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P300


Infrastructures, crisis and transformation 
Convenors:
Nina Amelung (Universidade de Lisboa)
Huub Dijstelbloem (University of Amsterdam)
Jan-Hendrik Passoth (European University Viadrina)
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Format:
Traditional Open Panel
Location:
HG-09A24
Sessions:
Wednesday 17 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Amsterdam

Short Abstract:

In the name of crisis, infrastructures become sites of expansion and political struggles. But not all crises unfold hectic dynamics in infrastructure (re)construction. We invite papers on different sites, politics, reconfigurations and temporalities of “infrastructures, crisis and transformation”.

Long Abstract:

In 2022, permacrisis - a word describing the feeling of living through a period of war, inflation, and political instability - was chosen as Collins Dictionary's word of the year. Although the accuracy and performative power of the term are questionable, a situation of ‘permacrisis’ is recognizable when we analyze the introduction, development, transformation, breakdown, and revival of infrastructures in the military, energy, climate, and migration domains. In the name of crisis, infrastructures become sites of massive expansion, adaptation, and political struggles, and many of them turn into permanent ones, or become entangled with each other. Meanwhile, not all crises unfold hectic dynamics in infrastructure (re)construction. As the ongoing extinction of species, the pollution of environments and waters, or global warming painfully show, crises can also be denied, ignored, kept local, or adjourned for years or even decades.

With ‘Infrastructures, crisis and transformation’, we invite papers that explore the struggles, power plays, and politics of defining, recognizing, and speaking in the name of crisis and transformation, their impact on action in terms of infrastructure, and the challenges they pose to politics. Furthermore, we are interested in methodologies and strategies to study the diverse malaises of infrastructural crises and transformations.

Contributions may be concerned with (1) the diversity of methodologies to study infrastructures in crisis and transformation, (2) different sites of crisis and transformation, ranging from pandemic and health crises, migration and border control, anthropocene, the military domain, the crisis of liberal democracies, (3) technopolitics of crises and transformation (re)constructing infrastructures in the name of crisis and transformation,(4) the temporalities of crisis, infrastructures and transformation, and/or (5) policies and political strategies to develop infrastructures or to turn them into more ‘public infrastructures’.

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Wednesday 17 July, 2024, -
Session 2 Wednesday 17 July, 2024, -