Infrastructures as Power Resources
Referent/in: Jens Ivo Engels (Darmstadt)Abstract:
Since urbanization cities are typically hotspots of infrastructural development. Energy, water, traffic infrastructures are often concentrated in urban centers, linking, however, the centers to the hinterland and to other cities.
In fact, infrastructures are resources of power for cities. Infrastructures are material resources of power, as materials are to a large extent distributed by them. The access to material resources is an important factor regarding economic growth, the wellbeing of inhabitants and consequently public order. At the same time, infrastructures are sources of social and political regulation power, as they enable the regulation and distribution of the population (housing and transport), as well as industrial and commercial activities. Finally, infrastructures can be turned into symbolic power resources, as demonstrated by magnificent bridges or waterworks built by and in cities.
The contribution will focus on conceptual reflections concerning urban infrastructures as instruments of power, outcomes of power and as specific manifestations of power.
