Annual Review of Anthropology· 2013Q1· Review
The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure
- 3,863citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2013year
Short summary
This article synthesizes anthropological literature to theorize infrastructure not just as material networks for exchange, but also as aesthetic and sensorial forces that structure politics and meaning.
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Key points
- Infrastructure enables the exchange of goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance across space.
- Anthropological theories of infrastructure draw from biopolitics, science and technology studies, and technopolitics.
- Infrastructures also possess aesthetic and sensorial dimensions that imbue them with meaning and influence politics.
- These dimensions relate to desire, promise, and the structuring of political landscapes.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological literature that seeks to theorize infrastructure by drawing on biopolitics, science and technology studies, and theories of technopolitics. I also examine other dimensions of infrastructures that release different meanings and structure politics in various ways: through the aesthetic and the sensorial, desire and promise.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Annual Review of Anthropology, 2013 · DOI ↗
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Field: Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences