disaster. The Guardian.

Wilde, M (2017) Populism, Right and Left. Public Books.

Wilde, M (2016) Our immoral housing policy is set up to punish the poor. The Guardian.

Wilde, M (2015) Participation and Polarization After Chávez. Cultural Anthropology (online special issue on political crisis in Venezuela).

Wilde, M (2011) On the Riots and the Need for a New Commons. Counterpunch.

Reviews

Wilde, M (2022) State of Heath: Pleasure and Politics in Venezuelan Health Care under Chávez, by Amy Cooper. European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (114) Rev. 4.

Wilde, M (2019) Channeling the State: Community Media and Popular Politics in Venezuela, by Naomi Schiller. European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (108), Rev. 3.

Wilde, M (2014) Turbulent Transitions: The Future of Twenty-First Century Socialism, by Roger Burbach, Michael Fox and Federico Fuentes. Bulletin of Latin American Research 34(1): 131-133.

Wilde, M (2014) Chávez’s Children: Ideology, Education, and Society in Latin America, by Manuel Anselmi. Journal of Latin American Studies, No. 46, 622-624.

Wilde, M (2011) Who Can Stop The Drums? Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Venezuela, by Sujatha Fernandes. Alborada: Latin America Uncovered.

Matt is interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas:

• Activism and urban politics
• Democracy and populism
• Critical urban studies
• Ethnographic approaches to the state
• The politics of energy transition
• Europe, Latin America and the UK

Matt teaches on the following modules:

GY1422: Introduction to Leicester Geographies

GY2412: Economy, Society and Space

GY2415: Overseas Field Course

GY2416: Space, Territory and Power

GY3412: Cities of the Global South

GY7411: Contemporary Critical Geographies

GY7412: Creative Geographies in Practice

Matt is available for comment in the following areas:

• The social and political life of Venezuela
• Urban politics in Latin America and the UK
• The politics of energy transition