Worlds of Lithium is an anthropological study of the replacement of fossil fuel transport with a new fleet of electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries.
Conversations: Past, Presents, and Futures of the Environmental Humanities
Cristóbal Bonelli and Pablo Ampuero-Ruiz were invited as speakers at an event on Environmental Humanities organised by the NICA PhD Council...
November 29, 2022
Lithium and Chemistry with Dr Martina Gamba (CONICET)
Martina Gamba shared her chemical knowledge and experience with the WOL team in Amsterdam...
November 28, 2022
Worlds of Lithium: Presentations of Working Papers: Chile, China, and the Dramaturgy of Lithium
Worlds of Lithium held a workshop to share work-in-progress with international and local guests at the Universiteit van Amsterdam...
November 28, 2022
“A chemical dramaturgy of lithium: Learning from metamorphic worlds”
Cristóbal Bonelli gave a keynote lecture at the WTMC...
November 9, 2022
“Cosechas sin siembra y dinámicas de borde en el salar de Atacama” (Harvests without crops and urderground borders in the Atacama salt pan)
Cristóbal Bonelli gave a keynote lecture at the Centro de Estudios de Conflictos y Cohesión Social in Chile....
November 7, 2022
Invited professor at the WTMC
Cristóbal Bonelli was invited as a speaker for WTMC PhD Fall Workshop...
November 7, 2022
Departmental seminar series “Action, climate, crisis: Anthropological tales in times of climate change”, at the Anthropology Department, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Cristóbal Bonelli co-convened the 2022-23 series of department seminars of the Anthropology Department at UvA...
September 22, 2022
“Transformaciones ambientales en el Norte de Chile”
Marina Weinberg presented her work at CIDER, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia...
August 10, 2022
De la transición energética a las transformaciones socio-ecológicas. ¿Litio para la transición?
Marina Weinberg gave a Keynote at the international Forum on Ecological Transitions organized by CENSAT Agua Viva and CIDER, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia...
August 8, 2022
“Lithium’s off-sites in Northern Chile: the dystopian backyard of the decarbonization of transport”
Marina Weinberg presented a paper at the 17th EASA Biennial Conference...
July 27, 2022
Uncommon explorations between green technologies, climate hopes, and the anthropological imagination
Pablo Ampuero-Ruiz co-organised a panel at the 17th European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference 2022 in Belfast, Northern Ireland...
July 27, 2022
China’s “Green Road” to Latin America: Limits to energy transitions in the Post-Pandemic New Normality
Pablo Ampuero-Ruiz presented a paper at CEISAL 2022 in Helsinki, Finland....
June 15, 2022
Lithium Off site in Northern Chile
Marina Weinberg gave a Keynote Keynote at the panel ‘Energy transitions from below: From climate colonialism to energy sovereignty’, International Institute of Social Studies...
June 15, 2022
Extractivism in Northern Chile
Marina Weinberg was invited to present her work to the undergraduate course “Politics in Latin America” (Prof. Marisol de la Cadena), University of California at Davis...
May 24, 2022
“Mundos de litio: Entre potencias, impotencias y nuevas fuerzas políticas” (Worlds of Lithium: Between potences, impotences, and new political forces)
Cristóbal Bonelli and Marina Weinberg organised a Presidential Session at the Latin American Studies Association 2022 Virtual Congress...
May 5, 2022
Ontology as an anthropological tool: Limits and potentialities
Cristóbal Bonelli was invited as a lecturer for a masterclass in Contemporary Anthropology at the Netherlands School of Anthropology...
April 11, 2022
Pilot workshop at NTNU on possible battery futures
Michelle Geraerts organised a pilot workshop with scientists at NTNU in Norway....
February 24, 2022
¿Es la Civilización Ecológica la vía hacia las metas ambientales? (Is Ecological Civilisation the way towards the environmental goals?)
Pablo Ampuero-Ruiz published a columna in the REDCAEM website...
January 15, 2022
Mattering Elements short-term collaborative research residency at UC Irvine
Cristóbal Bonelli participated in the Mattering Elements short-term collaborative residency at UC Irvine, in the United States of America...
January 14, 2022
Lithium-ion-accu’s: onmogelijkheden van “groene” technologie (Lithium-ion batteries: impossibilities of “green” technology)
Cristóbal Bonelli’s research is showcased in Belgian newspaper ...
December 17, 2021
“Lithium will not decarbonise our World”
Cristóbal Bonelli’s research is showcased in faculty’s newsletter...
