LSE Cities Working Papers

Research Strand 03: Urban Governance and Institutional Frameworks

Urban infrastructure and development

By Liza Cirolia and Philipp Rode

Liza Cirolia is a Researcher at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town. Philipp Rode is Executive
Director of LSE Cities and Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political
Science.

31 January 2019

Introduction closer relationship across social and technical

disciplines and fields.
Over the last decades there has been a revival of
interest in understanding, analysing and theorising This working paper provides a selective and stylised
infrastructures. In Stephen Graham’s (2000) words, review of the key and contemporary urban
‘infrastructure networks are being reproblematized’ infrastructure debates. The paper’s purpose cuts
(p. 185). This has come along with establishing a across two main objectives: first, to establish a point
of departure and conceptual framework for the
LSE Cities Working Papers Cirolia, L., Rode, P. 2019: Urban infrastructure & development

British Academy GCRF Cities & Infrastructure follow, this section considers four broad
project ‘Governing Infrastructure Interfaces’ led by infrastructural ideals that have emerged at different
LSE Cities, the African Centre for Cities and Addis times historically and which continue to inform our
Ababa University; and second, to explore common aspirations, debates and political actions today. These
ground and fault lines between key disciplines include: universal networked access, connecting
involved in this project and to identify new competitive space, ecological modernisation and new
interdisciplinary connections between technocratic self-sufficiency. We briefly review them in this
and policy-oriented work on the one hand and section.
critical, political perspectives on the other.
Universal access
This working paper is divided into three parts. Part
one explores dominant ‘infrastructure ideals’ that The ideal of universal access forms also a key part of
have shaped infrastructure discourses and policy over the international development discourse. For
decades. Each idea has both material and institutional example, ensuring basic access to infrastructure
arrangements that underpin it. These ideals have services featured centrally as part of the Millennium
shaped policy and thinking over time. Part two Development Goals and the more recent Sustainable
explores the tension between technical readings of Development Goals (Revi and Rosenzweig 2013).
urban infrastructure and social/political readings of Universal access to infrastructure services is an
urban infrastructure. As we show, both the technical objective, as Leipziger et al. (2003) remark, that may
readings and the social/political readings have be easier to aim for than universal wealth.
struggled to engage with one another in productive
ways. In the conclusion, we draw together the Part of the developmental discourse of universal
technical and the social/political reading, arguing for access hinges on public economics. The ideal of
an approach that can grapple productively and universal access is linked to a particular concern that
propositionally with both. In addition, we argue that is seen to have a public cost (i.e. externality). For
such an approach should be grounded in place and example, failure to ensure access could result in
attentive to the emergent disruptive trends on the spread of diseases, high death rates, poor health and
horizon. the risk of social unrest (Boyer 1986). Wider concerns
about societal well-being, a healthy labour force and
economic productivity further strengthened the case
Development and infrastructural for universal access (Revi and Rosenzweig 2013).
These can be seen as ‘public benefit’ or ‘public good’
ideals arguments. Clarke and Wallsten (2002) argue that
There is no uniform or uncontested definition of access to infrastructure services are seen as merit
urban infrastructure. Some definitions focus on the goods that society normatively believes should be
‘hard’ utilities and the material networks that available to everyone.
underpin their provision (Leipziger, Fay et al. 2003,
Estache and Fay 2009). Other definitions include the Importantly, whether approaching infrastructure
people, practices, discourses and imaginaries that access as a right or a development tool (or both), the
shape urban services (Amin and Thrift 2017). ideal of universal access requires determining a
Regardless, there is a shared understanding that definition of ‘access’ and baselines to compare
urban infrastructure is a system through which urban progress against. Most countries stipulate specific
services, of various kinds, are provided. infrastructure access targets as public policy goals
(Clarke and Wallsten 2002). In the case of water, for
Over time, there have been many perspectives on example, access to five litres of clean water and about
what the fundamental paradigm or ideal for 20 litres for sanitation and hygiene may express such
developing infrastructure should be. Several of these a minimum level (Gleick 1998). For electricity,
ideals have had staying power, gaining traction universality may be associated with stable, reliable,
among practitioners, academics, governments and adequate and affordable supplies to all consumers
multilateral organisations. These ideals are primarily (Tully 2006). Specifying universal access for other
about approaches to physical urban infrastructure infrastructure services may be more difficult, as
systems. As a starting point for the discussion to recent debates on transport, ICT and internet

