Presentation short abstract

This paper examines how rainwater harvesting in Mexico City is reshaping infrastructural dependencies and political relations. We analyse how heterogeneous configurations can move beyond amelioration to open radical possibilities for water provision, agency and infrastructural politics.

Presentation long abstract

While urban political ecologists have long studied the fragmentation of infrastructures and the significance of non-modern infrastructure in the Global South, the potential of new kinds of infrastructure – and their politics – remains largely unexplored. On the other hand, transition studies – primarily focused on Global North contexts – often assume that innovations replace existing infrastructure. However, Southern urban innovations are often developed and disseminated to complement existing but inadequate infrastructure, resulting in heterogeneous infrastructure configurations.

Drawing on interviews with rainwater-harvesting (RWH) adopters and institutional actors in Mexico City, this paper interrogates whether, and under what conditions, heterogeneous infrastructures might open possibilities beyond mere amelioration. Rather than treating RWH as a technology of autonomy, we argue that it reconfigures relations of dependency by enabling households to navigate between infrastructures, political actors, and the environment. We also examine persistent exclusions at the urban periphery, demonstrating that the political potential of heterogeneity cannot be read off the technology alone but is continually shaped by state-citizenship relations.

Overall, we provide a non-teleological analysis of infrastructural heterogeneity that foregrounds its radical potential: enabling households to mitigate the risks of monolithic dependence, cultivate plural infrastructural relations, and expand the political imagination around just and sustainable urban water provision. Ultimately, we argue that heterogeneous configurations such as RWH do not guarantee transformation but can, under specific sociopolitical arrangements, reorient agency, reduce vulnerability, and open new terrains for infrastructural politics.