Extractive developments in the Salar de Atacama through the lens of intersectionality: Learning from Lickanantay women

Abstract

In a situation of climate emergency, state and non-state actors are globally making efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. To answer these demands, crucial minerals are needed for the production of batteries, which are used in particular in electric vehicles. Lithium is one of the key minerals for these purposes, as it provides high levels of energy storage capacity. More than 58 % of global lithium reserves are stored in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. Scholars have been analysing of the effects of the mining industry in these countries, but currently there is little work on gender and ethnicity in relation to lithium mining. This thesis analyses contemporary developments through the lens of intersectionality, with a focus on the experiences of indigenous women. Applying the intersectional lens to discuss concepts of energy justice and slow violence contributes to the discourse around a fair energy transition, drawing attention to gendered and racialised injustices in the process. A combination of ethnographic work conducted in San Pedro de Atacama and oral history interviews with local indigenous women leads to a nuanced and ambivalent picture of the impact of mining in the San Pedro region. It is apparent that indigenous women do not only experience adverse effects from the mining industry, with opportunities and benefits including better access to education, improved infrastructure, and a general empowerment of women through financial support, as well as benefitting from better access to education and improved infrastructure. Despite the fact that these opportunities arise in the context of the mining industry, concerns about the future of San Pedro and its people are serious. Apart from environmental degradation, adverse effects experiences by indigenous women include cultural loss, discrimination in the labour market and the reinforcement of gendered norms. This analysis contributes to studies on extractivism by providing an intersectional angle, pushing indigenous women’s voices into the study of mining and its impacts, an area too-often gendered as “masculine” and as therefore outside the purvey of intersectional analysis.