ABSTRACT
As the drive for global electrification proceeds, new pressures are placed on agrarian environments in areas abundant in key minerals for electric batteries. The so-called lithium triangle between Chile, Argentina and Bolivia is one of those places. We develop an account of the ‘assemblages of extractivism’ at work in this zone that operate at a material, institutional and discursive level. Drawing on fieldwork from the region and conceptualized using different strands of political ecology and political economy, we explore how the construction of a commodity, the materiality of lithium and the role of the state intersect with local understandings and engagements with this latest form of ‘renewable extractivism’.
