Jonathan Rutherford will defend his habilitation to conduct research on Monday, June 24, 2019, at 2:00 p.m. (room A202, Bienvenüe building).
The jury is composed of:
- Sabine Barles, professor, Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University
- Olivier Coutard, Director of Research, CNRS, LATTS (supervisor)
- Cyria Emelianoff, professor, Le Mans University
- Andrew Karvonen, Associate Professor, Urban & Regional Studies, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden)
- Roger Keil, Professor and Chair in Global Sub/Urban Studies, York University (Canada)
- Timothy Moss, Senior Researcher, Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany)
Unpublished manuscript
Redeploying Urban Infrastructure: The Politics of Urban Socio-Technical Futures
The manuscript explores urban futures in the making, as seen through the lens of urban infrastructure. It describes how socio-technical arrangements of energy and water provision are being recast in continuing efforts towards realizing "sustainable" transformation of cities. It critically investigates how infrastructure comes to matter by analyzing the shifting capacities and entanglements of diverse actors with these systems, the various means they use to envision, enact and contest changes, and the wide-ranging social and political implications of emerging infrastructure transitions. Drawing on original research into urban infrastructure debates and projects in Stockholm and Paris, it develops a novel conceptual framework for studying and acknowledging the active, vital role of infrastructure in constituting a material politics of urban transformation.
The manuscript explores emerging urban futures through the lens of urban infrastructure. It analyzes how sociotechnical arrangements for energy and water provision are being reshaped as part of ongoing efforts to achieve a "sustainable" transformation of cities. It critically examines the importance of infrastructure by analyzing the capacities and dynamic entanglements of various actors with these systems, the various means they use to envision, implement, and contest change, and the social and political implications of emerging infrastructural transitions. Drawing on original research on debates and projects around urban infrastructure in Stockholm and Paris, it develops a conceptual framework for studying and recognizing the active and vital role of infrastructure in shaping the material politics of urban transformation.