About
I’m a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna. My current research focuses on the political economy of decarbonization and the accompanying valorization of climate change commodities such as lithium, and green hydrogen in Latin America (Argentina, Chile and Colombia) and Southern Europe (Portugal and Spain). I’m interested in human-environment relations, questions of development and societal transformation (see my full list of publications).
After studying international economic studies at Innsbruck University and the National University of Córdoba (Argentina), I started my PhD in human geography, focusing on political ecology and the global lithium production network. I defended the thesis The lithium rush. Social-ecological conflicts over a strategic raw material in Argentina in February 2021 and published it later that same year with the German editorial oekom.
For the next 1.5 years I was part of an interdisciplinary FWF young research group project “Exploring values-based modes of production and consumption in the corporate food regime”. Besides, I was also part of the EU-Horizon 2020 project Highlands.3 - Collective Approach of Research and Innovation for Sustainable Development in Highlands. I’ve been a visiting researcher at the National University of Tucumán (Argentina), the Catholic University of the North (Chile), Utrecht University (Netherlands) and at the Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation (CEDLA) of the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). In 2023, I became fellow in the BMBF-funded project Extractivism.de, hosted at the University of Kassel and the University of Marburg.
I complement my scientific work with storytelling and documentary photography and filmmaking. In this context, I have e.g. documented the social-ecological effects of lithium mining in South America and Portugal, transhumance in northern Spain, traditional salt extraction in southern France or the life of cocoa and coffee farmers in Peru. Together with my Argentine friend and colleague Emiliano Bazzani, we produced the documentary film Bajo La Sal. My knowledge transfer-oriented contributions thus include several photo series, articles, interviews and a documentary film, and have been published by Spiegel Online, Der Standard, ORF, Deutschlandfunk, Natur, Die Presse, Puls24 News, Nürnberger Nachrichten and others. Have I raised your interest? Send me a message!
Career
2022 - Post-doctoral researcher, Universität Wien, Austria
2021 - 2022 Post-doctoral researcher, Universität Innsbruck, Austria
2021 Visiting researcher, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands
2017 - 2021 PhD Geography, Universität Innsbruck, Austria
2020 - Lecturer, Universität Innsbruck, Austria
2019 Visiting researcher, Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile
2019 Visiting researcher, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina
2011 - 2017 Diploma International Economic Sciences, Universität Innsbruck, Austria
2015 - 2016 Exchange year, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina
Selected Publications
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Dorn, F.M. (2021): Der Lithium-Rush. Sozial-ökologische Konflikte um einen strategischen Rohstoff in Argentinien. München: oekom.
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Dorn, Felix M. (2024): Towards a multi-color hydrogen production network? Competing imaginaries of development in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Energy Research & Social Science 110: 103457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103457
Dorn, Felix M.; Hafner, Robert; Plank, Christina (2022): Towards a climate change consensus: How mining and agriculture legitimize green extractivism in Argentina. The Extractive Industries and Society 11: 101130. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2022.101130
Dorn, Felix M. & Gundermann, Hans (2022): Mining companies, indigenous communities, and the state: The political ecology of lithium in Chile (Salar de Atacama) and Argentina (Salar de Olaroz-Cauchari). Journal of Political Ecology 29(1): 341–359. http://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5014
Dorn, Felix M. (2021): Inequalities in resource-based global production networks: resistance to lithium mining in Argentina (Jujuy) and Portugal (Região Norte). Journal für Entwicklungspolitik 37(4): 70-91. DOI: 10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-37-4-70
Dorn, F.M. & Ruiz Peyré, F. (2020): Lithium as a Strategic Resource: Geopolitics, Industrialization, and Mining in Argentina. Journal of Latin American Geography 19(4): 68-90. DOI: 10.1353/lag.2020.0101
Dorn, F.M. & Huber, C. (2020): Global Production Networks and natural resource extraction: adding a political ecology perspective. Geographica Helvetica 75(2): 183-193. DOI: 10.5194/gh-75-183-2020
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2023 - Argentinien: Wie viel Einfluss hat Milei? Interview. Puls24 News, 21.11.2023.
2023 - Gold rush in the lithium triangle. Photo exhibition. CEDLA, University of Amsterdam, 21.04.2023.
2023 - Bajo La Sal Screening and Q&A. WUK Vienna in cooperation with Attac, Wien, 15.03.2023.
2022 - Problematischer Run auf Lithium. Interview. ORF. 13.08.2022.
2021 - E-Mobilität. Der große Lithium-Rausch. Interview. Deutschlandfunk Kultur. 02.11.2021.
2021 - Bajo La Sal [Below the Salt]. National premiere & discussion. hofkino.berlin – Freiluftkino im FMP1, Berlin, 01.09.2021.
2021 - Es geht nicht um mehr Elektro-, sondern um weniger Autos. Die Presse. 02.04.2021.
2020 - Kampf um Lithium in den Hochanden. Der Standard. 21.11.2020.
2020 - Verflucht und unverzichtbar. Nürnberger Nachrichten. 17./18.10.2020.
2019 - Proteste gegen Rohstoffförderung: “No al Litio”. Interview. SPIEGEL Online. 19.06.2019.
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2023 The emerging global hydrogen production network. Competing imaginaries in Patagonia. UK Energy Research Centre. Newcastle, Great Britain, 21.06.2023.
2023 Energy transition and environmental conflict in the Andes. The case of lithium extraction in Argentina. CEDLA, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 21.04.2023.
2023 The (geo-)political economy of the energy transition - the case of lithium. Centre for Energy: Justice and Ethics Webinar series, Newcastle University, Newcastle, 02.02.2023.
2023 Die (Geo-)Politische Ökonomie der Energiewende - Grüner Extraktivismus in Lateinamerika. Gesellschaft für Geographie und Ethnologie, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, 15.12.2022.
2022 The global political economy of decarbonisation: Actors, drivers and spatial dimensions (with Dietz, Kristina; Staritz, Cornelia & Wojewska, Aleksandra). Workshop on emerging geographies of decarbonisation. Manchester, 17.10.2022.
2022 Klimawandel und Umweltkonflikte in den Anden. Lateinamerika - Politik und Gesellschaft. Fortbildungsseminar für Lehrkräfte an Gymnasien, Realschulen und FOS/BOS. Akademie für Politische Bildung, Tutzing, 12.07.2022.
2022 La fiebre del litio. Conflictos socio-ecológicos por una materia prima estratégica en Argentina. 70th Anniversary of Escuela Superior de Economia, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Ciudad de México, 11.05.2022.
2022 From green extractivism to social-ecological alternatives. Labex ITTEM – Innovations and territorial transitions in mountain regions, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, 29.03.2022.
2021 - Territorialities of transformation - From green extractivism to social-ecological alternatives. Utrecht University, Utrecht, 22.11.2021.
2019 - Neue Technik, neue Rohstoffe: Sozial-ökologische Perspektiven des Lithium-Booms in Argentinien. Deutscher Kongress für Geographie (DKG). Kiel.
2019 - Contested Lithiumscapes in Southamerica - Nature, Control and Power in the Lithium-Triangle. 2nd Austrian Conference on International Resource Politics: Resources for a social-ecological transformation. Innsbruck.
2018 - El Oro Blanco - La Puna Argentina entre estilos de vida tradicionales y minería del litio. Workshop Internacional Extractivismo Minero en el Sur de los Andes. San Pedro de Atacama.
Interview im ORF: Proteste gegen Lithium-Bergbau in Argentinien. Bildmaterial aus Bajo La Sal [Below the Salt]
