01 | What is infrastructure?

What is “infrastructure”? Is it limited to roads, bridges, and energy systems or does it extend to ecosystems, care work, and social institutions?

In this opening episode we interrogate the concept of infrastructure from different perspectives. Moving beyond conventional definitions, we explore infrastructure as a system that is not only physical but also relational, institutional, and deeply embedded in human life.

Drawing on insights from systems theory, anthropology, and political economy, we discussion the expanding scope of infrastructure to include green (natural) systems and social reproduction processes.

References

Larkin, B. (2013). The politics and poetics of infrastructure. Annual Review of Anthropology, 42, 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092412-155522

Kanoi, L., Koh, V., Lim, A., Yamada, S., & Dove, M. R. (2022). What is infrastructure? What does it do? Anthropological perspectives on the workings of infrastructure(s). Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, 2(1), 012002. https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ac4429

Silva, J. M. C. da, & Wheeler, E. (2017). Ecosystems as infrastructure. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation, 15(1), 32–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecon.2016.11.005

O'Sullivan, K.C., Olin, C.V., Pierse, N., Howden-Chapman, P. (2023). Housing: the key infrastructure to achieving health & wellbeing in urban environments. Oxford Open Infrastructure and Helath, Volume 1, 2023, ouad001, https://doi.org/10.1093/ooih/ouad001

Claims

Unpaid care work in the UK is valued at 1 trillion GBP:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/03/british-people-do-more-than-1-trillion-of-housework-each-year-unpaid