Lecture: Infrastructures Global and Local Flashcards
What is Infrastructure?
Department of Homeland Security:
‘The nation’s critical infrastructure provides the essential services that underpin American society’
What does the Department of Homeland Security definition of infrastructure refer to?
‘ The assets, systems and networks, whether physical or virtual so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof’
Basically, it encapsulates all the services that are essential for society to function, name a few:
Food Government Water Defence Health Emergency services Financial services Transport ICTs Energy Space Food
Why is infrastructure important?
On one hand it allows us to probe in more depth the ways in which we as human beings relate to the material world around us.
On the other hand it allows us to question in more depth specifically what constitutes this material (virtual and physical).
How can we conceptualise infrastructure?
Infrastructure set of interdependencies between things
Might thus be described as a network (Castells, 2010) or an assemblage (idea of overlapping and meshing) (Latour, 2005)
The fact that infrastructure is so relational also means…
It’s very vulnerable because it take on the vulnerability of that which it has relations to.
North Eastern America power outage, 2003
August 14th 2003
Alarm failed to trigger when energy transmission lines covered by foliage. Lead to build up of power in one place and massive distress across North American electric grid
Conceptualise the disruption that was caused in the infrastructure of the North Eastern America power outage, 2003
‘Cascading failure’ (de Goede and Simon, 1025) effects:
Communications severed (TV, phones, internet)
Loss of water supply
Rail/metro subway/petrol stations failed
Industry (no Wall St trading/no J-I-T production in factories)
Examples of the impacts that the North Eastern America power outage, 2003, had.
80,000 emergency 911 calls made in less than 24 hours (nearly twice the average)
FDNY responded to 3,000 fire events (caused by using candles for light)
Fire related fatalities in New York, Detroit and Michigan from using candles as lighting
Burn victim died when air-conditioning failed.
Many of infrastructure’s components are basic human right as defined by UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights…
Article 13:
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state
Article 21:
Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
Article 25: ‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services’
What’s the issue with the privatisation of infrastructure such as railways?
Government no longer supplying services enshrined in human rights law
Infrastructure more precarious, subject to market forces
Examples of austerity
‘Since 2010, the government has reduced funding for fire and rescue authorities inEngland by between 26% and 39%’*
‘ In the October 2010 spending review, the Government announced that central funding to the police service in England and Wales would be reduced in real terms by 20 percent in the four years from March 2011 to March 2015’ *
Effects of austerity cuts
Response:
Police response times 30% longer after austerity*
Effects of austerity cuts
Resilience:
A strategy to enrol non-experts into emergency response*
Effects of austerity cuts
Prevention:
Budget cuts meant less prevention work, leading to more fires*