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availability have shown (Gillett 2000, Estache and Fay densification of cities and urban areas, which has had
2009, Klimaszewski and Nyce 2009). Overall, access a range of negative impacts (Graham and Marvin
to infrastructure services in techno-policy work is 2001).
defined in terms of geography (the distance to access
services); affordability (Lee and Floris 2003, Banerjee, Connecting competitive space
Wodon et al. 2008); level of service/carrying capacity
(Banerjee, Wodon et al. 2008) and infrastructure ‘Connecting competitive space’ is an infrastructural
literacy (Gillett 2000). ideal that is essentially concerned with economic
growth, productivity and the effective deployment of
Dovetailing arguments around the scaled provision scarce resources. It follows the logic of ‘strengthening
of public goods (Murthy 2013, Paget-Seekins and strengths’, advocating for prioritising infrastructure
Tironi 2016), the Keynesian development model investments where they can have the most impact on
(Graham and Marvin 2001) and monopolistic (public growth and economic development (in other words,
and private) services (Graham 2000, Clarke and where there is already agglomerative potential). This
Wallsten 2002), universal access was the official requires concentrating high levels of investment;
infrastructure doxa of modernism, comprehensive practically it means investment in fewer urban
planning and the mid-20th century era of public environments with the greatest potential for scale
utility monopolies in the West (Coutard 2002). By economies and leveraging of investments.
contrast, universal access was deliberately ignored as
part of the development of colonial cities, such as in The ideal of developing competitive spaces accepts an
African cities, where urban services were only uneven distribution of infrastructural developments
provided in select settlements (Graham and Marvin (Peck 1996, Jessop 1998). As the World Bank (2009)
2001). However, it is important to note that the ideal put it in its World Development Report, ‘the world is
of universal access to networked urban infrastructure not flat’ (p. 8), not only accepting that economic
is not necessarily aligned with specific political activities are becoming more concentrated but also
economy regimes. Historically at least, different implicitly endorsing corresponding infrastructure
political regimes ranging from the developmental to policy. In stark contrast to universal access, this ideal
the liberal state have all advanced as well as struggled focuses on infrastructural alignment geared toward
with addressing universal access and developing economic productivity. It is about strategic
large-scale infrastructure projects to support this investments that leverage the power of urban
(Clarke and Wallsten 2002, Coutard 2002). agglomeration (in particular its diverse and uneven
nature) (Lall, Henderson et al. 2017).
In contemporary urban debates, universal access
underpins notions of inclusive urbanism (Marvin The ideal of connecting competitive space follows the
and Guy 2016) and the right to the city (Harvey 2008, logic of urbanisation that strengthens and prioritises
UN Habitat 2009, UN 2016). It also features in the higher-density growth poles, accelerating economic
New Urban Agenda. In an urban context, it has also growth and societal well-being in territorially more
been linked to urban social movements and rights- confined areas (Collier 2016, Collier and Venables
claiming (Attoh 2011), the fair city (Parnell 2016), 2016). Essentially this follows the logic of
public ownership, re-municipalisation of urban modernisation theory (Bernstein 1971);
utilities (Becker, Beveridge et al. 2015) and the infrastructure development initially focuses on
practice of ‘commoning’ – the creation of public critical cities and over time comes to include other
value beyond the logic of commodification (Harvey urban areas and larger rural territories (Friedmann
2012). In addition, universal access is often associated 1967).
with an undifferentiated level of investment, for
example between urban and peri-urban areas, or An approach focused on developing competitive
between wealthy and poor areas in cities. While there cities and spaces thus advocates for intentional but
has undeniably been huge progress made in basic temporal inequalities of infrastructure access,
access to services globally (and in particular in assuming that these will be mitigated over time
Africa), this approach has also enabled spatial (Graham and Marvin 2001) – a form of trickle-down
decentralisation, suburbanisation and the de- urbanism – aligned with what the World Bank (2009)
refers to as accepting diverging living standards prior

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to convergence. Connecting competitive space is receiving minimal, informal and substandard, and
centrally concerned about the efficiency in delivering often very costly, infrastructure (Swilling 2011).
infrastructure services and the maximisation of
investments. The ideal of connecting competitive space is also
exposed to considerable criticism arguing that it
The recent report Africa’s Cities: Opening Doors to represents a departure from infrastructure as public
the World (2017) is a good example of this argument good and social justice (Graham 2000, Coutard
in the context of urban Africa. In this report, the 2002). Socially regressive consequences of
World Bank argues that the endogenous and privatisation and competition in infrastructure
exogenous value cities potentially have is being utilities may result from ‘cream skimming’ or
neither created nor marshalled for effective urban ‘cherry-picking’ (serving the most profitable
development in urban Africa. They call for local, consumers and areas) (Murthy 2013), eliminating
regional and international connectivity. Connectivity cross-subsidies and leading to price increases (Clarke
enables more productive urban spaces (through scale and Wallsten 2002). At the same time, some
and specialisation). This includes developing and commentators have challenged the assumption that
deepening connectivity between households and the unbundling of networked infrastructure utilities
firms, among firms and between firms and leads to greater socio-spatial disparities in access to
international markets. The key to this connectivity is infrastructure services, particularly in contexts where
to support dense development and infrastructure the ideal of universal access has been equally elusive
investment (such as transport, ICT and other (Coutard 2002). We pick this argument up again later
networked services). Importantly, connectivity in the conversation on the post-networked city.
lowers costs (of transport) and increases markets
(IGC, 2016). Connectivity, and by extension urban Ecological modernisation
competitiveness, must be achieved through two
interlocked and mutually dependent processes: A distinctively different infrastructural ideal from the
urban densification and selective infrastructure previous two, both ultimately focusing on socio-
investment. economic welfare, this considers instead the global
environmental crisis as its point of departure. For the
This focus on efficiency, productivity and leveraging purpose of this overview, we regard this ideal as being
infrastructural investments also serves as a central aligned with the wider notion of ‘ecological
reference for fundamental critiques of connecting modernisation’ and ‘infrastructure transitions’.
competitive space with its risk of compromising These concepts emerged during the 1980s and 1990s,
universal access for disadvantaged populations in and aim to overcome both the radical environmental
cities and rural households (Clarke and Wallsten movements of the 1970s and the central importance
2002). It is usually argued that the efficiency logic of using infrastructure to craft for sustainable
further exacerbates the already considerable ecological urban futures (Hajer 1995, Geels 2012,
disparities of infrastructure access between large Bulkeley, Castán Broto et al. 2014, Silver and Marvin
cities, towns and villages (Lee and Floris 2003). 2016).

