also the way it attracts people, draws them in, coalesces and expends their capacities.

- Edda 667994

(675638, Anna)

=> this is just a very general thought and I am not sure if I misunderstand but the above quote immediately made me think of the arts and design, as abstract and actual representations of emplacement, temporality, movement and the space between humans and non humans (and by that infrastructure and entanglements of all kinds) are always present in discourses of both disciplines. In fine art in form of sculpture, concepts such as vanitas or for example photography (Urbexing, the fetish for derelict buildings that once embodied status and power) and in Design: in form of architecture and product design. It is never just about ‘technical functioning” (or aesthetics), but about relationships within spaces and living organisms. Maybe I am completely off track here, but I think this is another reason to argue for interdisciplinary approaches and the value of abstract / artistic thinking in the sciences. (Anna, 675638)

This also reminds me of the case in Sierra Leone where Chinese investment is creating railroads to mine very expensive minerals that Sierra Leone does not have the means to mine themselves. With neoliberal development, a lot of the logic just appears to be ‘take what you can.’ 
 Mains writes, “Although the hydroelectric projects were viewed with suspicion and doubt, there was a great deal of faith in the potential for roads to bring economic development.” This relates to the same issue. It appears that development has become tyrannical as the logic appears to be, so long as it brings ‘development’, all other forms of destruction are justified in the name of development and the rhetoric approach which was deeply inscribed in the construction of roads in this article. 
Marten 686321

"Prepaid water meters can here be seen as the capillary ends of ‘cost recovery’ that turns basic needs into new spheres of accumulation"

She supports that inclusion in and connection to the state are contingent upon a successful performance of an ethic that fuses civic duty and entrepreneurial comportment. Therefore, "...the social’ and life itself, are to be recoded as objects of economic calculation".

Clare W 677349

Response to Clare by Brigid 685345

I liked your point about the psychological work infrastructure does. And the idea of magic, as if there is spell cast over the population.. This seems to me to be a far more dangerous form of infrastructure's role as a materialisation of state interests over a population. It would be fascinating to know more about the psychological aspects, as well as socio-cultural implications of infrastructure.

Still, I do think that Mains could have organised and formulated his theoretical argument much clearer! While he mentions and criticises multiple neoliberalisms (see for instance pages 6, 20, 21), and in fact, doesn't seem to find the -ism very useful as an anthropological concept to work with (he thinks that it "muddles important insights" especially when it comes to the relationality of different agents of power (21)), he doesn't quite define it. Instead, he moves on to suggest an alternative: Collier's topologies of power. In his view, it is more relational, and diverts the anthropological gaze to the network of social connections to understand developmental influence. I do see how Collier's concept works much better for what Mains wants to work out in his obersvations. But neoliberalism is an ideology, and topologies of power a concept. No wonder things get muddy - especially if you don't specify which form of neoliberalism(s) you are actually criticising !  (Julis, 634707)

 

*I could be stretching Heidegger too far here/misinterpreting, so correct me if I’m wrong :-)

 

Jacob Heath 685615

 

I really like this quote and find that this interpretation of infrastructure is particularly useful for anthropologists. Bringing infrastructure to life, demonstrating its political and social dimensions, as well as exploring its interaction with the material body, gives the arena of common spaces a dynamism and productive tension which is bound to be informative as to the context within which these spaces find themselves. Chaflin provides us with a wonderful model through which wider anthropological analysis can take place through the lens of infrastructure.

Maria - 687047

Development unfolds globally at a rapid rate and it endangers plenty of people. Communities at large are being deported or simply eradicated in the name of ‘progress’ and market expansion, with little to no consequence to the state actors who proceeded with their infamous acts. In the particular example, Chou highlights the story of locals whose houses are being demolished to make way for new construction work. People who have built their own houses and have lived in them for their entire lives, end up having little to no power in stoping the government from carrying out its demolition projects. Despite their apparent powerlessness, locals still uphold a spirit of righteousness. When state officials talk in legislative terms, so do the citizens, who are well versed in this type of speech; when state officials employ violence to further their plans, so do the people- and they do it more creatively, as Chou shows on page 361, fig. 5 (by using demarcation marks around their homes, they threaten to attack anyone passing them with feces and urine bottled up and stacked up in huge piles next to the marks). 

I found it extremely fascinating to read about this infrastructure disaster in China because it reminds me of the stories my parents have told me about their childhoods under a communist government. Similarly, in a village named Vinerea, Romania, my grandmother had been deported from her house because of national interests, or more precisely, because the my grandma’s brother sang the national hymn at a wedding, which was illegal at that time. They had been evicted  with no warning, from the land they had owned for as long as they have existed, and there was little to nothing that my grandmas family was able to do at that time, as everything was taken away from them and they were also not allowed to return back to society under normal circumstances (grandma was denied the right to study, her parents the rights to work). Despite that, my grandmother, just as the citizens of Nanhou, had incredible resilience and had fought in court for her rights for the rest of her life. Luckily, she was able to receive a pension as a deportee (and so will my father now, as her heir) but the loss of their life-long home (farm) has left a huge whole in her life. It would be interesting to do some further research on this, as I think that her health was affected then irreversibly. She ended up having Alzheimer’s and her fixation was always to return back to her home in Vinerea. 

Ioana Illes 677134

I found your personal anecdote of your post infrastructures attack and people fight back incredibly interesting and helpful in digesting Chu’s paper. Often times I think in academia we speak of progress and development with little thought to its repercussions or to its definitions. Thank you for sharing 

Jakob Lewis