Ritornello: “People as Infrastructure”

Abstract

“People as Infrastructure” was a concept deployed by the author in a 2004 publication of Public Culture. This essay returns to this notion following widespread use across the urban studies community, and attempts to find new dimensions of applicability not considered in the original publication. These are rooted in an exploration of a techno-poetics of urbanism, the continuous and oscillating relationships between human agencies and technicity, and the subsequent need to reimagine the basic terms of urban collective life.