This document discusses the historical development of modern infrastructure networks. It describes how industrialization in the 19th century led to overcrowded and unsanitary cities, driving public investment in water, sewer, and transportation systems to improve living conditions. These networks became essential to urban functioning and a "modern infrastructural ideal" of ubiquitous, reliable connectivity. However, infrastructure planning was also used as an instrument of social control and political power, through imposing order and standardization on urban form and daily life. Figures like Haussmann, modernist planners, and Robert Moses reshaped cities through large-scale demolition and prioritization of automobile transportation, often at the expense of existing communities. This model was later challenged by ideas

1. Genesis of the ‘modern
infrastructural ideal’
How and why we built always on,
always there networks

2. The new normal
• In the developed world, we are used to having
networks always there, and always on
• We flick the light switch, open the tap, pick up
the phone and expect all of this to just be
there and just work, seamlessly
• This state of everyone being connected all the
time is called the ‘modern infrastructural
ideal’ by Graham and Marvin (2001)
• It is unique in history: never existed before

3. What is the MII?
• high connectivity and high reliability
• ubiquitous systems that support contemporary life and
enhance our capabilities (just think for a second of how you
feel when you can’t connect to the internet, or take a
shower, or cook, for several days!)
• In effect, networks become a part of us, an extension of our
body in space and time, making us cyborg individuals
• In other terms, the transport, payment, power,
communication networks are part of ‘you’ and how you act
in the world…(remember: ANT)

5. • objects and technologies can become a part of who
we are and how we perceive ourselves, in space and in
time
• The ‘natural’ (ourselves, water, electrons etc.) mingles
with the ‘social’ and ‘technical’—it becomes very
artificial to distinguish these
• In this sense, a city, our social life, are as ‘natural’ as
anthills or birds’ nests or burrows: a combination of
materials and actions by living beings
• Networks give us greater presence and greater power
in time and space—we can achieve much more with
than without them

6. A ‘second nature’
• Networks and their services have become a
‘second nature’ to us…
• However, this state is far from given, and is the
result of a long, complex and unique history,
touching on politics, economics, society, the
environment, hygiene and other themes
• Here, we look at the socio-historical construction
of the modern infrastructural ideal, in the
developed world, and the attempts at building
such systems in the developing world

7. The first driver
• Industrialisation
• Sanitation
• The ‘sanitary city’ (Melosi)

8. Rise of the ‘sanitary city’
• With rapid industrialisation from the early 19C,
cities in the West became bywords of pollution,
overcrowding, poor living conditions and high
mortality
• This was related to many factors, among which
poor sanitation played a key role
• With new discoveries in medicine, such as
Pasteur’s work on infection and its mechanisms,
it became apparent that better sanitation was
required to allow for stronger, healthier cities

9. Example: poor sanitary conditions

10. Friedrich Engels’ study
• Engels, a German philosopher, was a keen
observer of the condition of the working class in
England in C19
• In 1845, he published a Study of the condition of
the working class in England, based on his
observations in Manchester, the birthplace of the
industrial revolution
• Among his observations: mortality from disease
was 4 times higher in the cities than in the
surrounding countryside; and the rise in diseases
mirrored the rise of industry

11. • These unpleasant, dangerous living conditions
in cities would become one of the factors in
the rise of labour movements—a threat to
industrialists and those in power
• Doing something about living conditions in
cities became necessary as a way of avoiding a
revolution
• Again, we note the socio-political dimension
of networked services!

12. • Another big driver for greater sanitation and
better living conditions generally was war
• Indeed, when conscripts were called up in the
19th century and early 20th century, many had
to be turned away due to dreadful health
conditions: unfit, too small, disabled etc.
• Clearly, poor sanitation was not helping the
nation in any way!
• Water and sewerage became the first targets
for improvement, as it was clear that most
health problems were coming from these

13. Clean water
• The initial approach, before mechanisms of
infection and sterilisation were well known,
was to get ‘pure’ water far from the city
• This spawned the creation of vast, complex
systems of aqueducts that could run for
hundreds of miles to tap into the resource
• Examples are New York, Paris, Los Angeles,
Cape Town and many others

14. Illustrations/examples

15. • LA gets its water from several sources, some
hundreds of miles away
• The city could never have reached its size, and
its status in modern society, without these
tremendous engineering works
• In so doing, the city has transformed many
ecosystems, and created many conflicts with
other cities and even countries (Mexico gets
very little Colorado water)
• If these lifelines are interrupted, the city will
die!