The concept of ‘splintering urbanism’ has been used A central tenet of this ideal is the reframing of the
to describe the process of breaking up the urban environment as a public good and resource rather
fabric through uneven provision and concentrated than a free good, essentially stopping the
investments (Graham and Marvin 2001). Exclusive externalisation of costs to the environment caused by
areas in cities are equipped with new or retrofitted the existing infrastructural and service delivery
infrastructures to enhance their global economic regimes (Hajer 1995). Critical analysis of the flows
competitiveness and connectivity (Parnell 2016). and consumption of natural resources alongside
High-speed rail terminals, hub airports, global ecological degradation has repeatedly identified
logistics centres and ultra-high-capacity fibre-optic infrastructure production and operation as a
cable access are part of the infrastructure inventory of fundamental space for environmental transitions
such spaces. The areas outside of these zones, nodes (Melosi and Hanley 2000, Guy, Marvin et al. 2001,
and corridors are left to fend for themselves, often Monstadt 2009, Bulkeley, Broto et al. 2010).
Increasingly, urban infrastructure is presented as a

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critical part of broader ecological modernisation and The transitions literature is particularly attentive to
transition. This includes, for example, developing the challenges around changing infrastructure
infrastructure that reduces carbon emissions, pathways. There is a twofold concern in relation to
supports ‘ecosystem services’ and reduces the the current and unsustainable infrastructures: on the
degradation of the natural environment. one hand the risk of lock-in, whereby they determine
future development and behaviour over a long period
Ecological modernisation echoes the positive, of time (Stern and Zenghelis 2018) and on the other
utopian position of modernism that suggests that that their sunk costs present investors with
deliberate change, in this case towards more considerable financial losses if they become
sustainable infrastructures, is not only feasible but eventually obsolescent, stranded assets (Jakob and
also highly desirable. It shares with related concepts Hilaire 2015). Ecological modernisation also
such as green growth (OECD 2011, UNEP 2011) and recognises that infrastructure services today are
a new climate economy (GCEC 2014) the oversupplying and underpricing resources such as
fundamental assumption that economic prosperity water, energy and transport with damaging effects for
and environmental protection can be the environment (Murthy 2013).
complementary. Increasingly, the underpinning
pursuit of decoupling socio-economic development An important consideration of ecological
and environmental degradation has been linked to modernisation is institutional reforms that create the
risks and opportunities of urbanisation and urban enabling framework for ecological/infrastructural
change (Suzuki, Dastur et al. 2010, Rode, Burdett et transitions, in turn not only considering the physical
al. 2011, Rode, Floater et al. 2013, Floater, Rode et al. problem of our ecological crisis but also the social
2014). conflicts that underpin it (Hajer 1995). In this
context, ideas such as integrated transport
In terms of infrastructure development, ecological authorities, feed-in tariffs, re-municipalisation of
modernisation implies a central commitment to infrastructure utilities or citizens’ energy
infrastructure systems, above all energy and cooperatives are exemplary cases for such reforms
transport, enabling the building of a green economy. (Hajer and Huitzing 2012, Becker, Beveridge et al.
In the energy sector, this cuts across renewable 2015, Rode 2018). At the same time, it assumes that
energy generation, smart distribution systems and existing political regimes and economies are able to
energy storage. In transport, public and active ‘internalize the care for the environment’ and
transport infrastructures are the most relevant ones, reframe it as a ‘management problem’ (Hajer 1995).
increasingly complemented by electrification and In summary, the role of infrastructure for ecological
telecommunication infrastructure impacting on the modernisation is as a central policy tool to
entire transport ecosystem. Furthermore, proactively support environmental transitions and a
infrastructures of ecological modernisation are break with business-as-usual development.
increasingly interconnected, allowing for energy and
resource efficiencies generated at new interfaces and New self-sufficiency and post-networked
nexuses between, for example, energy and transport, infrastructure
transport and urban form, buildings and energy and
water and transport (Belaieff, Moy et al. 2007, GIZ The fourth and final infrastructural ideal we
and ICLEI 2014). More recently, and typically under identified for this overview links to revived
the smart cities banner, some of the ideas related to aspirations to local self-sufficiency and a post-
integrating infrastructure systems have also been networked urban infrastructure (Coutard and
connected to the enabling opportunities of Rutherford 2015).
digitalisation (Batty, Axhausen et al. 2012).
Ecological modernisation thus implies the provision New self-sufficiency implies replacing the long-term
of a new economic impulse that can unleash a new objective of access to networked services with
innovation cycle as theorised by Schumpeter (Jänicke permanent rather than temporary forms of off-grid,
and Lindemann 2010) and lead to a new energy- small-scale and at times informal alternatives. New
industrial revolution (Stern and Rydge 2012). self-sufficiency suggests a rescaling of spheres of
collective, citywide service provision, to individual-
and community-scale infrastructural actions. It may

