Erika Faigen

Erika Machacek, Ph.D., is a geographer with research focus on the value dimension in global value chains, minerals, and end-of-life materials. Her background spans from international development and geopolitics to environmental management, and economic/political geography. This is reflected in her recent research which involves rare earth elements, and the assessment of mineral occurrences, impediments to recycling rare earths from end-of-life light bulbs, the construct of mineral criticality, and governance dynamics in global value chains. Latter concerns the coordination and control mechanisms that determine negotiated outcomes of collaborative work and trade relationships between individuals engaged in manufacturing activities of firms that are geographically fragmented but organizationally integrated. Erika works at the Centre for Minerals and Materials at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. Her publications feature in Resources Policy, and in Resources, Conservation and Recycling.