17. • It is obvious how connected, plugged in to
resources these cities are
• They would not and could not exist as they are
without these life-support systems on 24/7
• At the same time, this breeds dependence and
reduces social and physical resilience of the
city
• A major shock may spell doom…

18. Human-made rivers in the desert…

19. Waste systems
• Providing clean water is not enough, human and
industrial effluent have to be collected and disposed of
to prevent infection and pollution
• Thus, vast waste collection systems were created in the
mid to late 19th centuries in Western cities, e.g.
London, Paris—veritable underground cities
• These large systems are still the basis of water and
sewerage systems in these and other cities, and have
allowed for increasing consumption of water and
production of waste
• In a way, the more resources we have, the more we
consume…same goes for other networks, like roads

20. London sewers, early C20

21. Underground cathedrals

22. • Thus water and sanitation were the stepping
stones of the modern infrastructural ideal
• Public investment on a massive scale was
justified in order to improve everyone’s living
conditions and prevent widespread
infections/disease
• However, other goals were also pursued at the
same time, though not always so explicitly

23. Another driver: politics
• The quest to impose order on the city form
• Cities are dynamic and creative—e.g. Lefebvre
• But they can seem unruly and chaotic,
especially to those in power
• Networked systems are part of strategies of
social control, through imposing order on the
built environment and on patterns of life

24. Before we discuss this
• Take a few moments in your groups to reflect
on :
• What is power? Can you define it?
• how networked systems may be related to
social, political, physical and other forms of
order and power?
• Examples may be from every day life, news,
fiction…

26. Hauss-who?
• Who was Haussmann?
• What did he do, and why is it important in the
history of planning and networks?
• Many of the impacts of his work were
chronicled in the writing of a great French
poet, who was also a fantastic observer of the
city and urban life…this was?

27. • Haussmann was the Prefect of Paris under
Napoleon III (1850s-1870s)
• He carried out massive, long-term and wide-
ranging works of urban transformation in Paris
• These transformations, including heavy
investments in urban networks, had significant
impacts on society, urban form, and the flows
in the city
• His name is now associated with a specific
kind of large-scale planning and its socio-
spatial and political effects

28. Cleaning up and imposing a spatial and
political order

29. Not just in Paris
• All the major French cities underwent the
same pattern of destruction of the old layout
(and its communities) in favour of the new
layout, based on wide boulevards
• Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux have all undergone
such processes
• Even here in Edinburgh, we have some
evidence of such urban renewal
• Any examples?

30. Chambers Street (1867)

31. Cockburn Street, Old Town

32. • In both cases, the traditional, winding
Medieval layout was destroyed
• A wide boulevard was created
• Much of the housing stock was removed, and
the street was gentrified, the poor pushed
away
• This was done in the name of sanitation and
modernity
• Indeed, these sections were highly
overcrowded and diseased
• Much the same debate can be found in the
Moses/Jacobs debate, and today!

33. Authority and normalisation
• The reordering of the street pattern (boulevards), the destruction of
old housing stock etc., had the aim of permitting greater social control
and repression if required (facilitation of troop movement)
• Likewise, the spread of the rail network in the country (and others
around this period) had an effect of normalisation and centralisation
• In this sense, networks are instruments of power and control, they
spread uniformity and standardisation (e.g. time & railways)
• The order of networks is a reflection of the order that society wishes to
impose on people, a way of structuring our lives and activities
• Haussmanian planning was at the service of dominant powers and
business; it aimed to make the city more efficient for them: a place of
capitalistic flows

34. Networks, aesthetics and ideologies
• The rise of technical networks can also be
related to a ‘machine age’ starting in the late
C19/early C20
• Networks are related to aesthetic and
ideological aspects of urban life
• This can be seen in architecture and urban
design, especially with the rise of totalitarian
systems in the 1920s-1930s in Europe

35. Urban technical networks and political
power
• The rise of the C20 dictatorships in Italy, Germany and
Russia was accompanied by major efforts in the field of
infrastructure, both as symbol and enabler of these
countries’ power
• One key area was that of transportation infrastructure,
useful to the war effort but also a celebration of speed
and modernity, such as with Italy’s ‘futurists’,
embraced by Mussolini
• Futurists were also influential in other countries,
including the USA; they placed a heavy emphasis on
speed, transport, flows in the city…and therefore, on
networks as symbols and enablers of modernity

36. Futurism
• Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Manifesto of
Futurism, 1909
• Poets, musicians, artists and architects
• Celebration of speed, but also violence and
war (many futurists volunteered to fight in
WWI…and died)

37. Futurists

38. Sant’Elia, Futurist City, 1914

39. Lingotto, Turin (1934)

40. • How do these buildings express the ideology
of modernity?
• How do they relate to networked systems?
• Do any other examples of buildings
embodying modernity spring to mind?

