The advent of neo-liberalism and the development of new technologies have led to a weakening of the MII, in the developed and developing worlds, with varying social and spatial consequences New technologies, especially IT, allow to discriminate between users and diversify the range and level of services offered like never before We will analyse the problems emerging from these changes, as well as the potential positive opportunities A key point here is the increasing differentiation of service: where before the aim was to roll out a universal and uniform system, in search of economies of scale and public policy goals, now we see attempts to occupy niches and break down users into as many categories as can be profitable

1. The unraveling of the modern
infrastructural ideal?
Holes in the network, disconnection,
fragmentation

2. From universal and uniform to
differentiated
• The advent of neo-liberalism and the development of new technologies
have led to a weakening of the MII, in the developed and developing
worlds, with varying social and spatial consequences
• New technologies, especially IT, allow to discriminate between users and
diversify the range and level of services offered like never before
• We will analyse the problems emerging from these changes, as well as the
potential positive opportunities
• A key point here is the increasing differentiation of service: where before
the aim was to roll out a universal and uniform system, in search of
economies of scale and public policy goals, now we see attempts to
occupy niches and break down users into as many categories as can be
profitable

3. Golden age of UTN under public
control
• The period post WWII-1970s is probably the
‘golden age’ of the ‘modern infrastructural ideal’,
at least in the developed world
• It combined public control, high investments,
good status for workers in network industries,
high levels of cross-subsidies and generally high
level of service
• Some examples of networks that were
considerably advanced in this stage are national
road/highway systems and telecoms

4. UK highway system, from late 1950s: in just 2 decades,
the country went from zero highways to a network!

5. Why did the MII come under attack?
• If the MII had been so perfect, it would
probably not have been challenged
• A set of challenges emerged from the 1970s
• These challenges were social, political,
economic, technical and environmental
• They have been reshaping the governance of
networked systems ever since
• We are still in this post-MII era of
reconfiguration, of transition

6. The downsides/ critiques
• High resource consumption model, high
intensity: laying the ground for sustainability
crisis?
• Overly centralised? Poor resilience in case of
disaster
• The socio-economic model: high cross-
subsidies, lack of dynamism/innovation?
• Victim of own success?

7. High intensity, high throughput
• The networks that were developed in this ‘golden
age’, and which we are still used to today, are part
and parcel of a resource-intensive society
• They are high production, high throughput and
high waste systems, conceived in an age where
resource management was not seen as an issue
• Remember the notion of path dependency—our
societies are ‘addicted’ to a certain type of
metabolism
• Self-perpetuating high consumption

8. Examples
• Water systems: we use high quality water
resources for low-grade uses, such as flushing
or watering lawns; we could imagine dual
piping systems to be more efficient, by using
‘grey water’ or collected rainwater for these
• Electricity: how many of our devices are
constantly on standby, and how much does
this add up to? E.g. ‘vampire’ energy and
Jevons paradox

9. Dual plumbing/grey water system

10. Overly centralised systems?
• Another characteristic of the classic urban
technical network system is its centralisation
• One example is the power system, with big power
plants producing energy for large areas, or
transport systems focusing around nodes (hub
and spoke), telecom exchanges etc.
• This was in keeping with a spirit of rationalisation
(Fordism) and economies of scale
• However, this is also a weakness in the case of
natural and/or human-made disasters

11. • De-centralised systems are now being
advocated
• These include wind, solar
• Energy production can be spread out
geographically and between production
modes (most efficient at any given time)
• Introduction of new technologies can take us
towards smart consumption: smart meters,
smart homes that automatically switch off
certain appliances at certain times etc.

12. Dual meter

13. • The above examples show that the MII was
(and is) potentially conducive to waste
• Thus, a change towards a more decentralised,
cost-focused model is not all bad in
environmental (and economic) terms…

14. The socio-economic model: sclerotic?
• One reason for the onslaught of neo-
liberalism and the application of new
technologies to transforming networked
systems was the perception of an old,
antiquated model of production and labour
embodied by these UTN
• Seen as big, lumbering, old-fashioned
corporations, with too many unproductive
employees in need of a ‘kick’

16. Beeching cuts

17. • The UK railways suffered profound cuts from the
mid-1960s
• Networks was seen as over-dimensioned, too
costly and bureaucratic
• A coalition of tax-cutters and road-builders
• Planners were certain that the car would rule
• Dr Beeching devised the cuts
• Scotland and Wales were very hard hit
• Another plan in 1983 proposed reducing the
network by another 84%!
• In mid 1990s, railway system would be privatised

18. • Today, several of the closed lines have been
reopened and are thriving
• There is actually too little capacity vs demand
on the network!
• This shows the dangers of massive cuts: how
many more lines could be used beneficially
today?
• Once networks are ripped out, it’s very hard to
put them back in…again, the Edinburgh tram
is a good case in point!

19. MII victim of its own success?
• The death of the ‘technological sublime’?
• Sense of networks as so ordinary, banal (we
do call them ‘utilities’!)
• Buried underground, out of sight etc.
• The public aren’t aware of, and don’t
appreciate the socio-technical ‘miracle’ that
this is!
• We can see the same happening now with the
internet for example.

20. In the developing world, a different
story
• In countries of the South, attempts to emulate the MII
remained incomplete, laying the basis for the current
situation of fragmented, piecemeal networks
• One general trend is the heritage of colonial times, i.e. a
piecemeal development of Western-style UTNs alongside
vast areas with no or little systems
• This usually mirrors the divide that existed between the
colonial city, built on a Western model, and informal
settlements (shantytowns and the like)
• The former has networks similar to Western cities, whilst
the latter has piecemeal, often improvised systems (e.g.
water trucks in Delhi, or one water pipe for several families;
illegal connections to the power system etc.)