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therefore imply a considerable degree of sharing local experiments, perpetual becoming, radical revision
service access points (Banerjee, Wodon et al. 2008) and post-networkedness (Simone 2008).
(water, electricity, toilets), hyper-individualised off-
grid solutions and the establishment of local, micro- Practically, the most common forms of infrastructure
grids that are not connected to a wider system. services beyond grid connectivity are respectively
water and sanitation solutions. For sanitation, these
The ideal of new self-sufficiency has been taken up include ventilated improved pit (VIP), compost,
most enthusiastically by two groups. On the one chemical, concrete slab and cover (SanPlat) pit
hand, those who are deeply sceptical of centralised toilets, as well as septic tanks. Banerjee (2008) refers
(and state-led) systems have opted for the to these as ‘viable substitutes for networked services’
development of off-grid systems that enable access (p. x). While less common, new self-sufficiency for
irrespective of the functioning of the citywide system. cooking solutions may replace non-renewable solid
On the other hand, new self-sufficiency has critiqued fuels such as wood and charcoal with liquid fuels
the networked city as an imposed ideal, out of touch (potentially generated through renewable sources)
with the realities of developing cities. Within this and for lighting could replace candles and kerosene
Southern Urban Theory (a sub-strand of urban with renewable electricity. Smaller electrical
theory concerned with ‘southern cities’), the post- networks are arguably the most innovative area of
networked city is both an explicit critique and an new self-sufficiency, enabled by a new decentralised
extension of the concept of splintering urbanism. micro-generation of electricity that is operating
Arguments for the legitimacy of the ‘post-networked independently from the main utility grid. These
city’ undermine the ‘modern infrastructure ideal’ forms of electricity production and distribution can
from which also the splintered urbanism debates come along with considerable cost savings,
depart (Pieterse 2014, Coutard and Rutherford 2015). supporting affordability and more rapid deployment.
This work argues that hybrid and heterogeneous Some commentators have also linked self-sufficiency
infrastructure creates new pathways for access and to political empowerment, which is evident, for
city-making. example, in the literature of the off-grid movement
(Rosen 2008).
In line with thinking on the post-networked system,
Simone (2004) discusses ‘people as infrastructure’, The risk of relying on self-sufficiency is maybe most
celebrating the ways in which people use their bodies obvious in instances when local demand exceeds
and labour to fill the gaps of incomplete systems of what can be supplied locally without networked
provision and maintenance (Graham and Thrift infrastructure. In such cases, providing for additional
2007, De Boeck 2013). The result is a blurring of the services can be prohibitively expensive if not
boundaries between people and infrastructure, the impossible. For example, supplying water to areas not
human and the non-human. ‘People as connected to the main water network and where local
infrastructure’ fits within of a larger body of work on sources are insufficient involves high transport costs
incrementalism, informality and prefigurative and the involvement of many intermediaries is
infrastructure arrangements (Pieterse 2008). For driving up costs even further. As a result, prices can
example, Silver (2014) discusses ‘material easily exceed water prices charged by utilities by a
improvising’ in Accra, whereby people access factor of ten to twenty (Murthy 2013). Sustained off-
electricity networks in all manner of incremental and grid services, particularly in an urban context, may be
informal ways. Simone (2008) discusses the ‘politics most difficult to maintain for telecommunication.
of the possible’ in Phnom Penh. Pieterse (2008) writes
on ‘radical incrementalism’ as a mode of urban The literature on new self-sufficiency, while
change and practice. De Boeck and Amin explore the primarily concerned with the dislodging of the
‘absence-presence’ of urban infrastructure (De Boeck centralised nature of infrastructure provision,
2013, Amin 2014). This work holds a unique sort of increasingly overlaps with the environmental debates
optimism, one which positions developing (and over infrastructure provision. Since the early 1980s,
particularly African) cities not as the passive sites of environmentalism has frequently revisited the
neoliberal destruction, but as sites of imagination and general idea of a self-reliant city (Morris 1990,
Shuman 2013). Through building local economies,
increasing the use of local natural resources and

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minimising waste flows so they can be absorbed by Readings on urban infrastructure

ecosystems of the immediate urban hinterland, the
self-reliant city addresses the city’s problems from There is a wide body of contemporary literature on
within and focuses on a city’s relationship with its urban infrastructure and relevant works can be
bioregion. Within this bioregion, the integration of grouped in many ways, for example by sectors such
nature and settlements is prioritised over the as water, energy, transport, communication and
conventional urban conversions replacing natural waste. They can also be bundled by disciplines
with artificial environments (Haughton 1997). The ranging from economics and engineering to
self-reliant city comes closest to Girardet’s concept of geography and anthropology. For the purposes of this
a circular urban metabolism (Girardet 2004) and working paper, we have grouped these works into
could be considered as the radical expansion of two main ‘camps’ largely based on a discipline’s
hyper-local access combined with greater local self- explicit intention, i.e. what respective work on
sufficiency. infrastructure aims to do:

Summary • Technical readings: are explicitly

concerned with the technical aspects of
To conclude, what all these (stylised) infrastructural infrastructure. The aim is to objectively
ideals share is the need for more and better inform policy or practices related to that
infrastructure; they differ in relation to their core infrastructure system. This could be termed
priorities (for example, access vs growth), with a technicist, techno-policy or techno-
corollary implications for the type of infrastructure managerial approach to infrastructure. It
that is advocated for. tends to draw on disciplines such as
engineering and economics.
All four infrastructural ideals acknowledge that • Social and political readings: use studies of
infrastructure and services are powerful tools for infrastructure as a lens to explore social and
shaping cities. Decisions about investments are never political phenomena and challenges. While
only technical – they extend into and shape social and equally concerned with the operations of
political domains as well. These choices also shape infrastructure, the intention is to open the
how infrastructure is understood, as a right, a ‘black box’ of infrastructure, expose its inner
commodity or an investment. In this way, the ideals workings and reflect critically on the
point to the powerful effect of infrastructure. From implications. It tends to draw on disciplines
‘celebrated icons of modernity’ (Graham and Marvin such as anthropology, geography, political
2001, p44) to artefacts of an ecological age, Parnell science and history.
(2016) links aspirations of infrastructural ideals to
‘establishing utopia in an urban world’ (p. 122). In this section, we outline the contemporary debates
There are different dreams about future aspirations, in each of these infrastructure camps. This is not a
justified from various perspectives. comprehensive review of infrastructure debates and
perspectives; instead it is a stylised review of the
In an actual policy-making context, the four major thrusts within the relevant perspectives.
infrastructural ideals are rarely pursued in isolation
from each other and most infrastructural Techno-policy work
developments on the ground are the results of
differently weighted priorities in relation to each of This section first reviews the important aspects of the
the ideals above. However, limited resources mean techno-policy work on urban infrastructure. It
that these ideals cannot be pursued equally and all at provides a basic vocabulary for how urban
once. They all have costs, in terms of budget, infrastructure is understood within the technical
resources and capacity, which, in most urban policy debates. What makes techno-policy work
contexts, require difficult trade-offs. Moving beyond different from the critical readings of urban
an understanding of urban infrastructure based on infrastructure that are expressed in section 2.2 is its
ideals that drive actual infrastructure developments, focus on:
the following section focuses on different readings on
urban infrastructure.

