Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

This panel builds on the foundational and empirical work done on suburban infrastructure during a long term study of suburban infrastructures under the lead of Pierre Filion (Waterloo). We identified suburban infrastructure as a dynamic area of academic and policy interest. Filion and Keil have argued that worldwide, major transport and water/wastewater infrastructures often drive mushrooming peripheral growth. Big pipes, expressways, rapid transit lines, gas supply and the electricity grid, for example, have traditionally preceded residential subdivisions and commercial development. In other areas, infrastructure development lags behind peripheral expansion. Informal settlement patterns, rapid and unequal peri-urbanisation and high degrees of social segregation characterize these areas. We found that the various forms of infrastructure need to be situated within their societal context. Generally, we noted that suburbs are sites of infrastructure stress. Infrastructures are contested between constituencies and are powerful instruments of social regulation. Central to our argument is the view that the ramifications stretch far beyond the expectations and control of decision-makers and the boundedness of the suburban itself. Suburban areas, in their multiform, emerging worldwide configurations, feel infrastructure stress most acutely. Having to deal with severe infrastructure inadequacies, suburbs offer fertile ground for infrastructure experimentation and innovation. With this panel, we plan to look specifically at technological change and its consequences for suburban form and life. We will assess the state of the art in research on artificial intelligence, digitization and automation on the ways in which mobility in and around various urban peripheries will soon be structured.