41. A major, controversial figure of the
Machine Age: Le Corbusier
• One of the biggest, most influential and
controversial figures of the Machine Age in
planning, architecture and general cultural life
• Le Corbusier and Modernism

42. • Le Corbusier, a Swiss-born architect and planner, saw
housing (and cities by extension) as ‘machines for
living’
• He placed a great emphasis on simplified, even
monastic living quarters that simply satisfied the basics
of life: eating, sleeping
• In city design, he emphasised what he saw as rational
use of space—the tower in the garden
• He also emphasised transport and flow, showing a
clear interest in networks and systems
• This is known as Modernism, a very influential current
in planning
• It has given us high-rise housing tower blocks, urban
motorways, separation of work/living spaces etc.

43. The master in person…

44. Unite d’Habitation (‘Living Unit’)

45. Plan for Paris

46. • What strikes you about this type of planning
and conception of the city?
• What is prioritised, emphasised?
• What is de-emphasised?

47. • His plan for Paris called for the wholesale
destruction of the historic core, seen as irrational
and hindering movement, using too much space…
• bye-bye medieval, winding streets! Hello
motorways and high-rises…
• In this, he shared views with the fascists, Nazis,
and Soviet Russia, also fascinated with creating a
‘new’ society devoid of the ‘obstacles’ of
yesteryear…
• Edinburgh also narrowly escaped such a
future…do you know what the plan was?

48. Abercrombie’s plan for Edinburgh
(1946)

49. • This plan also called for wholesale destruction
of what we see now as essential aspects of
Edinburgh’s appearance and beauty
• Some parts of the Modernist plan were
actually built
• this can be seen around the University of
Edinburgh, where whole sections of Georgian
architecture were demolished to make way for
a Modernist approach
• This can also be seen with the now-infamous
Saint James’ Centre, slated for demolition…

50. Edinburgh University library

51. What do you think?
• Would Paris and Edinburgh be worse or better
cities if these plans had been carried out?
• What would be the pros and cons?
• Which kind of design is better adapted to
modernity?

52. The rise of transport networks
• With industrialisation of Western countries from
mid 19C, the need for better, more effective and
capacious transport systems became essential
• This is when amazing, enormous systems such as
the Paris, London and New York metro
(underground) were created
• These systems connected to suburban tram and
then train lines, to form an integrated transport
system covering vast surfaces and totally
transforming our relationship to the city
• The transit maps have even become symbols of
the city

53. London underground system

54. Paris

55. New York

56. • New, integrated and effective transportation
systems have allowed cities to get bigger and
bigger, with more and more people and
businesses in easy range of one another
• This was impossible when people had to walk,
or use means such as horses, though of course
it did not totally prevent cities from growing,
but much slower and in a less spread out way

57. In the USA
• ‘Crabgrass Frontier’ by Kenneth T Jackson (1985)
explains the importance of the development of
vast, affordable and efficient tram networks
connecting cities throughout the country
• This encouraged the development of a very
specific form of US suburbanisation, which would
then be consolidated and boosted by the
vertiginous rise of car ownership from 1920s
onwards
• RM Fogelson sees in these patterns the first steps
of the ‘fragmented metropolis’, as we will discuss
in more detail in another section of the course

58. The clash of Modernism and
community rights
• The ideology of rationalism and the primacy of
transportation and movement were strongly
embodied in the work of Robert Moses in
New York city
• This led to dramatic social and cultural
impacts and eventually to a strong backlash
• This backlash paved the way for community
rights in planning and design

59. Robert Moses

60. A motorway builder!

61. • Old, traditional neighbourhoods destroyed or
cut into pieces by infrastructure
• Facilitating flows of cars, accelerating the pace
in the name of ‘modernity’
• Also imposing ‘order’ on parts of the city that
were seen as out of control: immigrant, poor,
black…
• He held enormous power for decades and
profoundly reshaped NYC

62. Your opinion…
• Do you think that old, sometimes run-down
neighbourhoods need to be destroyed in the
name of modernity?
• Can you think of examples of less destructive
approaches to the problem of urban renewal?
• Take a few minutes to discuss in your groups,
using examples

63. The backlash: Jane Jacobs and
community-centred planning
• The wholesale destruction of traditional, vibrant
neighbourhoods seen as ‘slums’ by the elite led
to increasingly strong reactions from the
community
• One main figurehead was Jane Jacobs, who called
for the preservation of such neighbourhoods,
with her motto of ‘eyes on the street’
• This was the opening of the debate on
sustainable, community-led urbanism and
planning….a very big topic today!