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• Providing an objective analysis based on engineering approaches: a mono-disciplinary

‘hard’ facts. approach, a limited framework of technical problem
• Quantitative analysis that provides insights definition, a technocratic view of decision-making
in aggregate terms. processes, an assumption of transparent decision-
• Reliance on technical skill sets that are very making and an assumption of one decision-maker at
particular to the infrastructure in question the top of a hierarchical structure.
(i.e. water tariff design, road network).
• Explicit intention to shape policy and Above all, engineering is deeply embedded within a
practice through problem identification and positivistic worldview of a ‘homo faber’ who is able to
the development of pragmatic solutions. control environmental and social conditions with the
• The underlying assumption that there is use of tools. This perspective operates along a linear
scarcity and, as a result, there is a need for trajectory departing from problem definition and
prioritisation. concluding with solutions. Engineering’s solutionism
is characterised by a bounded rationality that sets the
Much techno-policy work on infrastructure, perimeter for a detailed and mostly quantitative
particularly in Africa, departs from recognising problem analysis based on measurable, numerical
considerable gaps in: the infrastructure that is data. In other words, engineering operates with a
needed, the financing that underpins it and the relatively clear boundary between variables it
capacity that would be needed to roll it out. These considers (usually within its core disciplines and
gaps can be aggregated in various ways, for example related to physical and operational aspects of
between capital and operating costs (Paulais 2012), or infrastructure) and those not considered part of its
by sector (for example, for transport, water, energy remit (above all societal and political issues) (Perez
etc.). Above all, such work focuses on the insufficient and Ardaman 1988). As a result, not only does
stocks of infrastructure that in turn limit the flows of narrow technical problem definition prevail but an
associated services and the potential for development application of frameworks and methodologies most
(Estache and Fay 2009). common within engineering disciplines dominates.

The techno-policy debates on urban infrastructure Several conventional characteristics of engineering

tend to be led by two disciplines: are helpful to unpack further: first, engineering
engineering/planning and economics/finance. There conventionally understands itself as the application
are, of course, many trained practitioners in these of natural sciences knowledge – or as the science of
fields who are additionally concerned with the sorts artefacts as opposed to the science of nature (Poser
of social and political issues that we pick up on in 1998). In his reflections on technology as applied
Section 2.2. This section does not seek to belittle the science, Bunge (1966) differentiates between an
contribution of interdisciplinary thinking to the investigator ‘who searcher for a new law of nature
debates. Instead we seek to highlight what each of and the investigator who applies known laws to the
these important disciplines does add to the design of a useful gadget’ (p. 330). The latter relates
infrastructure debates, and the tools and methods to the approach of an engineer who does ‘not want to
that they bring to the table. get better and deeper knowledge, but better ends’
(Poser 1998, p5).
Infrastructure engineering and planning
Second, engineering has an ambivalent relationship
Over centuries, engineering has maintained its
with context. On the one hand, engineers have to
dominant role among professional groups informing
design technological artefacts that need to respond to
the planning and design of infrastructure projects.
local conditions. This is particularly the case for
This has not changed even after decades of increasing
infrastructure systems and in instances where
multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral interest in
technology has to engage with unique conditions.
infrastructure systems. It is thus critically important
Thus, universality and truth matters less to
to better understand how engineering relates to
engineering than it does to science, leaving an
infrastructure systems and how it approaches
engineer closer to ‘the intellectual task of the
infrastructure planning. Van der Heijden (1996)
humanities… namely, to interpret a given situation
identifies five key characteristics of classical
in its uniqueness’ (Poser 1998, p11).

