The evidence is clear: to respond to the current mix of global crises, we need greener, denser cities with less traffic and more public amenity. These solutions frequently fail at the local scale, however. One way to resolve this dilemma is to view modern systems and networks through an infrastructural lens.
Sociologist Susan Leigh Star defined infrastructure by three characteristics. First, “small” and “large” are relative terms, so infrastructure is best understood as chains of what Star calls “modular increments.” Second, it is made and sustained though interactions between universal standards and localized practices. Finally, it reaches beyond a singular site and connects previously separate (and often political) entities.
Star argued that while infrastructures have long reaches, they are only ever experienced and altered in local moments and practices: that is, they always land somewhere in particular. These places where long networks and local interfaces overlap can help us understand how
