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Paper short abstract

The paper examines how the internal divisions between the residents of the Wawer district of Warsaw become visible and are reproduced through infrastructure, as well as how the local government’s lack of dialogue while shaping infrastructure unites the residents in their perceived lack of agency.

Paper long abstract

Based on two year long fieldwork, this paper examines infrastructure in the Wawer district of Warsaw as the means of understanding the polarization of the district’s residents. The railway tracks are viewed as the dividing line between the former summer resorts and the former fields, while the invisible infrastructure of waterworks and sewage systems showcase and reproduce the present divisions between the residents. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theories of capital and habitus, the way in which the residents view and experience infrastructures is examined to showcase the historically shaped division of the district, as well as the way in which those divisions are negotiated and viewed today. Additionally, the perceived lack of agency, which unites the district’s polarized residents, is examined through their interactions with infrastructure – contrasted with the local government’s active shaping of the district’s infrastructure, without dialogue with the residents.