Political ecology of lithium in northern Argentina

ESCOSTEGUY, MELISA; BRANNSTROM, CHRISTIAN; VENENCIA, CRISTIAN; SEGHEZZO, LUCAS; HUFTY, MARC

Denver, Colorado

Conferencia; American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting 2020; 2020

American Association of Geographers

Lithium is mostly used to build batteries for electric vehicles and electronic devices, or for storage systems in the renewable energy sector. In the context of an overall transition from carbon-based to supposedly greener economies, lithium demand has sharply increased in the last decade and so did foreign investments in Argentina?s mining sector. It is estimated that around 10% of all global lithium reserves lie in salt flats of the ?Puna? region in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy, and Catamarca of northern Argentina. The growth of the lithium sector in this region has also triggered social-environmental conflicts between indigenous and peasant communities, governments, and mining companies. Conflicts are mostly related to disputes over the control of natural resources (notably water) and ancestral territories. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the study of the governance of the lithium production network in northern Argentina. All relevant stakeholders of the network were identified, including national, provincial, regional, and local institutions, non-governmental organizations, mining companies, indigenous and peasant communities, and universities, among others. Stakeholders were mapped in a Geographic Information System (GIS) and the relationships between them were analyzed using Social Network Analysis (SNA). We discuss the lithium production network in northern Argentina using a political ecology approach.