Global Cities Imaginaries: Mining the Desert and the Production of Sacrifice Zones in the Andean Region

• In Event: Critical Things: Extraction and Environmental Governance in the Long Twentieth Century

Abstract

In the 1970s, a scarce and lightweight mineral found deep within the brines of the Andean region became known as the new “white gold”. Lithium is currently regarded as a crucial mineral in envisioning and realizing a future focused on the clean energy transition of green cities. However, the production of lithium exacts a heavy burden on indigenous communities, as it evaporates 1,900 liters of water for every kilogram produced. This is not the first time that the aspirations of global cities have pressured the sacred desert. The dominant ideals of the 19th-century modern city and the 21st-century green city share a significant reliance on resources in the Andean region. In the late 19th century, the discovery of Andean saltpeter became highly sought-after as a fertilizer, driving agrarian production and fueling the growth of modern metropolises in the Global North. But the cities in the nitrate-rich region followed a different path. Prompted by British private interests, the Chilean state declared war on Perú and Bolivia in 1879, securing control over the nitrate desert to unify the extractive endeavor. This ambitious undertaking required institutional arrangements to organize capital and labor on a regional scale rather than confining it to a single city. Consequently, company towns, railways, and port cities were established, supported by thermoelectric installations that powered the new regional system. This infrastructure came at a cost, polluting large urban areas and creating sacrifice zones. This paper examines the socio-spatial implications of the governance arrangements inherited by a commodity-region that has long been constructed upon the mono-production of minerals. The production of lithium, serving the purpose of capital accumulation within Western imaginaries of green cities, has unfolded a distinct form of extraction once again, giving rise to new sacrifice zones, socio-environmental conflicts, and patterns of dispossession in the Andean region.

Author

• Dominique Mashini, Harvard University