More-Than-Human Infrastructural Violence and Infrastructural Justice: A Case Study of the Chad–Cameroon Pipeline Project

Abstract

As a new wave of infrastructure expansion takes place globally, there has been a parallel turn to infrastructure in geographical research. This article responds to recent calls within this research for less human-centred engagement with the infrastructure turn. More specifically, this article aims to destablise anthropocentric discussions about infrastructural violence and infrastructural justice. Using the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project as a case study, we advance two main points.First, we show that infrastructural violence is not always directed at humans. Rather, all agents, objects, and conditions -from humans to fish to carbon sequestration -entangled in webs of relations within zones of infrastructural expansion risk being subjected to violence when new and existing infrastructures meet. To illustrate this point, we detail two examples of competitions between new and existing infrastructures along the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline route, which together reveal the various forms of violence experienced by the more-than-human world when new infrastructural arrangements are layered on top of already existing ones. Second, we advance debates on infrastructural justice by adopting a more-than-human perspective in our conceptualization of this term. Recent writing on infrastructural justice has reflected on efforts to repair and rebuild infrastructures to produce more just futures (Sheller 2018). Drawing on the observations and reflections of our fieldwork along the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline route, we argue that just infrastructure projects must not only be inclusive of marginalized human and nonhuman populations, but they must also avoid interfering with the infrastructural work done by nature to sustain the more-than-human world.

Infrastructural Decay

“…Infrastructural justice (Sheller 2018; Enns and Sneyd 2021) is implicated in maintenance work through the just and fair provision of services and care for preventing and mitigating decay, malfunction, and breakage. However, “avoid[ing] romanticizing maintenance and repair” (Mattern 2021, 110; emphasis original) requires a critical inquiry into forms of injustice and political power sustained through maintenance (Barnes 2017).…”

Inequalities in the production and use of cement and concrete, and their consequences for decarbonisation and sustainable development

“…When decisions on design and investment into infrastructure negatively affect a specific group(s) in society, this phenomenon is referred to as 'Infrastructural violence' (Rodgers and O'Neill 2012). Hence, infrastructure can play a significant role in perpetuating or exacerbating urban inequalities, resulting in extensive consequences for citizens (Rodgers andO'Neill 2012, Kumar et al 2021) and the environment (Enns and Sneyd 2021).…”

Book review forum: Infrastructure

“…Yet, at the same time, the reviews question the way Valverde invokes certain ideas – for example, scale, locality, neighbourhood, participation – whose meaning is not always self-evident for urban scholars. As they note, whilst Valverde suggests we need to acquire a better understanding of how the state and private sector ally through sometimes baroque contractual arrangements, there remains the key question of what we do with this knowledge, and how we seek infrastructural justice that extends beyond questions of the human costs of development to encompass multi-species justice (see Enns and Sneyd, 2021; Hubbard and Brooks, 2021).…”