Publications
BOOKS
- Blair, James J. A. 2023. Salvaging Empire: Sovereignty, Natural Resources, and Environmental Science in the South Atlantic. Cornell University Press.
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
*Indicates student
- Mulvaney, Dustin, James J. A. Blair, and Alida Cantor. 2025. “Sunrise at the Salton Sea: Environmental Justice, Land Use Change, and Hydrosocial Dynamics of Solar Energy Transitions in the Imperial Valley, California.” Sustainability Science 20 (June): 1433–52. .
- Cantor, Alida, Elizabeth Bartholomew*, Kate Berry, James J. A. Blair, Dustin Mulvaney, and Nancee Hunter. 2025. “Unseen Connections: A StoryMap Exploring Case Studies in Water-Energy Transitions and Environmental Justice.” The Geography Teacher 22 (2): 92–98. .
- Britton, Alexa*, Luis Olmedo, Christian A. Torres, and James J. A. Blair. 2024. “Hydrosocial Imaginaries of Green Extractivism: Water-Energy Transitions and Geothermal Lithium Development at the Salton Sea in Imperial Valley, California.” The Extractive Industries and Society 20 (December): 101567. .
- Blair, James J. A., Noel Vineyard*, Dustin Mulvaney, Alida Cantor, Ali Sharbat, Kate Berry, Elizabeth Bartholomew*, and Ariana Firebaugh Ornelas*. 2024. “Lithium and Water: Hydrosocial Impacts Across the Life Cycle of Energy Storage.” WIREs Water 11 (6): e1748.
- Blair, James J. A., Grant Gutierrez*, and Ramón Balcázar M.* 2023. “From Watershed Moment to Hydrosocial Movement: Patagonia Without Dams and the Free-Flowing Rivers Network in Chile.” Human Organization 82 (3): 288–303. .
- Blair, James J. A., Ramón M. Balcázar*, Javiera Barandiarán, and Amanda Maxwell. 2023. “The ‘Alterlives’ of Green Extractivism: Lithium Mining and Exhausted Ecologies in the Atacama Desert.” International Development Policy, 16 (April). .
- Blair, James J. A. 2022. “Tracking Penguins, Sensing Petroleum: ‘Data Gaps’ and the Politics of Marine Ecology in the South Atlantic.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 5 (1): 60–80. .
- Blair, James J. A. 2019. “South Atlantic Universals: Science, Sovereignty and Self-Determination in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).” Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society 2 (1): 220–36. .
- Blair, James J. A. 2019. “Splintered Hinterlands: Public Anthropology, Environmental Advocacy, and Indigenous Sovereignty.” Journal of Ethnobiology 39 (1): 32–49. .
- Blair, James J. A. 2017. “Settler Indigeneity and the Eradication of the Non-Native: Self-Determination and Biosecurity in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 23 (3): 580–602. .
REPORTS AND WHITE PAPERS
- Blair, James J. A., Emmett Hopkins, Tai Kondo Koester, Kate Berry, Alida Cantor, Dustin Mulvaney, Thea Riofrancos, Toni Symonds, Noel Vineyard, Bryce Sprauer, Bethani Turley, Thien-Kim Bui, Reva Butensky, and Lorena De La Puente Burlando. 2025. Building Community Power: Community Benefits Agreements Across the Global Energy Supply Chain. Climate and Community Institute.
- Blair, James J. A., Vanessa Galaviz, and Jordan R. Sisson. 2025. The Devil is in the Details: Environmental Health Impacts of the Hell’s Kitchen Lithium and Power Project. Comite Civico del Valle and Earthworks. .
- Blair, James J. A., Ramón Morales Balcázar*, Javiera Barandiarán, and Amanda Maxwell. 2022. Exhausted: How We Can Stop Lithium Mining from Depleting Water Resources, Draining Wetlands, and Harming Communities in South America. R: 21-10-A. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). .
EDITED COLLECTIONS
- Blair, James J. A. and Cindy Isenhour. 2022. “Negotiating the Crisis: Critical Perspectives on Climate Governance.” Society for Cultural Anthropology, Editors’ Forum: Hot Spots, June 23. .
- Colectivo Situaciones. 2011. 19 and 20: Notes for a New Social Protagonism. Edited by James J. A. Blair, Malav Kanuga, and Stevphen Shukaitis. Translated by Nate Holdren and Sebastián Touza. Minor Compositions and Common Notions (Autonomedia).
BOOK CHAPTERS
- Blair, James J. A., Ramón M. Balcázar*, Javiera Barandiarán, and Amanda Maxwell. 2023. “The ‘Alterlives’ of Green Extractivism: Lithium Mining and Exhausted Ecologies in the Atacama Desert.” In The Afterlives of Extraction: Alternatives and Sustainable Futures, edited by Filipe Calvo, Matthew Archer, and Asanda Benya. Brill Nijhoff.
- Blair, James J. A. 2022. “Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).” In The Palgrave Handbook of Global Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan. .
- Blair, James J. A. 2022. “Data Gaps: Penguin Science and Petrostate Formation in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).” In The Nature of Data: Infrastructures, Environments, Politics, edited by Jenny Goldstein and Eric Nost. University of Nebraska Press.
- Blair, James J. A. 2021. “Extractivismo Del Litio y El Problema de La Escala: Acción Climática Global y Justicia Ambiental Local.” In Salares Andinos: Ecología de Saberes Por La Protección de Nuestros Salares y Humedales, edited by Bárbara Jerez Henríquez, Sergio Uribe Sierra, and Ramón Morales Balcázar. Fundación Tantí. .
