Infrastructures and Social Complexity: A Companion

Description

Contemporary forms of infrastructural development herald alternative futures through their incorporation of digital technologies, mobile capital, international politics and the promises and fears of enhanced connectivity. In tandem with increasing concerns about climate change and the anthropocene, there is further an urgency around contemporary infrastructural provision: a concern about its fragility, and an awareness that these connective, relational systems significantly shape both local and planetary futures in ways that we need to understand more clearly. Offering a rich set of empirically detailed and conceptually sophisticated studies of infrastructural systems and experiments, present and past, contributors to this volume address both the transformative potential of infrastructural systems and their stasis. Covering infrastructural figures; their ontologies, epistemologies, classifications and politics, and spanning development, urban, energy, environmental and information infrastructures, the chapters explore both the promises and failures of infrastructure. Tracing the experimental histories of a wide range of infrastructures and documenting their variable outcomes, the volume offers a unique set of analytical perspectives on contemporary infrastructural complications. These studies bring a systematic empirical and analytical attention to human worlds as they intersect with more-than-human worlds, whether technological or biological. Cover......Page 1 Half Title......Page 2 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Table of Contents......Page 6 List of figures......Page 10 List of contributors......Page 11 Acknowledgment......Page 18 1. Introduction: Infrastructural complications......Page 20 Turning to infrastructure: some inversions......Page 22 But what is infrastructure? A minimal point of entry......Page 24 Complexity, complication, experimentation......Page 26 Orders and interstices: on the politics of infrastructure......Page 30 Infrastructural visions......Page 33 The structure of the collection......Page 36 References......Page 37 PART I: Development infrastructures......Page 42 Reference......Page 45 2. Keyword: infrastructure: How a humble French engineering term shaped the modern world......Page 46 Infrastructure as a keyword......Page 47 A specialist term: infrastructure emerges in the early twentieth century......Page 48 A generic term: infrastructure’s rise in the post-war years......Page 50 A plastic word: infrastructure enters the mainstream......Page 52 Conclusion: infrastructure in social theory......Page 53 References......Page 55 3. Surveying the future perfect: Anthropology, development and the promise of infrastructure......Page 59 Infrastructural time......Page 60 The future perfect of land reform......Page 62 Infrastructural past......Page 65 Anthropology without infrastructure......Page 66 Notes......Page 67 References......Page 68 4. Containment and disruption: The illicit economies of infrastructural investment......Page 70 Calling a new infrastructure into being......Page 72 The disruptive force of prior relations......Page 75 Political will or technical solution......Page 76 The illicit economies of infrastructural investment......Page 79 Notes......Page 80 References......Page 81 5. Infrastructure reform in Indigenous Australia: From mud to mining to military empires......Page 83 Where mud-fed mines meet mud-filled roads......Page 85 ‘I have no choice’......Page 88 Mining, Aboriginal lands and militarisation......Page 89 Notes......Page 90 References......Page 92 The World Society’......Page 95 Infrastructure fetishism and fetishes as infrastructure......Page 97 the contents come later”......Page 99 Infrastructural loop: scattering effects and future promises......Page 101 Notes......Page 103 References......Page 104 Newspaper articles......Page 105 PART II: Urban infrastructures......Page 106 References......Page 109 Introduction......Page 110 Political technologies......Page 112 Conclusion......Page 117 Notes......Page 118 References......Page 119 Introduction: the publicization of infrastructures?......Page 121 Urban infrastructure transitions in question......Page 123 The shifting settings of urban infrastructural politics......Page 125 Which pragmatist material politics of urban infrastructuring?......Page 128 Conclusion: the political unruliness of infrastructures?......Page 130 Notes......Page 131 References......Page 132 9. Remediating infrastructure: Tokyo’s commuter train network and the new autonomy......Page 134 Revisiting enclosures......Page 135 Distributed autonomy......Page 139 From commuter to consumer/individual......Page 141 A new autonomy......Page 143 Conclusion......Page 144 Bibliography......Page 145 Introduction......Page 147 Detaching the city (Jakarta, Indonesia)......Page 149 Twinning the city (Maputo, Mozambique)......Page 152 Notes......Page 157 Reference......Page 158 11. Ecologies in beta: The city as infrastructure of apprenticeships......Page 160 The city liberated......Page 164 Open-source infrastructures......Page 166 Ecologies in beta......Page 168 Infrastructures of experiment and infrastructures of apprenticeship......Page 171 References......Page 174 PART III: Energy infrastructures......Page 176 References......Page 179 An awakening......Page 