Presentation short abstract

This work interrogates lithium extraction’s socio-ecological and epistemic impact. Based on fieldwork with Indigenous peoples in northwestern Argentina and grounded in decolonial political ecology, it exposes the green transition’s socio-ecological conflicts and the making of sacrifice zones.

Presentation long abstract

This work examines whether and how the lithium-driven energy transition reproduces colonial logics in resource-rich regions of the Global South. Grounded in Latin American Political Ecology and decolonial approaches, and guided by a relational, non-extractive methodology, the research engages with testimonies from Indigenous communities in Catamarca and Jujuy in Argentina to analyse the socio-ecological, political, and epistemic implications of lithium extraction.

While framed by the Global North as essential for decarbonisation, extraction in these territories produces or aggravates already existing sacrifice zones marked by severe environmental damage, territorial enclosure, cultural disruption, epistemic marginalization and systematic violations of rights.

At the heart of the study lies the premise that lithium mining is not merely a technical process but a profoundly socio-ecological and epistemological one. This study exposes how these dynamics are enabled and reinforced through multinational corporate–state alliances, technocratic governance, and global environmental governance that fails to protect and value Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge and development models.

The research pursues a dual objective: to expose the material and epistemic colonialities embedded in extractive practices, and to root this critique in the lived experiences and knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples. Drawing on the concept of border thinking (Mignolo and Escobar, 2010), it illustrates how communities confront these processes through land defense, counter-narratives, and everyday practices of resistance.

By centering these perspectives, the work contributes to debates on green colonialism, the making of sacrifice zones, and socio-ecological conflicts, arguing for an epistemic delinking from Eurocentric transition models and for pluriversal, community-rooted environmental futures.