Paper short abstract:

I explore transformations that are forged along lithium carbonate production processes in Northern Chile, concentrating on the 'off-sites', revealing the endurance of infrastructures largely supported by oil and coal therefore creating tensions with 'clean energies' narratives.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I ethnographically explore the various social and material transformations that are forged along lithium carbonate production processes in Northern Chile. More particularly, I am concerned with those transformations taking place outside the Salar de Atacama, beyond the place where brines are pumped out. Rather than focusing on the well-studied footprint that this extractive water-intense activity leaves on the saltpan evaporitic ecosystems themselves, I concentrate on the so-called lithium extraction 'off-sites', namely, those less examined 'affected sites' existing beyond the saltpan nucleus and its environmental surroundings. I show how ethnographic consideration of different off-sites reveal the endurance of infrastructures largely supported by oil and coal, thus creating an unambiguous contrast with 'clean energies' narratives linked to lithium production. By foregrounding not only the dependence on fossil fuel transport (diesel-trucks for transporting brines and plants workers, planes and buses for lithium's commuters, and ships for commercialization) but also the chemical toxicity stemming from lithium carbonate conversion plants, I demonstrate how the exaltation of a univocal green planetary future project is fading particular vital sites off, hence inadvertently enlarging the precarization of life and structural inequalities within Sci-Fi dystopian scenarios.

Paper short abstract:

Lithium-ion batteries, seen as 'green' technological solution to the climate crisis mitigation, spark hopes for growth and prosperity. Ethnographic research on the building-up of battery industries in the Nordics explores local imaginaries of battery futures.

Paper long abstract:

Lithium-ion batteries are seen as a 'green' technological fix to the climate crisis. Electrifying transport through Electric Vehicles (EVs) is in full swing; at the same time, Nordic along other European countries are building up their position in the EV battery value chain. Ambitious plans for the construction of Gigafactories are being pursued with the aim to produce the 'greenest' lithium-ion batteries.

The emerging industry comes with a promise of several thousand workplaces. For the smaller towns, in which these large-scale projects are set to be located, the expected population growth presents prospects of 'awakened' towns worth living in after several decades of stagnation. Even though these Gigafactories are not yet producing, their awaited arrival has had a real impact and sparked a collective optimism. Imaginaries connected to the emerging industry are rooted in local industrial pasts and relate to prosperity and change, much more than a dystopian future presented by a global climate crisis.

This paper looks at the imagined futures of 'battery towns' in the Nordics. Based on qualitative field research in four cities in Norway and Sweden, it explores how municipalities, residents and industry representatives engage in future-making practices, by assembling objects, materials, narratives, strategies, and humans for the awaited life with a battery factory. As "humanity's dreams of the future have always been posthuman" (Jasanoff 2016), similarly, the places we are looking at, while mixing with the ideas of the future sites of batteries, are somewhat themselves becoming a technoscientific assemblage of its imagined future and objects creating it.

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines how green transition policies and projects in Europe and Germany tend to re-value post-mining landscapes as territories for/of future extraction. This is itself controversial in that there are different understandings of how these spaces are valued.

Paper long abstract:

The need to increase the material basis of energy transitions (i.e. by extracting minerals and metals) not only creates new mining frontiers (mostly located in the Global South) but also revives old ones in the Global North. Based on narratives which design the revival of European mining as indispensable for ensuring security of supply and responsible mining practices, this paper traces some of the prominent actors, technologies and ideas of transition. More specifically, it investigates the re-valuation of the waste material of mining dumps in the East German Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge). Based on interviews, participant observation and workshops in the frame of a transdisciplinary project on Deconta/ReMining technologies, the paper discusses a policy shift from treating mining dumps as 'non-problems' to framing them as indispensable resources and places to embark on the path towards a global 'green' and 'circular' economy. In doing so, post-mining landscapes present both traces of an extractive past and signifiers of a sustainable future. Yet it is also discussed how this valuation process is contested and fragile, as it involves different ideas on the future use of these terrains. While some actors argue for Deconta/ReMining processes leading to the complete removal of mining waste, others advocate for the preservation of tailings piles as valuable sites for nature conservation and historic preservation.