Low-carbon Transitions and the Reconfiguration of Urban Infrastructure

Abstract

Citation for published item:fulkeleyD rrriet nd gst¡ n frotoD nes nd wssenD enne @PHIRA 9vowEron trnsitions nd the reon(gurtion of urn infrstrutureF9D rn studiesFD SI @UAF IRUIEIRVT F Further information on publisher's website:The nal denitive version of this article has been published in the journal Urban Studies, 51, 7, 2014 c SAGE Publications Ltd at the Urban Studies page: http://usj.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/ Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Low carbon transitions and the reconfiguration of urban infrastructure AbstractOver the past decade, a growing body of research has examined the role of cities in addressing climate change and the institutional and political challenges which they encounter. For the most part, in these accounts, the infrastructure networks, their material fabric, everyday practices and political economies, have remained unexamined. In this paper, we argue that this is a critical omission and develop an approach for understanding how urban responses to climate change both configure and are configured by infrastructure networks. Central to any such analysis is, we argue, the conception of how and why (urban) infrastructure networks undergo change. Focusing on urban energy networks and on the case of London, we argue for an analysis of the 'urban infrastructure regimes' and 'experiments' through which climate change is governed. We find that climate change experiments serve as a means through which dominant actors articulate and test new 'low carbon' logics for urban infrastructure development. We argue that experiments work by establishing new circuits, configuring actors in new sets of relations and through these means realizing the potential for addressing climate change in the city. At the same time, experiments become sites of conflict, a means through which new forms of urban circulation can be confined and marginalized, leaving dominant energy regimes (relatively) intact.

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