Improstructure - an improvisational perspective on smart infrastructure governance. (February 2018) - Offenhuber, Dietmar
Abstract: Infrastructure modernization is a central concern in many cities of the developing world. Local governments struggle to provide adequate public services under budgetary constraints and vast spatial and economic inequalities. After the demise of the centralized modernist planning paradigm, current approaches to urban development focus on public-private partnerships, resulting in networks of dependency that involve multiple stakeholders and complex relationships of accountability. This stakeholder complexity complicates decision making, but can also lead to new social practices and participatory models of infrastructure governance. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of social practices surrounding the provision and modernization of streetlight and electricity in Paco, Manila, enacted by formal and informal actors. Drawing from the case study, literature on organizational improvisation and improvisational governance (MartijnHartog, 2015 ), we propose a model of infrastructure governance that is based on the concept of improvisation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with city officials, planners, residents and local activists, we develop the notion of improstructure as a conceptual model for understanding infrastructure governance as an improvisational process of "call and response" among a diverse set of actors. We apply this perspective to ongoing modernization efforts by the city of Manila and its utility companies, involving smart city technologies including sensor networks, drone mapping, and data analytics. We argue that despite the placeless and generic rhetoric surrounding these technologies, they constitute improvisational responses to local conditions. We conclude by formulating design principles for improvisational infrastructure governance, which are not limited to the Global South, but also apply in developed countries.