Constructing criticality by classification: Expert assessments of mineral raw materials
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Constructing criticality by classification : Expert assessments of mineral raw materials. / Machacek, Erika.
I: Geoforum, Bind 84, 2017, s. 368-377.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Constructing criticality by classification
T2 - Expert assessments of mineral raw materials
AU - Machacek, Erika
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - This paper explores the role of expertise, the nature of criticality, and their relationship to securitisation as mineral raw materials are classified. It works with the construction of risk along the liberal logic of security to explore how "key materials" are turned into "critical materials" in the bureaucratic practice of classification: Experts construct material criticality in assessments as they allot information on the materials to the parameters of the assessment framework. In so doing, they ascribe a new set of connotations to the materials, namely supply risk, and their importance to clean energy, legitimizing a criticality discourse.Specifically, the paper introduces a typology delineating the inferences made by the experts from their produced recommendations in the classification of rare earth element criticality. The paper argues that the classification is a specific process of constructing risk. It proposes that the expert bureaucratic practice of classification legitimizes (i) the valorisation that was made in the drafting of the assessment framework for the classification, and (ii) political operationalization when enacted that might have (non-)distributive implications for the allocation of public budget spending.
AB - This paper explores the role of expertise, the nature of criticality, and their relationship to securitisation as mineral raw materials are classified. It works with the construction of risk along the liberal logic of security to explore how "key materials" are turned into "critical materials" in the bureaucratic practice of classification: Experts construct material criticality in assessments as they allot information on the materials to the parameters of the assessment framework. In so doing, they ascribe a new set of connotations to the materials, namely supply risk, and their importance to clean energy, legitimizing a criticality discourse.Specifically, the paper introduces a typology delineating the inferences made by the experts from their produced recommendations in the classification of rare earth element criticality. The paper argues that the classification is a specific process of constructing risk. It proposes that the expert bureaucratic practice of classification legitimizes (i) the valorisation that was made in the drafting of the assessment framework for the classification, and (ii) political operationalization when enacted that might have (non-)distributive implications for the allocation of public budget spending.
KW - Assessment
KW - Classification
KW - Criticality
KW - Expert
KW - Rare earth elements
KW - Supply risk
U2 - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.03.028
DO - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.03.028
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85017405586
VL - 84
SP - 368
EP - 377
JO - Geoforum
JF - Geoforum
SN - 0016-7185
ER -
ID: 178888257