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On the other hand, engineering has a tendency to 2007) are prominent features of infrastructure
reduce the level of complexity it needs to engage with engineering projects.
in order to more confidently advance with proposing
solutions. A particular tendency is to translate For the governance of infrastructure projects,
broader socio-technical interrelationship to more conventional engineering approaches essentially
simple technical engineering problems (Heijden assume top-down decision-making processes are part
1996). As a result, infrastructure systems are usually of hierarchical administrative structures. Van der
developed as ‘closed systems’ with considerable Heijden (1996) stresses the degree to which this view
separation from contextual factors and uncertainties privileges the needs and criteria of the highest level of
over longer time periods (Dimitriou, Ward et al. the decision-making pyramid – for larger
2013). infrastructure projects, usually the national
government. As a result, there is a risk of neglecting
Third, engineering is pursuing a form of optimisation local government and civil society. He also stresses an
based on the identified variables, problems and assumption in terms of predictability and uniformity
alternative solutions. By definition, this optimisation of behaviours at each hierarchy level.
requires a manageable and therefore limited number
of variables and factors. The identification of ‘optimal In sum, engineering approaches with their
solutions’ is again helped by numerical tools and standardised norms, procedures and technical
modelling exercises that further foreground codes/manuals struggle to incorporate a fuller
quantifiable issues and concerns. bandwidth of ‘solutions’ that may exceed disciplinary
and sectoral boundaries, to incorporate contextual
In terms of the planning and operational logics of conditions, to connect with the politics of
engineering, classical processes rely on logical infrastructure projects that can supersede technical
sequencing. Van der Heijden (1996) identifies seven priorities, to accept various socio-technical
main steps: uncertainties and to communicate their rationality to
non-technical audiences.
1. Specification of the problem and
criteria for solutions; Infrastructure economics and finance
2. Developing alternative options for A further prominent strand of techno-policy work
problem-solving; has emerged through economics and the growing
3. Systematic evaluation of the impacts of sub-field of spatial economics and public economics.
these options; Economics is concerned with how resources are
4. Elaboration of the related allocated in a context of scarcity. This differs from
implementation procedures; engineering as the attention is less focused on the
5. Choosing the best solution; physical infrastructure, and more on the economic
6. Implementation; and financial implications at various scales.
7. Ex-post evaluation.
Underpinning most economic work on urban
Predefined steps in infrastructure engineering infrastructure is the argument that particular services
therefore lock in decisions at various stages, are ‘public goods’ that require some level of state
considerably reducing the spectrum of adjustments investment or coordination to optimally provide.
from each implementation level to the next. Within contemporary economic thought, there are
Dimitriou et al. (2013) highlight the importance of many reasons why public goods should be provided,
deciding the point of ‘time freeze’ – the moment at including market failure, natural monopolies and
which the main aspects of infrastructural design are public benefit.
agreed. In terms of assessments and evaluation as
part of infrastructure engineering, cost-benefit How these should be provided – what sorts of
analysis remains the most common approach. infrastructure, the location, price and by what sort of
Similarly, the three core concerns of the ‘iron triangle’ institution – becomes the object of complex
of project management: time, cost and output i.e. the maximisation and cost-benefit analysis (Estache and
level of delivery according to specification (Weaver Fay 2009). Underpinning most of these

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LSE Cities Working Papers Cirolia, L., Rode, P. 2019: Urban infrastructure & development

considerations is the central objective of advancing investments – and the opposite, focusing
economic development, as economic development is infrastructure developments in specific regions over
seen to be the driver of other forms of development others – are in the end political decisions that techno-
(for example, social development) (Agénor and policy work can only inform (Estache and Fay 2009).
Moreno-Dodson 2006).
In terms of the economic performance of cities,
There is a clear correlation between economic growth Collier and Venables (2016) emphasise the
and infrastructure development noticeable across the fundamental trade-off between the benefit of greater
income spectrum of countries. Importantly, connectivity in cities and higher costs related to
infrastructure effects on growth are assumed to be congestion, land and property. They further argue
higher in lower-income countries (Estache and Fay that this relationship is centrally determined by
2009); such effects have also been established for urban infrastructure that can enable efficient land use
OECD countries (Romp and De Haan 2007). It is in – a city’s ‘ultimate scarce resource’ (p. 395). In many
the first context in which infrastructure development instances of formal and informal urban development,
has been linked to modernisation theory, import efficient land use remains a distant goal. At the same
substitution industrialisation (Graham and Marvin time, the advantages of efficient land use in terms of
2001) and processes of structural transformation a greater utilisation, efficiency and scale economies
(Cohen 2006). for infrastructure provision are increasingly
recognised. For example, recent policy-related work
In order to identify the optimum level of on urban infrastructure re-emphasises the cost
infrastructure provision, economists have, for differentials between infrastructure delivery in lower-
example, worked with the rate of return on vs higher-density urban areas (Litman 2011, GCEC
infrastructure. Alternatives include the above- 2014). Collier and Venables (2016) refer to
mentioned empirical relationship between wealth infrastructure costs being three times higher for
levels and infrastructure service demand (Fay and lower-density development compared to high
Yepes 2003) or simple benchmarking with relevant densities (for Africa, they estimate that this translates
comparator cities/countries (Estache and Fay 2009). to a difference of US$10 billion per annum). Overall,
The most advanced approach, according to Estache infrastructure services offer a range of multiplier
and Fay (2009), includes sector-specific micro- benefits not only to the regional economy of a city but
studies combining econometric and engineering to national economies as well (Revi and Rosenzweig
models. A key question that emerges from some of 2013).
the economic work on infrastructure services
concerns whether efficiency can only be promoted Ultimately, however, identifying appropriate levels,
through either private or public profits. sequencing and type of infrastructure provision has
to incorporate a financing perspective (Estache and
Questions of which areas to prioritise for Fay 2009). Finance is a subset of economics that deals
infrastructure development are equally complex and with the management of revenue, expenditure and
usually not considered comprehensively as part of the assets related to urban infrastructure. Finance, as a
policy-making process. For example, economic field, is less concerned with questions of what should
geography (Puga 2002, Baldwin, Forslid et al. 2011) be funded and where, and more with a question of
has shown that the common desire of connecting how to structure flows of money to support delivery.
underdeveloped regions with more advanced regions
can exacerbate rather than mitigate regional Infrastructure investments also require upfront
disparities as a result of ‘bloodletting’ of poorer finance that is usually only recovered over a long
regions (Estache and Fay 2009, Overman 2012). At period via tax revenues or user fees. Tax revenues
the same time, connectivity improvements within tend to be converted into ‘grant’ finance, used for
metropolitan regions tend to improve geographic infrastructure that is non-divisible and difficult to
imbalances (Henderson and Kuncoro 1996, charge for its use. This includes infrastructure like
Henderson 2002). In summary, intra-regional rather parks. User fees tend to cover infrastructure services
than inter-regional infrastructure avoids potentially that can be charged on an individual basis, for
negative effects on local economic development. example water and electricity. In reality, most
Prioritising rural over urban infrastructure infrastructures are covered by a combination of taxes

