Infrastructural frontiers: Terrains of resistance at the material edge of the state

The Infrastructural Conditions of (De-)Growth: The Case of the Internet

“…how can they be reimagined and reshaped as convivial technologies? Repairing and maintenance of infrastructures, as we shown in the case of submarine cable, are also crucially connected with social order and organisation (Dalakoglou, 2012;Schouten and Bachmann, 2022). When and for how long would it be legitimate to continue investing in their repair and maintenance considering the fact that we will have to coexist, probably for centuries, with the ruins of infrastructures designed on the premises of infinite growth?…”

Socio-spatial Infrastructures

“…Water infrastructure creates unequal spatial conditions (Meehan 2014), where households within or across spaces have restricted access to water due to the locations they live in. Water infrastructures can be seen as "material geographies of power" (Gandy 2004;Meehan 2014;Schouten and Bachmann 2022), where geophysical, biophysical, ecological, temporal, and spatial conditions shape the contested relation between communities, water infrastructures, and powerful state and non-state actors (Boelens et al 2016). These infrastructural, geographical, and social processes produce "hydrosocial territories", defined as spatially bound multi-scalar networks where human and non-human entities are aligned and defined through hierarchies (Boelens et al 2016).…”

“…However, over time, they resulted in disappointments due to poor operation and management, unattended grievances, and lack of technical expertise. Bakker, 2007;Budds, 2009;Sultana 2013;Krause and Strang 2016;Anand 2017;Goodwin 2018;Scoones et al 2019) and critical geography studies (for instance, Ferguson 1994Ferguson , 2012Gupta, 2001;Ferguson and Gupta 2002;Meehan 2014;Boelens et al 2016;Schouten and Bachmann 2022), this paper tries to link site-specific realities of water access with the stated purpose of diverse drinking-water infrastructures in policies.…”

Volume 26, Número 1

“…Estima-se que seja investido mundialmente em infraestrutura algo em torno de US$ 2,3 trilhões por ano; portanto, menos do que se argumenta que sejam necessários para atingir US$ 94 trilhões de investimento até 2040, para substituir antigas infraestruturas, face ao aumento de demandas e de usos (THACKER et al, 2019). Compreensão essa que legitimou narrativas de governos progressistas, notadamente na América Latina, África e Ásia, sob bases coloniais, imperialistas, neoextrativistas e espoliativas (BERNADS, 2022;SCHOUTEN;BACHMANN, 2022;LESUTIS, 2023).…”

“…Contudo, é preciso compreender que os investimentos em infraestrutura que vêm sendo disseminados e legitimados pelo GIHUB (RODRIGUES, 2021), não são infraestruturas produzidas "para [promover] a justiça ecológica e o florescimento coletivo" (PASTERNAK, et al, 2023, p. 3), mas para atender agentes corporativos, a partir da Os investimentos em infraestrutura constituem uma espécie de agenda de dominação política -uma dominação e extração do ambiente 'natural'. Dominação que vem se realizando por meio da mundialização das fronteiras de commodities, e a incorporação de territórios e regiões a economia capitalista, com a lógica inabalável de abrir, conectar e controlar (SCHOUTEN; BACHMANN, 2022;COSS-CORZO, 2023;LESUTIS, 2023).…”