Constructing premium network spaces: reflections on infrastructure networks and contemporary urban development

Stephen Graham

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2000, vol. 24, issue 1, 183-200

Abstract: This article argues that standardized, public or private infrastructure monopolies are receding as hegemonic forms of urban infrastructure development. We are starting to witness the uneven overlaying of new, customized, high‐performance urban infrastructures onto the apparently immanent, universal and (usually) public monopoly networks laid down in developed cities between the 1930s and 1960s. This article seeks to develop a broad and international exploration of the construction of such premium networked spaces and to begin analysing how they are bound up within wider processes of urban change and restructuring. To this end it highlights four processes of socio‐technical and political economic change that are supporting the emergence of premium networked infrastructures. These are: the ‘unbundling’ of urban infrastructure provision; the erosion of comprehensive urban planning and the construction of new consumption spaces; the emergence of infrastructural consumerism; and the widespread shift towards extended and automobilized cityscapes. In each case, the article explores emerging examples of premium networked spaces via brief case studies. Finally, the article reflects on the likely limits to these trends, by way of a brief conclusion. Cet article sugg ère que les monopoles d’infrastructures uniformis´s, privés ou publics, disparaissent en tant que formes h´gémoniques du développement d’infrastructure urbaine. Nous commen??ons à voir la superposition inégale de nouvelles infrastructures urbaines de haut rendement, faites sur mesure, sur les r´seaux de monopole (généralement) publics universels, apparemment immanents, mis en place dans les villes développ´es entre les années trente et les ann´es soixante. Cet article tente de développer une perspective internationale de la construction de ces espaces de réseaux recherchés, et de commencer à analyser comment ils sont reliés dans le contexte du processus de changement et de restructuration urbains plus larges. Pour ce faire, il souligne quatre processus de changement politico‐économique et socio‐technique qui supportent l’apparition des infrastructures de réseaux recherch´es. Ce sont: le ‘d´sempaquetage’ de la provision d’infrastructure urbaine; l’érosion de la planification urbaine compréhensive et la construction de nouveaux espaces de consommation; l’apparition du consomm´risme infrastructurel; et un changement général vers des paysages de citéétendus et motorisés. Dans chaque cas, l’article explore des exemples émergents d’espaces de réseaux recherchés avec de brefs cas d’étude. Enfin, dans sa conclusion, l’article refléchit aux limites probables de ces tendances.

Date: 2000
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