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LSE Cities Working Papers Cirolia, L., Rode, P. 2019: Urban infrastructure & development

and user fees, with user fees aiming to cover the ways. The two most common ways of municipal
operations and taxes for larger bulk investments. Lee borrowing are through a loan (from a lender) and
and Floris (2003) note that few utilities (agents tasked through issuing bonds (to buyers).
with the delivery of trading services) have historically
been able to cover costs for operations and Local governments can take loans from banks. Bank
maintenance and were mostly entirely reliant on finance includes borrowing from commercial
government for capital investments. At the same private-sector banks, multilateral development banks
time, the World Bank (2014) suggests that current tax (such as the AfDB or the World Bank) and national
revenues in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Congo fall short of central banks. In general, banks have short-term
infrastructure investment needs by a factor of 12, 20 liabilities and thus prefer not to make long-term
and 26 respectively, confirming the limited scope for loans (a challenge intensified by the Basel III
the expansion of infrastructure services within the regulations established in the wake of the 2008
current financial models. financial crisis) (Arezki and Sy 2016).

In order to address the financial sustainability of Bonds are the most commonly used capital market
infrastructure provision and utilities, there have been instrument exercised by governments. Together with
waves of privatisation (Estache and Fay 2009). loans, bonds are considered ‘debt finance’. Like loans,
Privatisation aimed to separate utilities from the bonds are a finance tool that is available to various
state, and ensure that costs were recovered and levels of government, depending on the country and
(where possible) surpluses could be generated. legislation. Unlike loans, whereby the receiving party
Privatisation has since been relaxed as the de facto often agrees with a select group of financiers on the
intentional development policy and replaced by a terms and conditions of the obligation, bonds are
drive for corporatisation (Magdahl 2012). generally issued for the purpose of attracting a larger
Corporatisation continues to ring-fence utilities, group of investors (Gorelick 2018). Theoretically, the
separating them from the day-to-day management of risk and returns on municipal bonds are lower than
the state. However, ownership for the utility remains on other forms of finance. Since the time frames for
vested with the state (McDonald 2016). repayment are long, bonds attract more conservative
and long-term investors. The two most common
Within a context of growing fiscal austerity, local types of bonds are general obligation bonds and
governments are increasingly encouraged to borrow revenue bonds. While bonds are a common form of
to meet their urban infrastructure demands. Creating debt financing for local government globally, this has
‘bankable’ projects and creditworthy authorities not been the case in the African context. A number of
forms part of an increasingly strong narrative within local governments in African countries do regularly
development policy.1 The main reasons for raise bonds (for example, in South Africa), but efforts
governments and utilities in developing countries to to develop city bonds in other places have stalled
include debt in their financial management plans are: (Gorelick 2018).
to accelerate local growth through investment; to
make spending more equitable, spreading the Social and political readings of urban
payment between current and future users; to infrastructure
support the proper pricing of urban services; and to
build the long-term sustainability and autonomy of Social and political readings gained popularity as a
the institution (UN-Habitat 2009, Paulais 2012, Bird response to the limitations of technical readings of
and Bahl 2013, Lincoln Institute and World Bank infrastructure. The ‘Infrastructure Turn’ refers to the
2016). When a government takes on a debt, it creates growing interest that scholars in the social science
a liability that it must settle over time. The taking on and humanities have taken in the study of
of a debt, also called borrowing, can occur in various infrastructure (Amin 2014). The seminal work of Star

1
See the World Bank’s City Creditworthiness the PwC South Africa proposition for local
programme: government funding and finance:
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopm https://www.pwc.co.za/en/industries/public-
ent/brief/city-creditworthiness-initiative. Also see sector/material-funding.html

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LSE Cities Working Papers Cirolia, L., Rode, P. 2019: Urban infrastructure & development