21. • In cities of the developing world, recent
changes have had mixed effects
• New technologies, such as prepay meters,
have allowed some to connect and budget for
their consumption in ways that were not
possible before
• But the roll-out of neoliberal policies of cost-
recovery has also been harmful to vulnerable
populations, meaning sometimes less access
than before
• E.g. Cape Town ‘townships’/Eskom

22. The role of technology
• Information technologies, such as computers
and over the last 2 decades, rise and
pervasiveness of the internet—always on,
always there (mobile devices)
• This allows service providers to:
• -gather more, and more precise information
on their customers, and thus tailor their offer
• -cut out many intermediary jobs (self-service,
offices not required)

23. Cherry-picking (Graham and Marvin
2001)
• This refers to the capacity of network service
providers to choose their customers based on
willingness to pay and solvency
• Private sector businesses, more focused on
profit, will only seek the ‘best’ customers
• Hence use of credit scoring and other tools to
‘filter out’—thanks to possession of massive
quantity of information on people

24. Bypass (idem)
• While the publicly-owned systems of the ‘golden age’
had an aim of universal service, many operators since
then would rather avoid serving entire sections of the
population so as not to take any risks
• This is all the more pronounced in the developing
world, where frequently some neighbourhoods will
have no (official) water/waste/electric etc. services
• But in the developed world, we have dead zones or
zones of poor service for instance internet (digital
divide), as it is not profitable enough for a private
sector provider to roll out a network there

25. The digital divide

26. • At the global scale, here in the case of the
internet, it is clear that there are whole areas
that are poorly or not covered
• These correspond to the poorer countries

28. • Even within developed areas, however, there
are gaps and holes in the system, and not
everyone is covered equally, especially when it
comes to the newer technologies
• In fact, the faster the development of
technologies, the lesser government
intervention, the greater the gaps seem to get
• Case of ultra high-speed fiber these days, for
example, where only a few test sites are
equipped, and where the price is prohibitive
for many

29. Premium network spaces
• A corollary of these evolutions is the emergence of PNS
• This is the concentration of a range of high quality
networked services in certain socio-spatial sectors,
usually within luxury (premium) housing developments
• We can think here of gated communities, branded
housing projects, techno parks, special economic zones
etc.
• These PNS are often more connected to other similar
areas, even across the planet, as they are to their own
cities and neighbours;
• in a way, this is a form of extra-territoriality, of
secession, as these spaces form a new socio-
technological entity

30. • This is very apparent in the developing world,
where the socio-spatial segregation is strong
• The wealthier, living in high-end, often gated
housing, benefit from world-class networked
connections
• The poorer, at the opposite end of the
spectrum, often do not even have the basic
systems, such as water, power…

31. Negative consequences
• The phenomena of cherry-picking, bypass and
premium network spaces can have negative
consequences in terms of social cohesion and
inclusiveness
• In this sense, changes in networked systems
governance can be linked to current trends
towards urban fragmentation

32. • In your opinion, what is urban fragmentation?
• Think of a definition, and some examples…

33. What is urban fragmentation?
• Fragmentation is the opposite of integration
• Refers to a process whereby the city seems to
‘come apart’
• In social, political, economic and also physical
terms
• People and spaces are less connected, there is
less of a sense of community, of shared
destiny, and less functional integration

34. • Different from segregation: the Apartheid city
in South Africa was segregated, but not
necessarily fragmented, as it formed a
functional whole—the white city needed the
black workforce
• In today’s fragmented city, the elite does not
even really need the ‘underclass’ as goods are
produced overseas, and even service jobs are
delocalised!
• In this sense, the separation is even more
pronounced, and can lead a part of the city to
secede

35. San Fernando Valley

36. • The SFV is an interesting case
• Indeed, the issue of network governance played a
big role in the secession not happening
• It was difficult to come to an agreement as the
how the LADWP would be partitioned between
the cities
• The company would have had to be broken up,
which is against its charter
• It could have charged enormous prices to the
new city, making it non-viable economically!
• Here, networks played an integrating role

37. A positive potential too?
• It is important here to nuance the image of the MII
• The uniformity and universalism, the equitable
treatment of all users irrespective of income etc., was
never quite achieved—this was always an ideal
• It may also not be a totally reasonable ideal in certain
poorer areas of our cities, or in the developing world,
as not everyone has the capacity to afford these
systems
• In this sense, recent evolutions may offer some
interesting possibilities

38. The spread of mobile phones in Kenya
(and other African countries)
• M-Pesa system in Kenya
• Other similar systems in Nigeria etc.
• Use of mobile phones by a population which is
underserved by traditional networks and
traditional banking systems
• Cheap, ubiquitous mobiles have allowed to
connect people to the banking sector in ways that
were impossible before
• Paying, sending/receiving money become easy,
facilitating daily life and business

39. Providing network access

40. Cheap and easy access to services

41. • M-Pesa is a clear example of post-MII network
access
• New technologies and new modes of
governance (private sector rather than
government) have effectively managed to
connect people who were not networked
• In this sense, smaller scale, ‘lighter’
approaches can be extremely socially
beneficial

42. Pre-payment meters: always bad?
• Seen as a symbol of the unraveling of the MII,
since some people shunted towards a lower
level of connection, more precarious and
more expensive per unit
• However, may be a way to manage budget
more proactively for some, on the model of
pay as you go for phones

43. Your thoughts
• What do you think, on balance, of the
opportunities and limits offered by the new
approaches to network governance?
• Think of some examples along the lines of
what we have just seen (you may use
computers to help)
• Is the MII really dead/dying? Or mutating?
• Take some moments in your groups to reflect
on this…