The resistance of centralised socio-technical systems: the 'dynamic status quo' between centralised wastewater sanitation and decentralised stormwater management in France

José-Frédéric Deroubaix and Julie Gobert

Chapter 25 in Handbook of Infrastructures and Cities, 2024, pp 375-389 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Stormwater management appeared in the 1970s to both lessen the risks generated by urbanisation and optimise centralised urban water treatment systems. To what extent is the sanitation large technical system (LTS) destabilised by the growing number of alternative solutions to the dominant ‘end-of-pipe’ stormwater treatment being experimented in new urban projects? This chapter analyses the ongoing process as a ‘dynamic status quo’ between a dominant socio-technical system and a set of innovations diffused by decentralised solutions. The underlying idea is to simultaneously take into account the reconfiguration process of LTS and the continuous process of innovation and change that characterises the alternative solutions. The diffusion of decentralised solutions does not radically change the socio-technical regime, but instead provides strong evidence of the progressive transition of the sanitation infrastructure.

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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