December 14, 2021
Pablo Ampuero analiza la civilización ecológica de China y su relación con la industria del litio (Pablo Ampuero analyses China’s Ecological Civilisation and its relation to the lithium industry)
Pablo Ampuero-Ruiz’s research on China’s Ecological Civilisation was highlighted by Chile’s Observatorio Parlamentario Asia Pacífico...
December 2, 2021
Energy group seminar and conference
Michelle Geraerts presented her doctoral research to the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at NTNU, Norway...
December 1, 2021
Los compromisos ambientales de Asia Pacífico en la COP26 (Asia Pacific environmental commitments at COP26)
Pablo Ampuero-Ruiz was interviewed about China’s environmental commitments at COP26 for Chile’s Library of Congress’ Observatorio Parlamentario Asia Pacífico...
November 24, 2021
Extractivist Bodies in Northern Chile
Marina Weinberg was invited to present her work to the graduate course “Asuntos avanzados en etnografía” (Prof. Marcelo González) (with Cristóbal Bonelli), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile...
November 5, 2021
Salares en peligro de extinción: Los microdesastres y la paradoja del litio en el norte de Chile (Endangered salares: micro-disasters and the lithium paradox in the north of Chile)
Article by Cristóbal Bonelli and Cristina Dorador was picked up by Chilean magazine ...
October 25, 2021
Diálogos de Litio: S.O.S.tenibilidad y Extractivismo en el Desierto de Atacama
Diálogos de Litio closes a successful cycle of discussions and exchanges with Latin American scholars and opinion leaders...
September 24, 2021
Team battery seminar
Michelle Geraerts discussed her research with battery scientists at NTNU, Norway...
September 23, 2021
“Neoliberalismo de metal: De la extracción mineral a la abstracción financiera” (Metal neoliberalism: From mineral extraction to financial abstraction)
Marina Weinberg presented a paper at the VI Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Antropología in Montevideo, Uruguay...
November 28, 2020
“Pensar la Herida: Fragmentos desde los límites de la política” (Thinking wounds: Fragments from the limits of politics)
PI Cristóbal Bonelli and Marisol de la Cadena presented a paper at the VI Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Antropología in Montevideo, Uruguay...
November 28, 2020
“To fix or not to fix: Scales, survival units, and infra-decarbonisation in Northern Chile”
Cristóbal Bonelli presented a paper at The Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future conference co-organised by the Royal Anthropological Association, the Royal Geographic Society, the British Academy, the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS, and the BM’s Department for Africa, Oceania and the Americas....
September 17, 2020
“Anthropocene: The human epoch”
Cristóbal Bonelli commented a documentary about the Anthropocene in Delft, the Netherlands...
March 5, 2020
A lot of public attention goes to the promise of electric vehicles, meaning less oil will be needed for road transport. What remains hidden, however, are the disruptive transformations of the landscapes and societies through which lithium travels. It is these transformations that the project brings into public view. For we are convinced that through empirical assessment of the side effects of this planetary strategy to respond to global warming, we can avoid implementing climate solutions that end up worsening our current social and environmental problems.
The research questions
How does lithium connect, and disruptively transform, the landscapes and societies where lithium is extracted, turned into battery technology, used and potentially recycled?
How do processes of lithium extraction, battery production, and battery recycling relate to each other and what might this mean for energy policy?
Worlds of Lithium innovatively answer these questions through a transnational documentation of different interrelated knowledges and practices of four groups of actors:
Natural and social scientists working around lithium.
Communities responding to ecological and social transformations.
Policy makers concerned with decarbonisation.
Companies involved in lithium extraction, battery production and battery recycling.
We investigate how these actors collaborate; how they clash; and how multiple worlds are generated in social and material practices ‘powered’ by lithium. By doing so, the project will challenge the modern imagination of transitions towards sustainability as if they were taking place in a given ‘container universe’ and will illustrate how transitions are taking place beyond Eurocentric discourse and practice.
Thus, the project will articulate lessons springing from these co-existing knowledges and practices of people engaging with transformative landscapes, and will innovatively theorize new imaginaries to think about what counts as sustainable transitions in times of enhanced ecological sensitivity.
The sites for these studies are Chile, the largest lithium producer in the world; China, the world leader in lithium-ion battery production, and Norway, a country with the highest levels of electric vehicle adoption.
Instead of simply following lithium along these sites, as if they formed a global-lineal chain, we will instead explore their interconnection, asking how production in China affects extraction in Chile and use in Norway, or how recycling lithium innovation in Norway will curb demand for lithium in Chile, or re-inform battery production in China.
