This book is about urban infrastructuring as the processes linking infrastructural configurations and their components with other social, ecological, political, or otherwise defined systems as part of urbanisation and globalisation in the Global South. It suggests that infrastructuring is essential to urbanisation and that it is entangled with socio-spatio-ecological transformations that often have negative outcomes over time. Furthermore, it argues that infrastructuring requires an ethical positioning in research and practice in order to enhance infrastructural sustainability in the face of intersecting environmental, social and economic crises.
“Urban Infrastructuring” is developed in three parts. First, it identifies infrastructural entanglements across various urban and urbanising settings in the Global South. Second, it highlights some of the damaging processes and outcomes of urban infrastructuring and argues that the absence, presence and transformation of infrastructure in the Global South (re-)produces socioecological injustice in the short- and long term. Third, the book argues for a shift of infrastructuring agendas towards more just and sustainable interventions. It suggests that an ethico-politics of care should be embedded in systems approaches to infrastructuring in both research and practice.
The edited volume contains contributions from authors with backgrounds in a variety of academic disciplines from the natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities. It provides valuable insights for anyone concerned with the study, design, planning, implementation and maintenance of urban infrastructures to enhance human well-being and sustainability. It will be of interest to researchers and urban decision-makers alike.
Author(s): Deljana Iossifova, Alexandros Gasparatos, Stylianos Zavos, Yahya Gamal, Yin Long
Series: Sustainable Development Goals Series, 11
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 330
City: Singapore
Acknowledgements
Contents
Contributors
1: Urban Infrastructuring: Trajectories of Infrastructural Entanglement in Cities of the Global South
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Infrastructural Turn in the Social Sciences: Configuring Infrastructural Inversions
1.3 The Infrastructural Paradox: Balancing Promises, Inequalities, Sustainability and Decay
1.4 Beyond Singular Infrastructural Approaches
1.5 Aims, Structure and Content of the Book: Urban Infrastructural Entanglements, Injustices and Trajectories
1.5.1 Aims and Structure
1.5.2 Contents of the Edited Volume
References
Part I: Infrastructural Entanglements
2: Fragmented Infrastructure Systems in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: Assessment from an Environmental Resource Nexus and Public Health Perspective
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Environmental Pollution and Public Health in Ulaanbaatar
2.2.1 Air Pollution
2.2.2 Water Scarcity and Pollution
2.2.3 Soil Pollution
2.3 Policy and Planning Responses
2.4 Conclusions
References
3: What Lies Behind the Acute Crises: The Social and Infrasystems Links with Disasters in Brazil
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Methods
3.2.1 Variables
3.2.2 Mathematical Procedure
3.3 Results and Discussion
3.3.1 The Brazilian Panorama of the Anachronic Modernisation
3.3.2 Is the Frequency of Emergency Decrees in Brazil a Significant Phenomenon?
3.3.3 What is the Spatial Distribution of These Practices?
3.3.4 Is it Possible to Infer Association or Causal Links Between the Number of Disaster Decrees and Relevant Socioeconomic, Sociospatial and Health Variables?
3.3.5 Is There a Correlation Between the Availability of Health Infrastructures and the Number of Disasters Declared by a Municipality?
