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Infrastructural urbanism : ecologies and technologies of multi-layered landscapes

The research project involves using analytical and critical work to identify, interrogate and address some of the issues precipitated by the complex relationships between economy, society and urban systems. In this respect, the research seeks to enhance existing knowledge through the provision of a conceptual framework via a combination of arguments, insights and imaginative scope. The research question evaluates design in the making protocols, responding to city dynamics, urban innovation and socio-technical change alongside public reactions to, and participation with, technologies and innovation. The mobility and connectivity of communities with niche interests is advanced through the position developed in this research toward ‘digital ecologies’ through their use of digital infrastructures that afford meaningful relationships. A key aspect of the position presented here is the use of empirical and analytical methodologies to understand these technologies to facilitate ‘thick’ descriptions of digital networks and communities and thus contribute to our knowledge of their spatiality. This paper thus establishes a progressive paradigm to describe and explain this transformation and proposes theoretical material to discern some of the attendant issues.

This research has enabled the evolution of an emergent strand of scrutiny and theory that responds to contemporary urban conditions and explores how issues concerning governance, policy makers, stakeholders and communities may be better served through notions of spatial justice, citizenship, social engagement and resource management. The research paper demonstrates an investigative process leading to new insights and is effectively shared and recognised since it won an international award for excellence in November 2011. The paper was selected for the award from the ten highest-ranked papers from over 300 originally submitted. The research led to the formation of a cumulative strand of analytical and critical scrutiny, further disseminated via two subsequent journal articles (2012 & 2013) and an invited presentation in Detroit (2012).