Short abstract:

An exploratory paper investigating the material-affective affinities of humans who consume lithium pharmaceutically, electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries, and the lands from which the chemical is extracted. Questions of motion and futurity are explored through human/non-human kinships.

Long abstract:

Like vehicles, some mad and disabled bodies are ‘made better’ with lithium. Backed by the scientific belief that it is the optimal choice for the perpetual forward motion of these human and vehicular bodies, lithium consumption enables some futurities while foreclosing others. This is an exploratory paper that investigates the material-affective affinities of humans who consume lithium pharmaceutically, electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries, and the ecologies from which the chemical is extracted. Through an object-orientated ontology, this research broadly seeks to understand lithium in motion: how is it moving and how are human and non-human bodies moved by it? Asking how this chemical is in the world, and under what conditions it is enabling, disabling, healing, toxic, conductive, destructive, or simply ambivalent.

Employing mad, critical disability and STS methodologies, this paper traces lithium’s material-affective capacity in three principal interrelated contexts: (1) extraction in which mining radically alters landscapes and social relations (2) technological innovation as the new ‘white oil’ powering the green economy, (3) pharmaceutical intervention where mad and disabled bodies engage in a plurality of practices of lithium consumption and rejection. Drawing on Mel Y. Chen’s theories of intoxication and chemical intimacy and Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory, this paper seeks out points of affinity, contradiction, and ambivalence while staying attentive to relations of power. Lithium’s forward movement and futurity requires attention to the urgency of ecological crisis, liveable worlds, and the human/non-human kinships that it activates.