Infrastructure and Urban Change Flashcards
Technological Determinism
A (reductionist) theory which believes that technology is the key governing force in society which drives its social structures and cultural values; technology is an external, autonomous force which ignores all social/ political ideas and drives/ shapes the world in some way. Essentially, it contends that contextual factors do not matter.
Social Constructivism
A theory which contends that technology does not determine social structures and cultural values, but rather that human action shapes technology; the ways in which technology is used in society cannot be understood without understanding how technology is embedded in a social context.
Technocracy
A term used to describe the organisational structure of a system of governance where decision-makers are selected on the basis of technological knowledge. OR a government that is directed by experts of technocrats who promote the notion of ‘technological innovations as progress’.
Co-constructivism
A viewpoint that contends shaping occurs somewhere between a social constructivist and a technologically deterministic perspective; mutually constitutive.
Luddites
The Luddites were social critics in the early 19th century. They were English textile workers who protested against newly developed labour-economising technologies.
Interpretive Flexibility
Contends that technological artefacts are culturally and contextually constructed and interpreted; in that there is flexibility in how people think/ interpret artefacts. Technologies are negotiated and shaped by a wide variety of stakeholders.
Sociotechnical perspectives (4) [From Guy and Karvonen, 2011)
1) Infrastructure is CONTEXTUALLY based: processes of translation + interpretation dictate success/ failure (e.g. example of North American sky scrapers; haven’t caught on in Europe).
2) CONTINGENT: links to ‘interpretative flexibility’ > there are multiple pathways that can be taken/ routes that technology can take/ are realised (not infinite amount of possibilities however). e.g sewers example
3) OBDURATE: urban technologies are long lived and embedded in a complex array of material realities, social habits and institutional standards.
4) UNEVEN: e.g. Megacities. Technology can replicate and exacerbate existing social hierarchies/ class distinctions (e.g. ‘digital divide’).
Internalist approach
Identifies the strengths and weaknesses of competing technologies. They feel that technological advancements could be explained purely by ‘looking over the shoulder of the inventor’, in that social and cultural factors externally played no role in determining technology. Contrasts the contextualist approach.
Contextualist approach
Unlike the internalist viewpoint, the contextualist approach places an emphasis on how society itself shapes technology; social and cultural factors are key in deciding what and how technological advancements occur. ‘Tech. should be understood not as an isolated thing in itself, but as part of a complex system’.
Briefly summarise Guy and Karvonen (2011)
- we only recognise technology when it breaks down - sociotechnical perspective: humans and technology are intimately linked (rooted in Science and Technology Studies (STS)). - There are 4 common perspectives of sociotechnical scholars: technological advancements are: CONTEXTUALLY based; CONTINGENT; OBDURATE; UNEVEN.
Briefly summarise Nye (2006)
- development of the bicycle: led to the emancipation of women/ success was culturally and contextually dependent/ achieved a level of ‘soft determinism’ > didn’t quite replicate ‘technological momentum’ of the automobile. - Internalist Vs Contextualist approach - technological momentum: not deterministic, but shows how momentum can make something like the automobile less shaped by, and more the shaper of its environ. - rejects technological determinism.
Briefly summarise Goodman (1999)
- huge population growth in 18th C. (in 1851 London’s pop. 2.7million), rising birth rate - tech. change has a large gestation period, but provides sudden results. - 1850, Merthyr Tydfil was world’s biggest producer of Iron, over 200,000 tonnes annually (achieved via new coke-smelting technique). - Middlesbrough development aided by philanthropy, created by railways, uneven development, need redevelopment of original grid due to mass immigration. - Public Health Act 1848 confirmed much of Edwin Chadwick’s 1842 report. -1860s: beginning of the municipal takeover of water; needed regulation, helped sanitary and health. -Transport Revolution: originally canals then the railways; railways led to transportation of fresh food and standardisation of time across England.
Briefly summarise Hughes (1987)
- Technological systems are socially constructed and society shaping. - Technology as problem solving, fulfilling goals. - A tech. system has inputs and outputs (e.g. light example) and tends to have hierarchal structure. Tech. as an artefact and as a system. - Loosely defined pattern of evolution: invention, development, innovation, transfer and growth, competition, consolidation (not necessarily in that order).
Briefly summarise Graham and Marvin (2001)
- the ‘urban infrastructure crisis’ (e.g. bridges in Pittsburgh). - changing political economies of urban infra. development (privatisation; Google bus). - collapse of the modern notion of comprehensive urban planning (decline of grid structure, rise of special purpose zones). - physical growth and extension of metropolitan regions (cars as territorial adapters, Hope and Champion motorway pub). - challenge of social movements and critiques (critique from the left; feminists/ environmentalists).
Briefly summarise Graham (2010)
- Infrastructure is intrinsic to contemporary cities or a prerequisite for the modern infrastructural ideal, which is generally taken for granted (it becomes normalised) amongst more privileged users. Infra. underpins the the ‘process’ of city life. With increasing pop. and urbanisation, global demographics will become more dependent on it. - Studying infrastructural disruptions penetrates and problematizes the normalities of flows to an extent where there can be fully examined > infrastructure is now ‘front-staged’. Disruption can come in many forms, e.g. electrical/ digital and can have multiple knock on effects (physical infrastructural disruption leading to political disruption). - How cities rise after catastrophe has a great deal to how cities are repaired outside of these periods. - Disruption as a deliberate act e.g. terrorism/ protests etc.> urban infrastructures provide an ‘Achilles heel’ to be attacked.