3.4 Conclusions
References
4: Teaching, Therapy, and Tourism: Infrastructural Transformations in Contemporary Chinese Theatre
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Analytical Approach
4.3 Small Theatres
4.3.1 Juyin Theatre
4.3.2 The Penghao Theatre
4.3.3 The Inside-Out Theatre
4.4 Monumental Theatres
4.4.1 National Centre for the Performing Arts
4.4.2 Tianqiao Performing Arts Centre
4.4.3 Mei Lanfang Grand Theatre
4.5 Traditional Theatres
4.5.1 The Guanghe Theatre
4.5.2 Lao She Teahouse
4.6 Discussion
4.7 Conclusions
References
5: The Infrastructures of Land: Heterogeneous Land Administration in Urban Ghana
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Methodology
5.3 Customary Land Administration
5.4 Statutory Land Administration
5.5 Challenges to Heterogeneous Land Administration
5.6 Conclusions
References
6: Land Market Procedures and Market Preferences in Land Use Change: The Case of Greater Cairo
6.1 Introduction: Decision-Making, Land Use, and Infrastructure
6.2 Overview: Procedures and Material Benefit in Land Use Analyses
6.3 Procedural Preferences: An Observational Approach
6.3.1 Methodology and Methods
6.4 Case Study: Greater Cairo
6.4.1 Sampling
6.4.2 Questionnaire: Greater Cairo
6.4.2.1 Land Markets Categories
6.4.2.2 Motivations
6.4.2.3 Land Plot Attributes
6.4.2.4 Hypothetical Land Plot Cases
6.5 Results and Analysis
6.5.1 Market Preferences
6.5.2 Decision Point
6.5.3 Motivational Regulations
6.5.4 Correlation Analysis: Decision Point and Motivations
6.5.5 Results Limitations: Sampling, Reliability, and Validity
6.6 Conclusions and Limitations
6.7 Further Research
References
7: Sustainability of Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems in Bolivian Cities: Challenges, Opportunities, Responses, and Implications for Transition Pathways
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Methodology
7.2.1 Research Approach
7.2.2 Study Site
7.2.3 Data Collection and Analysis
7.3 Results
7.3.1 Main Sustainability Issues in Bolivian MSWM
7.3.2 Governance Dimension
7.3.2.1 Institutions and Policies
7.3.2.2 Financial Sustainability
7.3.2.3 Inclusivity
7.3.3 Operational Dimension
7.3.3.1 Collection
7.3.3.2 Recycling and Recovery
7.3.3.3 Disposal
7.4 Discussion
7.4.1 Future Pathways for MSWM Sustainability Transitions in Bolivia
7.4.2 Current and Future Implications for Urban Health
7.4.2.1 Exposure Through Waste Accumulation in Food Chains and the Environment
7.4.2.2 Exposure in Areas with Poor Service Provision or Near Waste Management Facilities
7.4.2.3 Exposure Through Formal and Informal Livelihood Activities
7.5 Conclusion
References
Part II: Infrastructuring (Unequal) Relationships
8: Building Inequality: Infrastructure and Intra-urban Inequality in the Capitalist City
8.1 Introduction
8.2 The City as a Productive Force
8.3 The Production of Uneven Urban Space
8.3.1 The Neoclassical Economics Explanation
8.3.2 The Neo-Marxian Explanation
8.4 Implications for Intra-urban Inequality
8.5 Mechanisms of Infrastructural Exclusion
8.5.1 Lack of Physical Access
8.5.2 Expenditure Relative to Income
8.5.3 Institutional Constraints
8.5.4 Social Stratification Barriers
8.6 Conclusions
References
9: Creating Age-Friendly Informal Settlements? Challenges to Enabling Health and Well-being for Older People in Informal Urban Harare
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Healthy Ageing and Well-being in Zimbabwe’s Urban Environment
9.3 Methodology
9.3.1 Data Collection
9.3.2 Case Study Sites
9.4 Findings
9.4.1 Home Infrastructure and Environment
9.4.2 Healthcare Infrastructure and Services
9.4.3 Outdoor Spaces and Walkability
9.5 Discussion
9.6 Conclusions
References
10: Transitioning Infrastructures and Socio-Cultural Practices at the Idol-Making Cluster of Kolkata’s Kumartuli
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Methodology
10.3 Results
10.3.1 The Kumartuli Neighbourhood: Spatial and Socio-Cultural Organisation
10.3.2 Spatial Patterns Within Individual Workshops
10.4 Discussion
10.5 Conclusion
References
11: Construction Site Assemblages: Relationships of Synergy and Exploitation in the (Re)configuration of Lekki, Nigeria
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Background
11.3 Methodology
11.4 Findings: Lekki’s Construction site Assemblages
11.5 Discussion
11.6 Conclusions
