From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer

Since the expropriation of 1938, oil has occupied a central place in the Mexican social imaginary, strongly linked to nationalism. Despite time and changes in the economic model, oil continued to be part of the country's magma, providing legitimacy to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (P...

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Autor principal: Morales Rubio, Josefat Raul
Formato: Artículo revista
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: Universidad Nacional de Rosario 2026
Materias:
Oil
lithium
social imaginary
extractivism
Acceso en línea:https://relasp.unr.edu.ar/index.php/revista/article/view/173
Aporte de:
RELASP de Universidad Nacional de Rosario
id I15-R205-article-173
record_format ojs
spelling I15-R205-article-1732026-04-27T03:44:49Z From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer Morales Rubio, Josefat Raul Oil lithium social imaginary extractivism Oil lithium social imaginary extractivism Since the expropriation of 1938, oil has occupied a central place in the Mexican social imaginary, strongly linked to nationalism. Despite time and changes in the economic model, oil continued to be part of the country's magma, providing legitimacy to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) governments for many years. Likewise, with the discovery of considerable lithium reserves, the actual Mexican Government seeks to monopolize its exploitation, creating a state-owned company, as PEMEX used to do with oil. Furthermore, the Government has generated a nationalist discourse that tends to place lithium within the social imaginary, as the PRI did years ago with oil. Based on the theoretical proposal of Cornelius Castoriadis and the differentiation between social theory and social imaginary proposed by Charles Taylor, this paper presents how the Mexican government has used extractive products, oil and lithium, to legitimize itself, favoring their incorporation into the social imaginary. Since the expropriation of 1938, oil has occupied a central place in the Mexican social imaginary, strongly linked to nationalism. Despite time and changes in the economic model, oil continued to be part of the country's magma, providing legitimacy to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) governments for many years. Likewise, with the discovery of considerable lithium reserves, the actual Mexican Government seeks to monopolize its exploitation, creating a state-owned company, as PEMEX used to do with oil. Furthermore, the Government has generated a nationalist discourse that tends to place lithium within the social imaginary, as the PRI did years ago with oil. Based on the theoretical proposal of Cornelius Castoriadis and the differentiation between social theory and social imaginary proposed by Charles Taylor, this paper presents how the Mexican government has used extractive products, oil and lithium, to legitimize itself, favoring their incorporation into the social imaginary. Universidad Nacional de Rosario 2026-04-25 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion application/pdf https://relasp.unr.edu.ar/index.php/revista/article/view/173 10.35305/rr.v7i11.173 Revista Euro latinoamericana de Análisis Social y Político (RELASP); Vol. 7 Núm. 11 (2025); 72-96 2683-7420 2683-7420 spa https://relasp.unr.edu.ar/index.php/revista/article/view/173/228 Derechos de autor 2026 Revista Euro latinoamericana de Análisis Social y Político (RELASP) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es
institution Universidad Nacional de Rosario
institution_str I-15
repository_str R-205
container_title_str RELASP
language Español
format Artículo revista
topic Oil
lithium
social imaginary
extractivism
Oil
lithium
social imaginary
extractivism
spellingShingle Oil
lithium
social imaginary
extractivism
Oil
lithium
social imaginary
extractivism
Morales Rubio, Josefat Raul
From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer
topic_facet Oil
lithium
social imaginary
extractivism
Oil
lithium
social imaginary
extractivism
author Morales Rubio, Josefat Raul
author_facet Morales Rubio, Josefat Raul
author_sort Morales Rubio, Josefat Raul
title From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer
title_short From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer
title_full From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer
title_fullStr From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer
title_full_unstemmed From Oil to Lithium: Extractivism in the Mexican Social Imaginary as Political Legitimizer
title_sort from oil to lithium: extractivism in the mexican social imaginary as political legitimizer
description Since the expropriation of 1938, oil has occupied a central place in the Mexican social imaginary, strongly linked to nationalism. Despite time and changes in the economic model, oil continued to be part of the country's magma, providing legitimacy to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) governments for many years. Likewise, with the discovery of considerable lithium reserves, the actual Mexican Government seeks to monopolize its exploitation, creating a state-owned company, as PEMEX used to do with oil. Furthermore, the Government has generated a nationalist discourse that tends to place lithium within the social imaginary, as the PRI did years ago with oil. Based on the theoretical proposal of Cornelius Castoriadis and the differentiation between social theory and social imaginary proposed by Charles Taylor, this paper presents how the Mexican government has used extractive products, oil and lithium, to legitimize itself, favoring their incorporation into the social imaginary.
publisher Universidad Nacional de Rosario
publishDate 2026
url https://relasp.unr.edu.ar/index.php/revista/article/view/173
work_keys_str_mv AT moralesrubiojosefatraul fromoiltolithiumextractivisminthemexicansocialimaginaryaspoliticallegitimizer
first_indexed 2026-05-04T05:06:23Z
last_indexed 2026-05-04T05:06:23Z
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