IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijurrs/v32y2008i2p363-374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Political Infrastructures: Governing and Experiencing the Fabric of the City

Author

Listed:
  • COLIN McFARLANE
  • JONATHAN RUTHERFORD

Abstract

There has been a profusion of work in recent years exploring the links between infrastructure and the city. This has entailed a conceptualization of cities and infrastructure that recognizes their mutual constitution and the inherently political nature of networked urban infrastructure. In introducing this symposium, we find that a comparative approach to infrastructure can reveal a diversity of ways in which the urban fabric is produced, managed and distributed, and comes to matter in everyday life. We argue for a more globally informed conceptualization of the politics of infrastructure by exploring three key themes in the symposium: fragmentation, inequality and crisis. Résumé Ces dernières années, les études abondent sur les liens entre infrastructures et ville. Il en a découlé une conceptualisation des villes et des infrastructures qui prend en compte leur constitution mutuelle ainsi que la nature intrinsèquement politique des réseaux d’infrastructures urbains. Pour lancer ce symposium, nous estimons qu’une approche comparative des infrastructures est en mesure de révéler diverses façons dont le tissu urbain est produit, administré et réparti, et dont il devient important dans la vie au quotidien. Nous préconisons une conceptualisation des politiques d’infrastructures qui bénéficierait d’un éclairage à un échelon plus mondial tout en explorant trois thèmes clés du symposium : fragmentation, inégalité et crise.

Suggested Citation

  • COLIN McFARLANE & JONATHAN RUTHERFORD, 2008. "Political Infrastructures: Governing and Experiencing the Fabric of the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 363-374, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:32:y:2008:i:2:p:363-374
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00792.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00792.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00792.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colin McFarlane, 2008. "Sanitation in Mumbai's Informal Settlements: State, ‘Slum’, and Infrastructure," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(1), pages 88-107, January.
    2. Matthew Gandy, 2005. "Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 26-49, March.
    3. Jochen Monstadt, 2007. "Urban Governance and the Transition of Energy Systems: Institutional Change and Shifting Energy and Climate Policies in Berlin," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 326-343, June.
    4. Ilaria Giglioli & Erik Swyngedouw, 2008. "Let's Drink to the Great Thirst! Water and the Politics of Fractured Techno‐natures in Sicily," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 392-414, June.
    5. Jennifer Robinson, 2002. "Global and world cities: a view from off the map," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 531-554, September.
    6. Alana Boland, 2007. "The Trickle‐down Effect: Ideology and the Development of Premium Water Networks in China’s Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 21-40, March.
    7. Jean‐Marc Offner, 2000. "‘Territorial deregulation’: local authorities at risk from technical networks," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 165-182, March.
    8. Maria Kaika, 2004. "Interrogating the geographies of the familiar: domesticating nature and constructing the autonomy of the modern home," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 265-286, June.
    9. Stephen Graham, 2000. "Constructing premium network spaces: reflections on infrastructure networks and contemporary urban development," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 183-200, March.
    10. Mike Hodson & Simon Marvin, 2007. "Understanding the Role of the National Exemplar in Constructing ‘Strategic Glurbanization’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 303-325, June.
    11. Matti Siemiatycki, 2006. "Message in a Metro: Building Urban Rail Infrastructure and Image in Delhi, India," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 277-292, June.
    12. COLIN McFARLANE, 2008. "Governing the Contaminated City: Infrastructure and Sanitation in Colonial and Post‐Colonial Bombay," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 415-435, June.
    13. Dominique Lorrain, 2005. "Urban Capitalisms: European Models in Competition," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 231-267, June.
    14. Matthew Gandy, 2006. "Planning, Anti-planning and the Infrastructure Crisis Facing Metropolitan Lagos," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(2), pages 371-396, February.
    15. Michelle Kooy & Karen Bakker, 2008. "Technologies of Government: Constituting Subjectivities, Spaces, and Infrastructures in Colonial and Contemporary Jakarta," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 375-391, June.
    16. Maria Kaika & Erik Swyngedouw, 2000. "Fetishizing the modern city: the phantasmagoria of urban technological networks," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 120-138, March.
    17. Matthew Gandy, 2008. "Landscapes of Disaster: Water, Modernity, and Urban Fragmentation in Mumbai," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(1), pages 108-130, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julie Gamble, 2017. "Experimental Infrastructure: Experiences in Bicycling in Quito, Ecuador," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 162-180, January.
    2. COLIN McFARLANE, 2008. "Governing the Contaminated City: Infrastructure and Sanitation in Colonial and Post‐Colonial Bombay," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 415-435, June.
    3. Govind Gopakumar, 2014. "Experiments and Counter-Experiments in the Urban Laboratory of Water- Supply Partnerships in India," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 393-412, March.
    4. Idalina Baptista, 2015. "‘We Live on Estimates': Everyday Practices of Prepaid Electricity and the Urban Condition in Maputo, Mozambique," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 1004-1019, September.
    5. Laura Cesafsky, 2017. "How to Mend a Fragmented City: a Critique of ‘Infrastructural Solidarity'," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 145-161, January.
    6. Eduardo Ascensão, 2015. "The Slum Multiple: A Cyborg Micro-history of an Informal Settlement in Lisbon," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 948-964, September.
    7. Jochen Monstadt & Sophie Schramm, 2017. "Toward The Networked City? Translating Technological ideals and Planning Models in Water and Sanitation Systems in Dar es Salaam," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 104-125, January.
    8. Gabriella Y. Carolini, 2017. "Sisyphean Dilemmas of Development: Contrasting Urban Infrastructure and Fiscal Policy Trends in Maputo, Mozambique," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 126-144, January.
    9. Raffael Beier, 2020. "The world-class city comes by tramway: Reframing Casablanca’s urban peripheries through public transport," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(9), pages 1827-1844, July.
    10. Hillary Angelo & David Wachsmuth, 2015. "Urbanizing Urban Political Ecology: A Critique of Methodological Cityism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 16-27, January.
    11. Edgar Pieterse, 2010. "Cityness and African Urban Development," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-042, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Gordon MacLeod & Martin Jones, 2011. "Renewing Urban Politics," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(12), pages 2443-2472, September.
    13. María José Álvarez Rivadulla & Diana Bocarejo, 2014. "Beautifying the Slum: Cable Car Fetishism in Cazucá, Colombia," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 2025-2041, November.
    14. Franciszek Chwałczyk, 2020. "Around the Anthropocene in Eighty Names—Considering the Urbanocene Proposition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-33, May.
    15. Jonathan Rutherford, 2005. "Networks in Cities, Cities in Networks: Territory and Globalisation Intertwined in Telecommunications Infrastructure Development in Europe," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(13), pages 2389-2406, December.
    16. Nick Taylor Buck & Aidan While, 2017. "Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The UK Future Cities initiative," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(2), pages 501-519, February.
    17. Andrew Harris, 2012. "The Metonymic Urbanism of Twenty-first-century Mumbai," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(13), pages 2955-2973, October.
    18. Hanna Baumann & Haim Yacobi, 2022. "Introduction: Infrastructural stigma and urban vulnerability," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(3), pages 475-489, February.
    19. Aseela Haque, 2024. "Inhabiting Flyover Geographies: Flows, Interstices, and Walking Bodies in Karachi," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9.
    20. Ian R. Cook & Erik Swyngedouw, 2012. "Cities, Social Cohesion and the Environment: Towards a Future Research Agenda," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(9), pages 1959-1979, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:32:y:2008:i:2:p:363-374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0309-1317 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.