180 Infrastructures and non-humans......Page 181 Seismic instability......Page 182 Infrastructuring the otherwise......Page 184 More-than-human de-(ar-)rangements......Page 186 Conclusion......Page 189 Notes......Page 190 References......Page 191 13. Revolutionary infrastructure......Page 193 Infrastructure as potential energy......Page 194 Infrastructure, carbon epistemics, revolution......Page 197 Antidotes and prototypes......Page 201 References......Page 204 14. Infrastructure and the earth......Page 206 Seismology: Istanbul......Page 208 Hydrogeology: Tbilisi......Page 212 Conclusions......Page 214 References......Page 215 15. Off the grid: Infrastructure and energy beyond the mains......Page 217 Infrastructure off the grid......Page 218 Decentralised infrastructures......Page 219 On/off the grid......Page 222 Living labs......Page 224 References......Page 227 PART IV: Environmental infrastructures......Page 230 References......Page 232 Introduction......Page 234 Terrestrializing the delta: the Chao Phraya Dam......Page 236 Water infrastructures and the drainage basin model......Page 237 The drainage basin as an ecological unit......Page 239 Urban watershed and an ecology of urban patchworks......Page 241 Conclusion......Page 243 References......Page 244 17. Multinatural infrastructure: Phnom Penh sewage......Page 246 Sewage......Page 247 Bacteria......Page 249 Loops of nutrition......Page 252 Trees......Page 253 Dislodging an infrastructural worldview......Page 256 References......Page 259 Introduction......Page 261 Burial......Page 262 Resurrection......Page 265 Conclusions......Page 267 References......Page 269 19. Evidence, infrastructure and worth......Page 272 Deployment 1: Knowledge infrastructure and evidence......Page 274 Deployment 2: Orders of worth......Page 276 Case study: Biotechnology and GM controversies......Page 278 Conclusions......Page 281 References......Page 282 PART V: Infrastructural figures......Page 286 References......Page 289 20. When infrastructures fail: An ethnographic note in the middle of an Aegean crisis......Page 290 A moment in the Aegean crisis: July 2015, Lesvos......Page 295 Conclusion......Page 299 References......Page 300 21. Infrastructure as gesture......Page 303 Infrastructures of first oil......Page 306 A square suspended......Page 309 Pausing and gesturing......Page 311 Notes......Page 312 References......Page 313 22. The black list: On infrastructural indeterminacy and its reverberations......Page 315 Infrastructuring deportability......Page 317 Falling into the list......Page 318 The indeterminacy of infrastructure......Page 321 Conclusion......Page 323 Bibliography......Page 325 Infrastructural inversion in biodiversity?......Page 328 Bioprospecting and emergent nature/culture......Page 329 Performativity and emergence as integral to the database......Page 330 Infrastructural inversion and colonialism/postcolonialism in Indian biodiversity and traditional knowledge......Page 331 Postcolonialism and democracy in databasing projects......Page 332 Herbarium work: “Uttarakhand is botanized”......Page 333 Postcolonialism in play: inclusion of people......Page 334 What is a universal name? Inclusion of nature......Page 335 Parataxonomy and the politics of classification......Page 336 Infrastructural inversion and reflexivity in biodiversity databasing projects......Page 337 References......Page 339 Introduction......Page 342 Household as element......Page 343 The household as a formal administrative unit......Page 344 The household under the family-household model......Page 345 International application......Page 350 Final comparative questions......Page 351 References......Page 352 PART VI: Digital infrastructures......Page 354 What is a “knowledge infrastructure”?......Page 358 Measurement and climate knowledge: a little history......Page 360 From measurement to modeling: computer simulation......Page 362 Global knowledge and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change......Page 363 Downscaling the infrastructure: from useful data to usable knowledge......Page 365 Bibliography......Page 368 Introduction: ‘Actions speak for themselves’......Page 371 On plans and actions......Page 373 Green and digital......Page 375 Information (eco)systems......Page 378 Actions and outcomes......Page 380 Conclusion......Page 381 Notes......Page 382 References......Page 383 27. Machinic operations: Data structuring, healthcare and governmentality......Page 385 The public sector IT project: a politics of disruption?......Page 386 Problematising ‘information’......Page 388 Data structuring......Page 389 The double binding of enunciation......Page 392 Conclusion......Page 394 Notes......Page 395 Bibliography......Page 396 28. Infrastructures in name only?: Identifying effects of depth and scale......Page 398 Mapping infrastructures in names only......Page 399 Names as cluster points......Page 402 DevOps’ and continuous deployment: when operating becomes naming......Page 405 Conclusion......Page 406 Notes......Page 407 References......Page 408 Introduction......Page 410 When is an infrastructure?......Page 411 The knowledge product......Page 413 The division of cognitive labor......Page 416 New knowledge objects......Page 418 Towards new knowledge infrastructures......Page 419 Notes......Page 420 References......Page 421 Index......Page 423