Infrastructures of the Anthropocene
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3914204 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Raúl Rodríguez Freire (0000-0002-5397-7443, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 280-294 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2201-1919 • E-ISSN: 2201-1919 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/22011919-11543511 |
| OpenAlex | W4409014883 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
In an attempt to comprehend the intersection between the short and accelerated human history with the deep and slow history of the planet, this essay imaginatively follows the temporal and spatial movement of a lithium atom. The essay focuses on the extractive enterprise deployed by SQM, a transnational mining company operating in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Proposing a fictional ethnography methodology, the essay historicizes lithium extraction and its political implications, from its extraction from Chilean subsoils to its assemblage into an iPhone cell phone battery in one of Apple's manufacturing bases in China and later commercialization in the United States and Chile, where the lithium atom originated. The essay highlights lithium extraction's different scales and geopolitics to reflect on how transnational technology companies design the global world based on economic gains while destroying vital spaces where human and nonhuman beings have lived together for centuries
Anthropocene · Environmental ethics · Geography · History · Philosophy · Water Governance and Infrastructure
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |