INTL 230 - Infrastructure and Inequality

Infrastructure is infamously boring - as sociologist Susan Leigh Star once put it, ‘infrastructure’ is the term we give “the forgotten, the backgrounded, the frozen in place.” But as events of recent years have demonstrated - from the pipeline protests at Standing Rock, to Russian hacks on U.S. power grids, to concerns over Chinese construction in the Global South - infrastructure is a political project of vital importance. Infrastructure is a site where hopes and dreams are invested. It is also a place where unequal influence is laid bare. In this course we will consider infrastructure’s technical politics, tracing water pipes and railway networks; interstate highways and fiber-optic lines. Through close attention to the making, maintenance, and end-user experience of these systems, we will practice reading the politics built into our built environments. Students in this course will learn theoretical frameworks and practice methodologies for studying infrastructure in social context at transnational, national, and local scales. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)