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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 Abstract

The urban canals in the UK are sites where the production of nature and the built environment intersect. Examining the British canal network as a complex infrastructural socio-natural entity and navigating the spaces between public and private, this presentation weaves together historical legacies and contemporary narratives about urban life. The paper is based on data collected through ethnographic fieldwork on the canals in and around Manchester, UK (participant observation and in-depth interviews) and looks at the processes through which canals are both shaped by and actively shape the social 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.