Spectrums of infrastructural hybridity: insights from urban Africa for a propositional research agenda

Liza Rose Cirolia and Andrea Pollio

Chapter 11 in Handbook of Infrastructures and Cities, 2024, pp 179-195 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In the last decade, research on Southern cities has fruitfully contributed to infrastructure debates and theorisations. A critical thread challenges the ‘networked infrastructure ideal’ and celebrates the diverse ways people secure access to services in the absence of uniform and centrally provided delivery systems. This chapter reflects on the value and limitations of this emerging scholarship, focusing on what is referred to as ‘hybrid’ or ‘heterogenous’ infrastructure configurations. One of the limitations, the authors argue, is that infrastructural hybridity is often conflated with survivability, marginality, or informality. Particularly in the study of African cities, it focusses on small-scale, make-do tactics, devoid of state involvement. Attending to this narrowed focus, the chapter identifies ‘spectrums’ of hybridity. It uses illustrations from across the continent to substantiate this framework and broaden the scope. Finally, deploying this spectral notion, the authors ask: what might this conceptual toolkit mean for the engaged scholar?

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Environment; Geography; Sociology and Social Policy; Urban and Regional Studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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