Lithium scale-making and extractivist counter-futurities in Bolivia

Area of Science:

• Anthropology
• Environmental Studies
• Sociology

Background:

• The global green energy transition is often presented as a unified, inevitable process.
• Bolivia's state-controlled lithium project is central to global climate policy due to lithium's status as a critical mineral.
• Local communities and sociopolitical movements often resist or contest large-scale resource extraction projects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the "prelives" of lithium industrialization in Bolivia through ethnographic research.
• To contribute to debates on the contested nature of the green energy transition.
• To develop a theoretical framework for understanding localized counter-futurities and resistance to resource reorientation.

Main Methods:

• Ethnographic research conducted in Bolivia between 2019 and 2023.
• Examination of production topographies and sociopolitical mobilization.
• Analysis of competing energy narratives and inter-scalar frictions.

Main Results:

• Identified localized resistance to Bolivia's lithium project, challenging global green energy narratives.
• Developed a theoretical framework of "scale-making" with vertical and horizontal dimensions to understand resistance.
• Demonstrated how social and productive worlds resist reorientation around critical minerals.

Conclusions:

• The green energy transition is an essentially contested process, not a monolithic one.
• Anthropology of energy must critically engage with competing narratives and localized "counter-futurities".
• Ethnographic truth-telling is crucial for demystifying dominant energy narratives and understanding climate justice.