Weinberg, Marina, and Valentina Figueroa. 2023. “Politics of Mining: Toxic Heritage in the Atacama Desert.” In Toxic Heritage: Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice, edited by Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, and Sarah May. London: Routledge. ISBN: 978103242999; 9781032429977; 9781003365259
Bonelli, Cristóbal, Marina Weinberg, and Pablo Ampuero. 2022. “El Litio, Un (Des)Estabilizador de Transiciones Bipolares.” LASA Forum 53 (1): 37–43. https://forum.lasaweb.org/files/vol53-issue1/Dossier-6.pdf
Ampuero Ruiz, Pablo. 2022. “Civilización, Ecología y Sostenibilidad Alimentaria: La Interdependencia de las Relaciones Sino-Latinoamericanas.” Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica 22 (4): 32-39. https://revistafal.com/fal-22-4/
Ampuero Ruiz, Pablo. 2022. “Civilización Ecológica: Replanteando Horizontes y Transiciones Materiales entre China y América Latina.” REDCAEM Working Paper Series 26. http://chinayamericalatina.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/WP26-Ene-2022-REDCAEM-.pdf
Bonelli, Cristóbal, and Cristina Dorador. 2021. “Endangered Salares: Micro-Disasters in Northern Chile.” Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society 4 (1): 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/25729861.2021.1968634
Bonelli, Cristóbal, and Antonia Walford (eds.). 2021. Environmental Alterities. Manchester: Mattering Press. ISBN: 9781912729142. http://doi.org/10.28938/9781912729142
Bonelli, Cristóbal, and Antonia Walford. 2021. “Introduction: Environmental Alterities.” In Environmental Alterities, edited by Cristóbal Bonelli, and Antonia Walford, 13-42. Manchester: Mattering Press. ISBN: 9781912729142. http://doi.org/10.28938/9781912729142
Weinberg, Marina, and Cristobal Bonelli. 2021. “Lithium: Towards a Theory of Bipolar Transitions.” In Lithium. States of Exhaustion, edited by Francisco Diaz, Anastasia Kubrak, and Marina Otero Verzier, 52-6. Rotterdam: Het Nieuwe Instituut, Ediciones ARQ. ISBN: 9789569571886
Weinberg, Marina. 2021. “Cuerpos de Cobre: Extractivismo en Chuquicamata, Chile”. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 26 (2): 200-18. https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jlca.12545
Weinberg, Marina, Marcelo González Gálvez, and Cristóbal Bonelli. 2020. “Políticas de la Evidencia: Entre Posverdad, Objetividad y Etnografía.” Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología, 41, 3-27. https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda41.2020.01
Nov / 2021
7th Lithium Dialogues. S.O.S.tanibility and Extractivism in the Atacama desertSeventh Session
Oct / 2021
6th Lithium Dialogues. S.O.S.tanibility and Extractivism in the Atacama desert Sixth Session
Sep / 2021
5th Session- Lithium Dialogues. S.O.S.tanibility and Extractivism in the Atacama desert
Ago / 2021
5to Encuentro - Diálogos de litio: S.O.S.tenibilidad y Extractivismo en el desierto de Atacama
jul / 2021
4rd Session- Lithium Dialogues. S.O.S.tanibility and Extractivism in the Atacama desert
jul / 2021
3rd Session - Lithium Dialogues. S.O.S.tanibility and Extractivism in the Atacama desert
MAY / 2021
2nd Session - Lithium Dialogues. S.O.S.tanibility and Extractivism in the Atacama desert
apr / 2021
1st Session - Lithium Dialogues: S.O.S.tainability and Extractivism in the Atacama Desert
Jul / 2022
EASA2022 P022a: Uncommon Explorations between Green Technologies, Climate Hopes, and the Anthropolog
Jul / 2022
EASA2022 P022b: Uncommon Explorations between Green Technologies, Climate Hopes, and the Anthropolog
Nov / 2022
Sesión 8 Coloquio de Conflictos territoriales
May / 2022
SESION PRESIDENCIAL:Mundos de Litio: entre potencias, impotencias y nuevas fuerzas políticas
Nov / 2021
Ciencia Abierta: Salares en peligro de extinción
Dic / 2021
Pablo Ampuero analiza la civilización ecológica de China y su relación con la industria del litio
Dic / 2021
Pablo Ampuero reflexiona sobre la industria del litio y la electromovilidad en China
Oct / 2021
Ecological Reparation: Chilean Streets and Kiltro Politics
Jun / 2022
SESION PRESIDENCIAL Mundos de Litio entre potencias, impotencias y nuevas fuerzas políticas
Ene / 2022
Ciencia Abierta: Salares en peligro de extinción
Department of Anthropology,
University of Amsterdam
Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Postadres
Postbus 15509
1001 NA Amsterdam
