Infrastructures of Society, Anthropology of

Abstract

The concept of infrastructure refers to the embedded, often invisible technical support structures that help to deliver services to a population or organization, most commonly water, energy, and information. Infrastructures mediate human interaction and shape social organization. Anthropology has developed a relational perspective on infrastructures analyzing them as the ongoing interweaving of embodied social and political choices, moral orders, and technical networks. This approach has much to offer for anthropologists, because it is largely based on ethnographic research, shows a deep commitment to materiality as practice and provides a productive way of thinking through the changing relations of center and periphery. It is an area of research with important intersections into the information sciences and urban studies.

Journeys, Mobility and Flows: Accessibility Work in Berlin’s Public Transport

“…Commonly understood as large technological systems supporting the movement and distribution of water, waste, electricity, data, and persons, infrastructures as a distinct topic of study have received growing attention in recent years (Harvey et al 2017;Jensen and Morita 2017;Larkin 2013;Niewöhner 2015). Yet they are highly embedded and as such often unremarkable in daily life (Star 1999), while spanning a wide range of scales, locations, functional interrelations and temporalities.…”

“…Ethnographic studies of infrastructures require methodological choices about what to observe and with whom to speak. Different emphasis between these possibilities are often tagged as centered and de-centered approaches in ethnographic studies of infrastructure (Larkin 2013;Niewöhner 2015). These methodological choices are informed by, and amplify, assumptions about what infrastructures are, what they do, and what is interesting about them -in this sense, methods are performative of infrastructure (Law 2004).…”

Public perceptions of networked infrastructure

“…A consequence of infrastructure's relationality is the difficulty in distinguishing the co-ordinated aspects of infrastructure, rendering it invisible to some users (Star 1999). This makes it hard to engage publics, because many people do not consider how infrastructure influences their social and material arrangements (Niewöhner 2015). However, this invisibility is not universal, it can vary dramatically across infrastructure sectors, between places (Coutard 2008) and between users; for example, many people in fuel poverty are acutely aware of the energy system (Middlemiss and Gillard 2015).…”

The Material Stock–Flow–Service Nexus: A New Approach for Tackling the Decoupling Conundrum

“…The importance of infrastructures for providing services and stabilizing practices of production and consumption [160], for future energy system transformations [59] or for reaching climate-change mitigation targets [151,152] has been acknowledged. Lock-ins into emission-intensive pathways resulting from existing stocks have recently be analyzed [90].…”

“…Sustainability transformation research builds on approaches such as the "sociotechnical transition" concept [153][154][155] as well as analyses of technological transitions related to energy [151,[156][157][158][159]. The importance of infrastructures for providing services and stabilizing practices of production and consumption [160], for future energy system transformations [59] or for reaching climate-change mitigation targets [151,152] has been acknowledged. Lock-ins into emission-intensive pathways resulting from existing stocks have recently be analyzed [90].…”