This item is accessible only to the Washington University community.
Off-Campus WUSTL Users: Click the “Off-Campus Download” button below. You will be prompted to log in using your WUSTL Key.
Language
English (en)
Date of Award
5-1-2017
Author's Department
International and Area Studies
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Restricted
Abstract
This thesis examines the way Bolivians, especially those living around Salar de Uyuni, conceptualize the astounding mineral deposit in their backyard. Because the government project has not reached its industrial scale, the way lithium will affect the country is still uncertain. This uncertainty makes researching local and national perceptions of lithium at this moment particularly engaging. Questions about the potential benefits or challenges of this project generate answers based on a person’s past experience with extraction projects, confidence in the government’s ability to manage the project, and understandings of how this project could meet municipal, regional, or national needs. Through my research, I aimed to explore the salient themes that dominated conversations about lithium at national and local levels as Bolivians discussed the way lithium could impact their lives and the country at large. The questions that drove my research reflected a few themes that grew out of my understanding of Bolivian history, resource extraction, and indigeneity.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/m4zx-4j79
Mentor
Brett Gustafson
Recommended Citation
Greenberg, Gillian, "Treasures in the Salt Flats: Bolivian Perspectives on Lithium Extraction" (2017). Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses. 185.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/m4zx-4j79
Comments
Accessibility Notice: This document is a scanned text that has been automatically processed using Python's Tesseract Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine to provide a text alternative for assistive software. Formatting or character recognition discrepancies may exist.