Streetcar – Energy transition in the mountains

The Tram project investigates the perception of the energy transition and the construction of environmental values in a territory directly concerned by the materiality of the energy transition. The field of study chosen for this investigation involves several communes in the Allier and Puy-de-Dôme departments in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, located near a mining project to extract lithium, a critical metal in the energy transition.

The research is part of a wider scientific context on the materiality of the energy transition and its territorial implications. The 20th and 21st centuries have been marked by a global trend towards the commercial exploitation of natural resources, coupled with a growing awareness of their finitude. The term “natural resources” refers to any element of the non-human world to which a social group confers utility and value. They do not exist a priori, and only make sense within a specific social context. The rules that determine their value and the conditions under which they are regulated (access, use, redistribution, etc.) are constantly redefined by social interaction, knowledge regimes and hence power relations.

The current context makes the energy transition a powerful driving force for redefining what constitutes a resource, the values attributed to the environments in which these resources are found, and the participation of each territory in this transition. At sub-national, national and international levels, this transition must enable the implementation of acceptable energy sobriety, the decarbonization of energy matrices, and the efficiency of chosen systems.

By focusing our approach on three mountain territories affected by lithium mining or mining projects in France and the Iberian Peninsula, the project aims to understand how resources are socially (de)constructed in the narrative that is told about them, and how other social projects can be defended by invoking other values given to the environment.