Conference Agenda

This study examines the anti-scientific climate created in the face of a proposed controversial lithium mine project in Serbia, which gained prominence during the EU’s need for increased critical raw materials extraction under the green transition in an attempt to decouple from China. However, scientists from various disciplines in Serbia have raised concerns about the project’s devastating impacts on the environment, biodiversity, and local communities. Since then, they have been silenced, delegitimised, and even threatened and criminalised, breaching the limits of democratic public debate. With this in mind, the paper explores the deepening of knowledge deprivation and eroding public debate for further exacerbating peripheral countries' marginalisation within the European context. The paper is divided into two parts: (i) an economic-geographical introduction related to the above-mentioned project in the context of the economic geography of lithium extraction in the EU and the Balkans. By analysing the economic trends related to mining investments, the study highlights the lithium mine in the Serbian region of Jadar as an example of a new layer to the existing core-and-periphery divisions and unequal power relations in Europe. Part two covers (ii) the anti-scientific climate created under these conditions and its implications for academic freedom and (self-)censorship. This part, therefore, investigates the shrinking space for academic debate due to trends uncovered in the first. In conclusion, by using David Harvey’s concept of a “spatial fix”, the paper identifies the Serbian case as an example of a broader recent trend in the Balkans when it comes to mining for the green transition in general and argues that the current economic-geographic “spatial fixes” which involve lithium mining are leading to shrinking spaces for academia and its peripheralisation, thereby contributing to a new understanding of the concept used by Harvey by expanding its meaning to account for empirical trends.

The collective management of the post-mining era has become a category of public action since the cessation of mining activity in Europe, due to a variety of problems: demolition of obsolete facilities, the proliferation of wasteland and urban vacancy, as well as significant socio-economic difficulties for the local population. The patrimonialization of this mining heritage has been widely promoted as a solution for these territories (Ruhr, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Lorraine (Mortelette, 2019)). Today, post-mining landscapes are also indicative of public policies of transition, and position them between vulnerability and resilience in territorial projects described by those behind them as demonstrating a shift from unsustainable to sustainable. I'm thinking here of the installation of photovoltaic panels or wind turbines (Buu-Sao, Patinaux, 2023). More recently, the reopening of mines in these areas raises questions about a process that clearly runs counter to the heritage dynamics regularly associated with the mourning of an activity that has come to an end. Are these territories ultimately destined to be “industrial forever”? (Görmar, Kinossian, 2022).To explore these question, I propose to study open-cast mines in Spain and, more particularly, the example of Almaden, a former mining town of Castilla la Mancha. The mercury mine has been in operation for thousands of years. It has been a Unesco cultural landscape since 2012 and a Natura 2000 zone. Its landscape has been undergoing restorative requalification for several decades, against a backdrop of persistent pollution. In May 2024, under the guise of energy transition, the local government authorized a partial reopening of the mines, based on zoning according to geological, economic and environmental criteria, prompting a reaction from the Ecologistas en accion party. Clearly identified as a “left-behind place” due to the demographic configuration of the region, the case of Almadén is examined here in terms of its exemplarity. What discourses legitimize these mining reopening projects, and with what rhetoric? What imaginaries and spatial representations do they conjure up? How are they perceived by the local population and how is the social acceptability of these projects worked out? Based on my thesis work and an initial research project on the installation of photovoltaic panels in Susville, Isère, I'd like to explore the place of landscape in these narratives, and the multiple attachments to it, through fieldwork to be carried out in May 2025.

The article discusses the securitization of lithium mining in France, particularly focusing on the Imerys' EMILI project. Imerys plans to extract and refine 34,000 tons of lithium hydroxide annually over 25 years, starting in 2027. This is seen as a crucial development given the European Union's critical raw materials law of 2024, which aims to reduce dependency on foreign lithium crucial for electric vehicle batteries and enhance national security.

The article uses the public debate on the EMILI project, led by the French National Commission for Public Debate from March to July 2024, as a case study to explore how lithium supply security is framed within national and European contexts. The discourse during the debate emphasized securing a local lithium supply as part of a broader strategic move to bolster economic and energy sovereignty, and to align with ecological and industrial benefits.

The concept of "securitization," originally a critical security studies term, is applied to understand the framing of lithium mining as a security issue. Securitization involves presenting an issue as an existential threat that requires extraordinary measures to manage. In this case, the perceived dependence on foreign lithium supplies is presented as a threat to national and European industrial autonomy and energy security.

The article critically examines the political and rhetorical strategies used during the debate to justify the project, noting the alignment of state actors with mining interests, which frame lithium mining as beneficial for ecological sustainability, industrial strategy, and national sovereignty. This alignment is supported by references to academic theories and prior political discourse on mining in France, suggesting that securitization serves as a useful analytical framework to explore the dynamics at play.

Ultimately, the article argues that understanding the securitization of lithium through such projects offers insights into the geo-economic and political dynamics influencing resource management strategies in France and Europe, within the context of increasing global competition for critical materials like lithium.

In response to climate change, many countries are focussing on renewable energies in order to sustainably reduce CO2 emissions. Large quantities of critical raw materials are needed to realise this plan. The increased demand for raw materials is consequently leading to a large number of new mining projects around the world, including in Europe. This development has been strongly criticised by civil society, as these projects directly threaten the environment inhabited by many people. In order to analyse new mining projects in Europe and the associated environmental conflicts, this paper focuses on the lithium mining project in Serbia, which is one of the largest lithium mining projects in Europe. This paper uses a socio-historical approach to examine whether these environmental conflicts are different from the conflicts that led to the climate crisis. Based on the theory of J-B. Fressoz, in which he describes the mechanisms that have led to the environmental crisis of modern times, with the innovative argument that this has not happened because of a lack of environmental awareness, but that it has happened despite people being aware of and frightened by the risks of technical progress for the environment. In order to overcome resistance to the project of modernity, he argued, it was necessary to destroy people's environmental awareness. This phenomenon was theorised by Fressoz under the term ‘de déshinbition modernatrice’.

Based on his approach, this paper analyses the conflict over a proposed lithium mine in Serbia, scrutinizing two opposing perspectives on the environment which confront each other within the conflict. The narratives used by the various actors to legitimise or delegitimise the lithium mine, with a focus on the environmental narrative, serve as research material for this study. Fressoz's theory is used to analyse whether this conflict can be understood as a continuation of the destruction of environmental awareness that has led to today's environmental damage. In this regard, the study will examine the role of environmental standards as a means of accepting environmental damage and reducing civil society resistance to the project.