Temporalities of infrastructure
An ethnographic study of rural road building, spectral mining, and good living
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4476173 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chantelle Alena Falconer (0000-0002-2275-014X, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, corresponding author), Polina Baum-Talmor (0000-0002-4642-3071, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/02637758251376538 |
| OpenAlex | W4414195895 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 47 |
Purpose We examine how citizens and the state negotiate infrastructure projects using the concept of temporal incongruence. We consider infrastructures in a plural sense, following several projects in Andean, Ecuador, a region known for challenging roads and a history mining exploration and resistance. We set these layered infrastructure projects in the context of the postneoliberal state, an era characterized by the building of unprecedented mega-infrastructure as a way of fostering human wellbeing. Findings The introduction of the political value, buen vivir (good living) set the stage for the shift in infrastructure temporality by creating a political and economic environment that prioritizes human and ecological well-being. By juxtaposing the state-led approach to infrastructure with people's responses, we tease out temporal incongruence. We found that people's responses to infrastructure projects are closely tied to their ability to meet their immediate needs and ensure the well-being of people and nature. Conclusion Temporal incongruence is not merely a mismatch of timelines but a site of political contestation, where competing visions of development are negotiated and reimagined. The temporal reorientation towards the present, via buen vivir, calls for scholarly attention to the immediacy of lived experience taking precedence over yet to be delivered future gains
Boundary object · Ethnography · Negotiation · Politics · Temporalities · Temporality · Timeline · Vision · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Mining and Resource Management · Water Governance and Infrastructure
The Promise of Infrastructure
The Will to Improve
Buen Vivir
Chapter 9. The Future in Question
Development as Buen Vivir
Ethnography
Extractivismo unearthed
Latin America at a Crossroads
The New Extraction
Oil or ‘life’
Sustainable development or sacrifice zone? Politics below the surface in post-neoliberal Ecuador
Extractivism and beyond
The ‘will to improve’ at the mining frontier
Nature, Infrastructure, and the State
Toward a Decolonial Alternative to Development? The Emergence and Shortcomings of Vivir Bien as State Policy in Bolivia in the Era of Globalization
The Natural Resource Dynamics of Postneoliberalism in Latin America
Resisting neoliberalism? Movements against austerity and for democracy in Cairo, Athens and London
Challenging infrastructural orthodoxies
Paths of authority, roads of resistance
Mapping terrains of struggle
China’s belt and road initiative
Mining for Mother Earth. Governmentalities, sacred waters and nature’s rights in Ecuador
Governmentalities, hydrosocial territories & recognition politics
The longue durée of short-lived infrastructure – Roads and state authority in South Sudan
Brief History of Neoliberalism
Ecuador
Development for a postneoliberal era? Sumak kawsay, living well and the limits to decolonisation in Ecuador
The Indigenous State
An alternative to 'alternative development
The nature of post-neoliberalism
Roads and Anthropology
The Enchantments of Infrastructure
Illegible infrastructures
Post-neoliberalism in Latin America
Buen vivir (Good Living)
Ecuador's Buen vivir
The Return of the State, New Social Actors, and Post-Neoliberalism in Ecuador
Mining Capitalism
Unbuilt and Unfinished
Interpreting social movements
Lively Infrastructure
The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure
(En)Gendering Equality? Conditional Cash Transfers as National Development in Post-Neoliberal Ecuador
Legalizing Indigenous Self-Determination
Between resistance and negotiation
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |