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When Things Fall Apart: Social Infrastructures

Module description

This module examines how societies produce, maintain and alter their built environments. Through infrastructure, space is made into place, politics creates social possibilities, and inequalities are embedded in the physical-spatial structures of society. Infrastructure is most visible when it breaks down, but when it is functioning as designed it reveals what is considered a 'public good' and who should have access to its benefits. Readings for this module will be cross-cultural, and drawn from across anthropology, sociology, geography, and science and technology studies. The module will appeal to sociologists as well as anthropologists, and students from politics, geography, and science and technology studies, and it is suitable for interdisciplinary pathways. There are no prerequisites.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The intentions of this module are to understand the importance of infrastructure to societies globally and from there to understand the priorities that infrastructure maintenance indicates. What happens when infrastructure breaks down will be a key focus, as will the systemic inequalities that infrastructure encodes. How are utilities funded, maintained, and repaired? What happens when crises, such as global pandemics, alter infrastructure on a massive scale? 

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate familiarity with what infrastructure is and how it is maintained
• 2. Show an understanding of the impact of infrastructure on equity and marginalisation
• 3. Display an awareness of the relationship between politics and the provision of public services

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Show an understanding of how qualitative social scientific approaches can be used to study infrastructure
• 5. Evaluate cross-cultural differences in construction and maintenance of infrastructure from a social scientific standpoint

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Communicate effectively in written and oral form
• 7. Conduct research on a topic and organize findings in written form in a compelling manner

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

Roads

Water

Power/energy

Public health

Security

Algorithms

Borders

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Penny Harvey and Hannah Knox. Roads: An Anthropology of Infrastructure and Expertise. Cornell University Press, 2015.

Jason de Leon. Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. University of California Press, 2015.

Susan Leigh Star. “The Ethnography of Infrastructure”. American Behavioural Scientist, 1999.

Huub Dijstelbloem. Borders as Infrastructure. MIT Press, 2021.

Dennis Rodgers, Bruce O'Neill. “Infrastructural Violence”. Ethnography, 2012.

Key words search

Infrastructure; Anthropology; Sociology; Science and Technology Studies