Global infrastructure in South America: the need of a "genealogical" research agenda
Topics:
Keywords: Global infrastructure, Latin America, Genealogy, Political Geography, Urban Geography
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Simone Vegliò, Malmö University
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Abstract
The presentation proposes a dialogue on a possible the genealogy of global infrastructure.
The first part of the discussion presents a study of the infrastructures of extraction and circulation in Buenos Aires' southern area of Dock Sud, and the related socio-material impact. While outlining the case, it stresses that a broader geo-historical investigation is considered as crucial to achieve a thorough and effective comprehension of this study.
The second part of the presentation outlines a research project that is about to start. The project explores the "planetary" making of the River Plate basin in South America, an extensive fluvial articulation representing a crucial liquid "highway" for the Southern Cone's exportations. The discussion shows that, after some exploratory work in the basin's key city of Rosario, a preliminary work that uncovers the infrastructural histories (e.g. the presence of British capital in the late nineteenth century) underlying the current reconfiguration of infrastructures in the area is again understood as pivotal to fully understand the complex articulation of today's socio-material and economic transformations.
Finally, building of the two examples, the last part of the presentation suggests some tentative ideas concerning the start of a dialogue that aims to build a genealogy of global infrastructure, not least focusing on methodological strategies and challenges. The discussion considers the potentiality of comparative approaches that could help moving toward a more sophisticated and efficient agenda regarding the study of the (geo)social, (geo)economic, (geo)political, and (geo)cultural implications deriving from the worldwide deployment of global infrastructure.
Global infrastructure in South America: the need of a "genealogical" research agenda
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Paper Abstract