Reconceptualizing How Infrastructures Operate Lecture by Eva Barlösius

A look through official communiqués, press accounts, feature articles, calls for research proposals, and the like quickly gives the impression that infrastructure is more abundant than ever. Plainly, the term infrastructure has come to encompass just about anything people want it to. It goes beyond classical things such as railroads, bridges, and water mains. In rural areas the “basic public service infrastructure” increasingly includes local retail food stores, bakeries, hair salons, and village inns as well. My interest in this subject is developing a sociological concept of infrastructures that affords insight into how infrastructures operate socially, how they are embedded, and what people regard as infrastructure. My empirical work began in small villages, where infrastructures can be studied directly.
In my talk I will start with a brief overview of my concept of infrastructure. Then I will present results from my empirical study of villages. I am focusing on what kind of sociality the infrastructures are aiming at. What interests me in my studies on villages is what and how village infrastructures contribute to village character (Dörflichkeit), particularly the relation between village infrastructure and village character.