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Paper short abstract

As road maintenance consumes vast amounts of energy and materials, the limitation of its ecological consequences calls for infrastructural de-growth. This article draws on empirical research to explore the related institutional challenges and the possible contributions of STS to decision-making.

Paper long abstract

Road policies in the global North have been criticized for relying on extractivist economies: even as networks reach advanced stages of development, their maintenance depends on flows of materials extracted in the global South (Magalhães et al. 2019), with destructive consequences notably in the form of soil artificialization (Béchet et al. 2017). Specialized debates have started addressing constraining measures based on quantitative limitations. However, the legitimacies of different institutions to organize such limitations remain disputed.

This article explores possible contributions of STS in this matter, building on a twofold empirical research conducted in France as part of a line of work concerned with the institutional aspects of infrastructure maintenance (Denis and Florentin 2019). Firstly, based on an ongoing investigation started in 2019 with various public and private organisms involved in debates on the management of local roads, I show how certain framings of public policy assessment hinder the implementation of limitations (Solé-Pomies 2025) while other problematizations align more favorably—notably as budgetary constraints and climate risks play in favor of fewer paved roads. Secondly, I present a research protocol currently in the making that aims to systematically explore the forms of liberations fostered by limitations in road policies, while taking into account the challenges and resources needed at three interrelated levels: in technical departments of local administrations; in participatory procedures able to overcome the antagonism between territorial development and environmental policies; and in forms of expertise and research required to equip these procedures, either in the social, environmental, or engineering sciences.