Global and Local Knowledge, Societal Processes and Conflicts of Materiality: Lithium Extraction in Argentina
Global and Local Knowledge, Societal Processes and Conflicts of Materiality: Lithium Extraction in Argentina
Monday, 7 July 2025: 09:30
Location: SJES030 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
Oral Presentation
This contribution focuses on the conflicts arising from lithium extraction in the so-called lithium triangle, particularly in Argentina – a regionwith the largest lithium deposits in the world. With a surge in demand driven by electric mobility and renewable energy storage,unconventional lithium mining methods, such as extraction from saline waters, have become prevalent. However, this has triggeredwidespread protests in Jujuy and Catamarca, where local and indigenous populations resist land expropriation and anticipate severe waterscarcity in the arid environment.
The tensions escalate with repressive measures from local and national authorities, prompting a constitutional reform in Jujuy tocriminalize social protests and streamline lithium extraction by transnational corporations. A cross-sector resistance movement emerges,uniting indigenous communities, public service employees, miners, and bank staff against the encroachment on their land and resources.
It is a complex arrangement of diverse actors who refer to different knowledge, which is exacerbated by the rapidly changing conditions ofthe lithium market and the local politics of an unstable country
This research examines the different actors and scales of these conflicts, addressing the negotiation and local implementation of ‘universal’norms such as human right.
In conclusion, this research delves into the heart of the conflicts surrounding lithium extraction in Argentina, shedding light on the globaland local tensions, the impact on human rights, and the challenges posed by the materiality of the research object and the global marketwhich it is linked to from a sociology of knowledge perspective.
Therefore, it is an empirical exemplary case of tensions and inequalities in the knowledge regimes of different actors on different scalesintersecting with global and local tensions.
The tensions escalate with repressive measures from local and national authorities, prompting a constitutional reform in Jujuy tocriminalize social protests and streamline lithium extraction by transnational corporations. A cross-sector resistance movement emerges,uniting indigenous communities, public service employees, miners, and bank staff against the encroachment on their land and resources.
It is a complex arrangement of diverse actors who refer to different knowledge, which is exacerbated by the rapidly changing conditions ofthe lithium market and the local politics of an unstable country
This research examines the different actors and scales of these conflicts, addressing the negotiation and local implementation of ‘universal’norms such as human right.
In conclusion, this research delves into the heart of the conflicts surrounding lithium extraction in Argentina, shedding light on the globaland local tensions, the impact on human rights, and the challenges posed by the materiality of the research object and the global marketwhich it is linked to from a sociology of knowledge perspective.
Therefore, it is an empirical exemplary case of tensions and inequalities in the knowledge regimes of different actors on different scalesintersecting with global and local tensions.