References
12: One Size Does Not Fit All: Sanitation Solutions in Shanghai’s Older and Under-Serviced Inner-City Neighbourhoods
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Methodology
12.2.1 Study Sites
12.2.2 Data Collection and Analysis
12.3 Results
12.3.1 Sanitation Transformation in Shanghai
12.3.2 Modes of Infrastructural Transformation in Shanghai
12.3.2.1 Demolish-and-Replace: Sanitation Transformation in a Shikumen
12.3.2.2 Retrofitting Sanitation in a New Style Lilong
12.4 Discussion
12.4.1 Implications for Sanitation sustainability in China
12.4.2 Implications for Sustainable Sanitation Transitions in Rapidly Urbanising Contexts
12.5 Conclusions
References
13: Manufacturing Open Defecation Free Cities: Punishing People and Collapsing Toilets, Unpacking Paradoxes of Mumbai’s Sanitation Landscape
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Everyday Infrastructural Violence and Acts of Resistance
13.3 Methodology
13.4 Social Audit of Toilets, M-East Ward, Mumbai
13.4.1 Proclaiming ODF
13.4.2 Public Toilet Collapse in Mandala
13.4.3 Toilets Built by the Community Groups in Mandala
13.5 Discussion
13.6 Conclusion
References
Part III: Infrastructuring Just Trajectories
14: Modelling Chinese Urban Residential Stock Turnover Uncertainties Using System Dynamics and Bayesian Statistical Inference
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Methodology
14.2.1 Stock Turnover Dynamics
14.2.2 Survival Model
14.2.3 Stock Turnover Model Structure and Equations
14.2.4 Bayesian Inference
14.2.4.1 Statistical Model
14.2.4.2 Bayesian Model Inference
14.2.4.3 Model Parameter Priors
14.2.4.4 MCMC Sampling and Posterior Distribution Calculation
14.2.4.5 Posterior Predictive Distribution
14.3 Results and Discussion
14.4 Model Limitations and Future Work
14.5 Conclusions
References
15: A Strategic Planning Problem: The Relationship Between Urban Transformation Outcomes and the Temporal Order of Planned Projects
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Urban Systems Modelling
15.2.1 Cellular Automata Modelling of Urban Processes
15.3 Methodology
15.3.1 The Study Site and Setting Up Starting Points for Scenario Simulation
15.3.2 Research Approach
15.3.3 Data Collection and Analysis Towards the Definition of Transition Rules
15.4 Results
15.4.1 Scenario 1: Education First
15.4.2 Scenario 2: Commercial First
15.4.3 Scenario 3: Maximising Commercial Use
15.4.4 Scenario 4: Maximising Education
15.5 Discussion
15.5.1 Data Availability
15.5.2 Computational Limitations
15.6 Conclusions
References
16: The Importance of Social Infrastructure in Supporting Physical Infrastructure and Enabling the Development of Sustainable Cities
16.1 Introduction
16.2 The Urban Context
16.3 International Initiatives
16.4 Problems and Solutions
16.4.1 Transport Infrastructure and City Form
16.4.2 Workplace Toilets
16.4.3 School Toilets
16.4.4 Toilet Management and Control
16.5 Conclusion
References
17: Architecture, Sanitation and COVID-19: Design Interventions in Resource-Limited Settings (Accra, Ghana)
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Methods
17.3 Findings: Interlinkages of Architecture, Public Health and Sanitation in Resource-Limited Settings
17.3.1 The Bathroom, the Architect and the Pandemic
17.3.2 COVID-19 Challenges in Sanitation
17.3.3 Shared Sanitation Facilities in Accra, Ghana
17.4 Discussion
17.4.1 Disease Transmission and Design at the Sanitation-User Interface
17.4.2 Gendered Practices of Sanitation and Hygiene
17.5 Conclusions
References
18: Speculative Futures of Global South Infrastructures
18.1 Introduction
18.1.1 Worldbuilding Design Toolkits
18.1.2 Infrastructure, Future Fictions, and the GS
18.1.3 Climate Change, Technological Change, Demographic Change
18.2 Infrastructure in GS SF
18.2.1 Recycling and Waste Management Infrastructures
18.2.2 Energy Infrastructures
18.2.3 Health and Food
18.3 Conclusion
References
19: Infrastructuring with Care in Cities of the Global South
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Systemic Views on Infrastructural configurations in Cities of the Global South
19.2.1 Risky Perspectives on Heterogeneous Infrastructure
19.2.2 Infrastructuring Responsibilities
19.2.3 Complicit Infrastructural Knowledges
19.3 Towards Infrastructuring as Caring
References
Index
