Paper short abstract:

Exploring the UK's canals, the presentation examines their social life and a historical transformation from vital transport routes to spaces of wellbeing and sites where the production of nature and the built environment intersect, shaping urban life between tensions of development and preservation.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation delves into an anthropology of infrastructure, focusing on the urban canals in the UK as sites where the production of nature and the built environment intersect. I will examine the British canal network as a complex infrastructural socio-natural entity, navigating the spaces between public and private, and weaving together historical legacies and various narratives about it with contemporary urban life. The paper is based on data collected through ethnographic fieldwork on the canals in and around Manchester (participant observation and in-depth interviews) and looks at the processes through which canals are both shaped by and actively shape the social fabric and material infrastructure of the city. I will trace how the canals have transformed from being vital transport routes into obsolete infrastructure and what role do they play in the contemporary UK as increasingly important arenas for understanding the ongoing tensions between preserving their distinctive characteristics and the pressures of neoliberal urban development. Looking at infrastructure not as a research object but instead a perspective for analysis (Buier, 2023) I will discuss the importance of strategically managing the delicate equilibrium within urban canal settings and discuss the broader implications of such an approach for future waterfront development projects.