The Energy Assemblages project is based on interdisciplinary research that is nevertheless strongly anchored in critical ethnography. Project team members will take responsibility for different dimensions of research on the lithium energy assemblage, including:
(a) extended fieldwork among local communities bordering the Salar de Uyuni;
(b) participatory research at the main lithium industrialization plant in Llipi and at the lithium-ion battery research and development facility in Palca;
(c) ethnographic research with social, political, and governmental figures and institutions in Uyuni, Potosí, and La Paz (among others);
(d) comparative research on lithium industrialization across the border in Chile;
(e) exploratory and ethnographic research on the lithium-to-lithium-ion battery production process among battery producers in Europe;
(f) technological research on electronic vehicles (EV) manufacturing, marketing, and use (in Europe and the United States);
(g) ethnographic research among green energy activists and alternative energy futurists; and
(h) comparative and critical research on the place of the lithium energy assemblage in relation to global climate change processes.