- Blair, James J. A. 2006. “Just Garments, a Worker-Run Factory Tries to Wring the Sweat out of the Apparel Business.” In Current Economic Issues, 10th ed. Dollars & Sense.
BOOK REVIEWS
- Blair, James J. A. 2015. Reseña bibliográfica Todo lo que necesitás saber sobre Malvinas por Federico Lorenz. Páginas 7 (13): 231-235.
- Blair, James J. A. 2014. Review Essay “Recent Studies of Oil in Latin America: Conflicted Consultancy, Peaked Patrimony and Neoliberalismo.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 19 (3): 531-537.
- Blair, James J. A. 2014. Review of Land by Derek Hall. The Journal of Agrarian Change. 14 (4): 595-598.
- Blair, James J. A. 2013. Review of The Invention of the Jewish Gaucho: Villa Clara and the Construction of Argentine Identity by Judith Noemí Freidenberg. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 18 (3): 539-541.
- Blair, James J. A. 2013. Review of Flammable Societies: Studies on the Socio-Economics of Oil and Gas edited by John-Andrew McNeish and Owen Logan. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE) 35 (1): 64-66.
PUBLIC WRITING
Blair, James J. A. 2025. “Building Community Power: In-Depth Report Analyzes Community Benefits Agreements Across the Global Energy Supply Chain.” Climate & Community Institute, October 22.
- Blair, James J. A. 2025. “OP-ED: Lithium Valley Must Empower Communities and Tribes.” Calexico Chronicle, September 15. .
- Cantor, Alida, James J. A. Blair, Dustin Mulvaney, Kate Berry, and Noel Vineyard*. 2024. “Water and renewable energy transitions.” The Geographer, Autumn
- Blair, James J. A. 2023. “The Falklands/Malvinas and Argentina’s Thatcherite Turn.” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), December 13.
- Blair, James J. A. 2023. “Avoiding Methodological Nationalism in a Disputed Overseas Territory.” University of Exeter: Research and Innovation Blog, July 18.
- Blair, James J. A. and Ramón Balcázar*. 2022. “Plurinational Climate Action: Environmental Governance Beyond Green Extractivism.” Society for Cultural Anthropology, Editors’ Forum: Hot Spots, June 23.
- Blair, James J. A. and Cindy Isenhour. 2022. “Introduction: Negotiating the Crisis: Critical Perspectives on Climate Governance.” Society for Cultural Anthropology, Editors’ Forum: Hot Spots, June 23.
- Maxwell, Amanda and James J. A. Blair. 2022. “Lithium Mining Must Not Dry Up the Atacama Desert.” NRDC Expert Blog. May 12.
- Carey-Webb, Jessica and James J. A. Blair. 2019. “Water Is a Right: The Parallel COP in Chile.” NRDC Expert Blog. December 23.
- Blair, James J. A. 2019. “Revisiting Nahuelbuta (2 of 2).” NRDC Expert Blog. August 9.
- Blair, James J. A. 2019. “Revisiting Nahuelbuta (1 of 2).” NRDC Expert Blog. August 9.
- Blair, James J. A. 2018. “International Day of Indigenous Peoples: Free Nahuelbuta.” NRDC Expert Blog. August 9.
- Blair, James J. A. and Andrea Becerra. 2018. “Chile’s River Protector Network Rejects Alto Maipo Complex.” NRDC Expert Blog. July 9.
- Blair, James J. A. and Jennifer Skene. 2018. “Indigenous Lands in Canada & Colombia on World Heritage List.” NRDC Expert Blog. July 2.
- Blair, James J. A. 2018. “NAFTA to Canada: Face the Facts on Tar Sands Tailings Ponds.” NRDC Expert Blog. May 10.
- Blair, James J. A. 2018. “Conservation and Community in Laguna San Ignacio.” NRDC Expert Blog. May 3.
- Blair, James J. A. 2018. “World Water Day: Chile’s New Wave of River Protectors.” NRDC Expert Blog. April 6.
- Blair, James J. A. 2018. “Chilean Courts Protect Patagonia’s Puelo and Cuervo Rivers.” NRDC Expert Blog. January 9.
- Blair, James J. A. 2017. “Tar Sands Tailings Ponds: Out of Canada’s Control.” NRDC Expert Blog. December 21.
- Blair, James J. A. and Andrés Anchondo. 2017. “Latin America 2017: Top Three Green Trends.” NRDC Expert Blog. December 19.
- Maxwell, Amanda, James J. A. Blair, and Andrea Becerra. 2017. “Protect Chile’s Patagonia with Clean Energy Alternatives to Mega Dams.” ESRI Story Map hosted on NRDC Expert Blog. February 7.
- Blair, James J. A. 2016. “The Limits of Environmentalism at Earth’s End: Reindeer Eradication and the Heritage of Hunting in the Sub-Antarctic.” Engagement, blog published by the Anthropology and Environment Society. December 20.
- Blair, James J. A. 2016. “Brexit’s South American Ripple Effect.” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). August 4.
- Blair, James J. A. 2014. “Treasure Islands? Oil and Gas in the Falklands.” The Economist. February 28.
- Blair, James J. A. 2013. “Self-Determined: Argentina, The Falklands and the UN.” The Economist. August 8.
- Blair, James J. A. 2013. “Referendum rewound: The Falkland Islands.” The Economist. June 21.
- Blair, James J. A. 2013. “Loud and clear: The Falklands referendum.” The Economist. Print edition, March 16-22: 40.
- Blair, James J. A. 2013. “Sending their message: The Falkland Islands’ referendum.” The Economist. March 11.