HCIAS Blogcast: Felipe Fernández on Lithium, State and the Future in Bolivia

Welcome back to the HCIAS Blogcast! This is a series of posts on the HCIAS blog, we summarize some of the key points from our most recent podcast episode. This week, we invited Dr. Felipe Fernández, a postdoctoral researcher in the International Research Training Group Temporalities of Future at the Freie Universität Berlin, to sit down with HCIAS doctoral researcher Rafael Hernández Westpfahl and HCIAS Publications coordinator Marian Orjuela for a conversation about his research project Lithium, State and the Future in Bolivia: An Anthropology of the Underground.

Dr. Fernández begins the episode with an overview of his interest, as an anthropologist, in Latin America and his recent research experience including his PhD project, Coping with Extortion. On Violence, Parasites, and Water Infrastructures in Buenaventura, Colombia, which he successfully defended in 2022, and his current investigation into the role that geology and scientific evidence plays in the extraction of lithium in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. In discussing the latter, he highlights that an important distinction between lithium extraction in Bolivia and similar projects taking place in the other two points in the so called Lithium Triangle formed with its neighbours Argentina and Chile. In Bolivia, lithium mining is conceived of as a progressive state project, to be conducted in the national interest and without foreign investment or the involvement of foreign firms in the extraction or processing of the rare earth metal. This ideal has proved difficult to put into practice, however, due to a lack of necessary domestic equipment and experience in these areas leading to some collaborations with outside interests.

Felipe Fernández (Image Credit: Freie Universität Berlin)

Within the discipline of anthropology, there has been a recent surge in academic interest in the underground, in particular the cultural, political and economic significance of subsoil resources, as well as the implications of different technological methods of reaching and extracting them. Dr. Fernández hopes to contribute to this discourse with his research into the interactions between Bolivian geologists and their production of scientific knowledge, in seeing, determining, and calculating underground wealth, and the state’s extraction plans. This relationship is one of mutual influence, with experts playing a crucial role in the successful completion of the project and the state shaping the way science is generated through the creation of legal frameworks and the funding of state development projects. Another related approach to this topic is the analysis of Bolivia geologists as social actors, with a focus on their political affiliations, lifestyles and personal biographies in order to understand more fully their relationship with the state apparatus.

Dr. Fernández is advancing this project through a combination of ethnographic research methods including participant observation within the extractive project itself, interviews with key actors, and a content analysis of the relevant written documents produced by the state.

Background context Global Energy transition lithium has emerged as enormously important foregrounding it in global political discussions and dramatically increasing it’s market value. This is identified as a key reason for the Bolivian state mobilising so many resources to extract it. These promises for the future are built on narratives. Through the lens of what Dr. Fernández call ‘technologies of anticipation’, I aim to shed light to the professional forecasters as experts in seeing, determining, and calculating underground wealth. How is the future forecasted and imagined and how is it reached. A necessary part of all state actions and a fundamental role is played by the data generated by scientists. Evidence making as future making. By ‘technologies of anticipation’ I refer to technical and political tools such as calculations, mappings, and modellings, but also policy papers and development plans which aim to produce certainty and knowledge on the lithium’s wealth in the underground. The different way different societies project the future and how the state articulates them

Part of the context for this research project stems from the emergence of lithium as a crucial resource for the global energy transition. The commensurate increase in it’s market value as a commodity is a driving force behind the Bolivian state’s extensive mobilization of resources for its extraction. Dr. Fernández delves into the underlying narratives that shape these promises for the future, framing his analysis through the concept of ‘technologies of anticipation.’ Through this lens, he explores how professional forecasters function as experts in envisioning, assessing, and calculating the potential underground wealth. Central to this exploration is the role of scientific data in shaping these future projections—a process characterized by the intertwining of evidence-making and future-making. Moreover, he argues that theorizing about and crafting narratives of the future is a fundamental role of states all over the world. His research examines the diverse ways in which different societies conceptualize and project their futures, elucidating how the state articulates and navigates these visions within the realm of lithium extraction.

This HCIAS Blogcast has been just a short recap of a wide-ranging and thought-provoking discussion. If you would like to learn more about our guest and her work, you can listen to the whole episode here.

If you would like to know more about Dr. Fernández’s research you can read about him here.

You can also find out about Rafael’s research here and Marian’s research here.