About
I’m a University Assistant (postdoc) at the Institute of Social Ecology at BOKU University Vienna. Working at the intersection of political geography, economic geography and development studies, my research examines the political ecology of decarbonization in Latin America and Southern Europe. Drawing on multi-sited ethnography, I investigate how global energy and mineral transitions create new resource frontiers – and how these processes reproduce, transform, or create new forms of inequality and (uneven) development.
Based on extensive fieldwork in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, and Portugal, my current work focuses on lithium and rare earth extraction, hydrogen development and renewable energy. I examine how global production networks interact with local territorial dynamics, how communities respond to extractive pressures, and how transitions reconfigure development trajectories, territorial relations, and human-environment interactions (see my full list of publications). In 2026, I was awarded the Austrian Prize for Development Research.
After studying international economic studies at Innsbruck University and the National University of Córdoba (Argentina), I completed my PhD on the global lithium production network in 2021. I have since held postdoctoral positions at Innsbruck University, the University of Vienna and BOKU University Vienna, and visiting positions at universities in Argentina, Chile, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
I complement my academic work with storytelling, documentary photography and filmmaking. Together with the Argentine filmmaker Emiliano Bazzani, I produced the documentary film Bajo La Sal on lithium extraction and Indigenous communities in Argentina. My photo essays and articles have been published by Spiegel Online, Der Standard, ORF, Deutschlandfunk, Natur, Die Presse, and other media outlets. My images have been shown at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Museum am Rothenbaum Hamburg (MARKK), Gallerie di Piedicastello Trento, and several academic institutions. For my work bridging academic analysis and public debate I have received the Kurt Rothschild Award of the Austrian Karl-Renner-Institut.
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Academic Positions
Since 2025: Post-doctoral researcher, Institute of Social Ecology, BOKU University, Austria
2022–2025: Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna, Austria
2021–2022: Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Geography, Innsbruck University, Austria
2017–2021: PhD Geography, Department of Geography, Innsbruck University, Austria
Visiting Positions
2023: Extractivism.de project, University of Kassel, Germany
2022: Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation (CEDLA), University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2021: Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
2019: Instituto de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Museo, Catholic University of the North, Chile
2019: Department of Geography, National University of Tucumán, 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. (2025): Development in global production networks? Wind energy and socio-ecological conflicts in La Guajira, Colombia. Journal of Economic Geography: lbaf029. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbaf029
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
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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]