64. A landmark book that all planners and
human geographers should read!

66. Links to Cold War situation
• In the USA, the rapid and massive development of the
Federal highway system from the 1950s was strongly linked
to the discourse of the Cold War
• Highways were explicitly linked to the necessity to
transport troops and weaponry rapidly and effectively in
the case of nuclear war with Soviet Russia
• Thus we understand that it was almost subversive,
unpatriotic to oppose actions such as those of Robert
Moses!
• Just as it is today in China for instance, where the recent
completion of the train line from Beijing to Tibet is part of a
process of internal colonisation and ethnic uniformisation

67. • So we see the strong links between urban
technical networks and notions of social
control and domination
• These networks can be used as instruments of
domination by an ‘elite’ who want to impose
normalised patterns of life and circulation that
favour capitalism and ‘efficiency’ often at the
detriment of existing, traditional patterns of
social life

68. Other examples of standardisation/
control through UTNs
• Radio, TV: spread of ideas, fashion etc.
• Today, internet and memes
• These networks promote and diffuse dominant
economic, political, aesthetic etc. ideologies
• The order of networks is also a socio-political and
socio-spatial order
• Networks and technology are not neutral

69. The technological sublime
• The development and spread of ubiquitous,
always-on networks from C19 reveals
something about relations between humans
and technology
• There is an obsession with the technological
seen as a form of power over nature,
guarantee of progress and emancipation
• Urban technologies became symbols of a
more rational world

70. • Kaika and Swyngedouw describe the early
days of the spread of networked systems in
the West (early to mid C19)
• Unlike later, when networks were hidden
underground, there was a desire to showcase
these networks as urban monuments
• Hence all the very elaborate and ornate water
towers, stations, ventilation systems etc.
• Today, these are just relics as infrastructure is
hidden or presented in the most utilitarian
and bland fashion

71. A growth agenda
• Another strong driver for the adoption and
diffusion of UTNs is the lure of growth, which,
again, is related to power
• Indeed, whoever controls the levers of growth
in a given territory controls the territory
• By providing the essential resources for
growth (water, energy, materials), technical
networks are the gateways to territorial
growth

72. Theories that we can use
• This is where we can mobilise interesting
theories of the social sciences, such as urban
regime theory and urban political ecology
• These theories articulate networks, resources,
planning with issues of power and domination

73. Urban regime theory and ‘growth
machines’
• See work by Stone on Atlanta—the classic
• Coalition of local actors to boost city growth= ‘growth
machine’
• They prioritise growth and revenue over the environment
or social issues
• Key variable here is price of land: they aim to raise the
value of their landholdings
• Water, energy, other networks are key components in the
value of land, because they determine what can be made
of it
• This theory can help explain why certain cities see the
domination of some groups for decades, e.g Democrats in
Boston and New York, Labour in North of England

74. Urban political ecology
• See Swyngedouw, Kaika, In the Nature of Cities
• Connecting environment, society and politics
• Rejection of nature/city dualism: ‘social
nature’
• The control of flows ensures political power
• Cannot think of networks and the resources
they carry without also thinking about power,
domination, exclusion etc.

75. • Coalitions of individuals in various cities through
history have explicitly leveraged UTNs to achieve
economic growth and power agendas
• Today, we can think of conflicts over farm vs city
water use; conflicts between countries over
water (Israel/Egypt); conflicts over waste
disposal; conflicts over who emits CO2 and how
much etc.
• Here are some other examples, which also show
that urban regime theory and urban political
ecology can be combined

76. The classic example of Los Angeles and
its ‘oligarchy’
• The development of transport networks in the
late 19C, and then water and electricity networks
in the early to mid 20C, played a key role in the
power strategies of the local politico-financial
elite, known as the ‘oligarchy’
• They also played a central role in the form and
growth of the city, and have had a key impact in
recent social, political and environmental issues
playing out in the city

77. A brief history of the city of LA and its
‘oligarchy’

78. First transport…

79. Then water and ‘power’

80. • We clearly see from the LA example that
networks can be used in socio-political and socio-
environmental strategies
• They were used here to control land and key
resources and give the oligarchy its economic and
social power
• Social and political realities have changed in the
city since then,
• however this original phase of the birth and
development of these key networks still
structures the local reality in many ways,
• as evidenced by the current continuing water
crisis, or the sprawling shape of the city

81. Conclusions on the development of
urban technical networks
• We have seen that urban technical networks
have become the backbones of our cities since
the C19—in the developed world– in response
to a variety of needs: sanitary, population
health, efficiency, national defence, but also
social control and normalisation, etc.
• They have spread and become more or less
universally available in our cities, so that we
cannot imagine our lives without them

82. However…
• The spread of networks and seemingly universal
access to reliable systems is not the end of the
story!
• Especially in the developing world, where this
state of the MII was never achieved, due to a
combination of political, economic and social
factors
• The developed world, in the last 2-3 decades, has
seen challenges to our networked systems, and
changing relations between these networks and
our cities

83. An incomplete ideal
• In the next section of the course, we will start
examining the holes and gaps in networked
systems…
• We will look at how evolving patterns of network
governance, such as privatisation and
unbundling, are leading to new relationships
between societies, cities and infrastructure
systems
• One key topic will be dynamics of urban
fragmentation, of cities ‘falling apart’ physically
and socially