IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/regstd/v53y2019i6p912-923.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Turbulent presents, precarious futures: urbanization and the deployment of global infrastructure

Author

Listed:
  • Alan Wiig
  • Jonathan Silver

Abstract

Understandings of global infrastructure within and between cities have primarily focused on two forms: the node and the corridor. Scholarship detailing the extensive growth of these infrastructures focus on standardization to account for the underlying networks configuring urbanization. However, standardization fails to account for the dynamic, contested and geographically uneven process of infrastructure deployment. Four generative concepts focus analysis on the stages of deployment: speculation, delineating, alignment and pivoting. After discussing China's Belt and Road Initiative as the underlying geoeconomic force driving the transformation of these systems, we present an illustrative case of the Central Corridor linking Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Kampala (Uganda) as emblematic of urbanization through global infrastructure. Concluding, we argue for a research agenda that places global infrastructure at the centre of how we understand urban transformation amid contemporary political–economic turbulence, one that emphasizes the contingent ways deployment proceeds.

Suggested Citation

  • Alan Wiig & Jonathan Silver, 2019. "Turbulent presents, precarious futures: urbanization and the deployment of global infrastructure," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(6), pages 912-923, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:53:y:2019:i:6:p:912-923
    DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2019.1566703
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00343404.2019.1566703
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00343404.2019.1566703?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dorota Mi³ek, 2022. "Disparities in the level of regional technical infrastructure development in Poland: multicriteria analysis," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 17(4), pages 1087-1113, December.
    2. Cidell, Julie, 2024. "Canals, containers, and corridors: Bringing river geomorphology to North America's largest inland port," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    3. Prince K Guma & Jethron Ayumbah Akallah & Jack Ong’iro Odeo, 2023. "Plug-in urbanism: City building and the parodic guise of new infrastructure in Africa," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(13), pages 2550-2563, October.
    4. Jorn Koelemaij, 2022. "The world’s number 1 real estate development exporter? Assessing announced transnational projects from the United Arab Emirates between 2003–2014," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(2), pages 226-246, March.
    5. Xiangming Chen, . "Change and continuity in special economic zones: a reassessment and lessons from China," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    6. Tom Goodfellow & Zhengli Huang, 2021. "Contingent infrastructure and the dilution of ‘Chineseness’: Reframing roads and rail in Kampala and Addis Ababa," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(4), pages 655-674, June.
    7. Giles Mohan, 2021. "Below the Belt? Territory and Development in China's International Rise," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(1), pages 54-75, January.
    8. Tim Summers, 2020. "Negotiating the boundaries of China’s Belt and Road Initiative," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(5), pages 809-813, August.
    9. Zhen Chen, 2021. "Research on the Innovation Imbalance Between Coastal and Inland Port Cities Along the Belt and Road: Based on the Three Helix Theory," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440219, February.
    10. Schulhof, Vera & van Vuuren, Detlef & Kirchherr, Julian, 2022. "The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): What Will it Look Like in the Future?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    11. Elke Beyer & Lucas-Andrés Elsner & Anke Hagemann & Philipp Misselwitz, 2021. "Industrial Infrastructure: Translocal Planning for Global Production in Ethiopia and Argentina," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 444-463.
    12. J Miguel Kanai & Seth Schindler, 2022. "Infrastructure-led development and the peri-urban question: Furthering crossover comparisons," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1597-1617, June.

    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:taf:regstd:v:53:y:2019:i:6:p:912-923. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRES20 .

    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.