(1999) on the ‘ethnography of infrastructure’ is one brought on by the perpetual failures of orthodox
of the most cited texts. It has inspired critical scholars economics (Peck, Theodore et al. 2009).
across a range of disciplines (for example,
anthropology, planning, geography and political The most seminal and influential macro/structural
science) to reflect on infrastructure in creative and accounts are the works of Graham and Marvin. Their
provocative ways. These authors argue that technical two most notable works, Telecommunications and
readings of infrastructure create a ‘black box’ that the City: Electronic spaces, Urban Places (1996) and
needs to be opened, interrogated and exposed Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures,
(Coutard and Guy 2007, Law 2009). Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition
(2001), have inspired a landslide of studies over the
Scholars contributing to the Infrastructure Turn past 30 years. In Telecommunications and the City,
share a deep concern with the instrumentalist, Graham and Marvin (1996) argue that urban
apolitical and ostensibly objective reading of telecommunication infrastructure reproduces and
infrastructure common within the technical and restructures social and economic relations in the city.
policy debates (Ferguson 2012). These authors argue Building on this in their later thesis in Splintering
that infrastructure is at the same time political, Urbanism, Graham and Marvin (2001) show how the
constructed and contingent. In this sense, privatisation of infrastructure creates enclaves of
infrastructure’s development is shaped by embedded, access in landscapes of deprivation, a
hidden, seemingly mundane and complex power compartmentalisation and fragmentation of
dynamics (Coutard and Guy 2007, Law 2009). The provision and, by extension, cities (Graham 2000).
argument is not that infrastructure is both technical
and political, but that ‘the technical’ itself is political. Building on earlier neoliberal critique (Postone 2007,
Peck, Theodore et al. 2009, Brenner, Madden et al.
Urban scholars have joined the Infrastructure Turn. 2011, Ward 2017), there is growing work on the
These scholars draw attention to the social and financialisation of infrastructure (van der Zwan
political nature of urban infrastructure and services. 2014). Aalbers (2015) defines financialisation as ‘the
While this is obviously simplistic, we identify two increasing dominance of financial actors, markets,
dominant scholarly camps within the urban practices, measurements and narratives, at various
Infrastructure Turn: we term these the ‘structural’ scales, resulting in a structural transformation of
and the ‘relational’ urban infrastructure camps. We economies, firms (including financial institutions),
describe these briefly below. Rather than seeking to states and households’ (p. 3). Urban infrastructure,
provide a comprehensive overview, the intention in authors argue, can be seen as increasingly
this section is to offer an introduction to the debates. financialised both in terms of the rapid privatisation
of public infrastructure services and the increasingly
Structural accounts of urban infrastructure complex financial instruments used to propel them
Structural accounts of urban infrastructure explore (Torrance 2008). In many ways, thinking on the
the ways in which modes of capitalist accumulation financialisation of urban infrastructure builds on
can be exposed, and our understanding of their Harvey’s ‘capital switching hypothesis’. Here he
contemporary significance refined, through studies argues that the surplus capital acquired through the
of infrastructure (Ferguson 2012). These authors ‘primary circuit of capital’ (i.e. production) is moved
share a deep concern that the evolving modes of to the ‘secondary circuit of capital’ (i.e. fixed assets
infrastructure provision are producing inequality, and the built environment) (Christophers 2011).
fragmentation and deep injustices in cities. Of Infrastructure becomes an ‘asset class’ (Hebb and
particular concern are the ways in which urban Sharma 2013).
infrastructure has been privatised and financialised,
resulting in enclaves of access and connectivity. Structural accounts of urban infrastructure have
Structural scholars see the privatisation and serious appeal. They capture global trends and situate
financialisation of urban infrastructure as a response local experiences within broader global processes.
to the failures in capitalist systems – or what might be They point the finger at the prevailing logic of
called an ongoing process of ‘creative destruction’ neoliberal and financialised models of infrastructure
provision, the distinctive and calculable operations of
risk and return and the destructive consequence of

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LSE Cities Working Papers Cirolia, L., Rode, P. 2019: Urban infrastructure & development

these models. However, structural accounts of urban this commitment to diffuse power, Amin and Thrift
infrastructure are critiqued for paying insufficient (2017) argue that infrastructure drives a ‘logic of
attention to complexity, providing ‘crisis’ and governance’ in cities.
‘techno-pessimist’ accounts and – in their
unwavering critique of capitalism – failing to provide Importantly, the ‘critique’ that relational scholars
space for propositionality and alternatives. levy on technical readings of infrastructure is not
focused on exposing the contradictions of capitalism
Relational approaches to urban infrastructure (as the structural account does). In contrast,
Relational approaches to the study of urban relational work on urban infrastructure seeks to ‘trace
infrastructure are explicitly post-structural (Gandy effects’, exposing the constructed nature of
2005, Monstadt 2009, Guy and Karvonen 2012). infrastructure and the possibilities for alternative
Post-structural critiques reject universalising and constructions and pathways (Coutard and Guy 2007,
reductionist narratives such as Mol 2010).
capitalism/neoliberalism, as well as false binaries, for
The relational perspective on urban infrastructure
example between the technical/social or
has gained traction within the trend of southern
human/environment (McFarlane 2011, Anand 2012,
urbanism. Aiming to see southern cities ‘on their own
Ferguson 2012). They tend to use infrastructure to
terms’, there has been a resistance to pre-scripted
reflect on social and political topics. For example,
narratives on urban infrastructure. They seek to
McFarlane and Rutherford (2008) show how urban
describe the real and grounded processes that take
water infrastructure sheds light on governance, and
place in developing cities. Simultaneously they seek
the ‘civilized subject’ in the post-colonial context.
to ‘make sense’ of the implications of these ways of
And von Schnitzler (2016) uses water meters – and
being and knowing. This work valorises hybridity,
resistance to them – to unpack the ‘social life’ of
informality and other processes that fail to conform
technopolitical infrastructures in South Africa.
to the networked city ideal.
Relational approaches stress the importance of seeing
Relational accounts run many risks; infinite
urban infrastructure through its relationships.
particularism and rudderless resistance to
Theorising on the ‘poetics of infrastructure’, Larkin
normativity are commonly critiqued (Pieterse 2011).
(2013) reflects on the ‘peculiar ontology’ of
Regardless, relinquishing the longstanding structural
infrastructure as both ‘things’ and relationships
focus on the fully networked systems undeniably
between things. Since relationships are constantly
offers opportunities to reframe and reform our
being formed, infrastructure can be seen as
understanding of what is possible and desirable from
‘constantly coming into being’, and not as a fixed
the vantage point of particular cities and
object. These relationships are understood to be
contextualised urban experiences.
complex. By describing and analysing the complexity
of relationships, relational approaches embrace
messiness. This work does not seek to impose onto
infrastructure a dominant/meta structuring order. Conclusion
The need for interdisciplinary work on cities is
Owing to its diffuse and Foucauldian reading of neither a new nor novel call in the contemporary
power, relational accounts of urban infrastructure context and debates. It is widely agreed that the
identify power/politics as multidimensional and bounded disciplinary registers are insufficient for
multiscale (Young and Keil 2010, De Boeck 2011, addressing the complexity of contemporary urban
Anand 2012, Von Schnitzler 2013, Collier, Mizes et challenges. Using a provocative phrase that leaves
al. 2016). Instead of seeking to identify a single much up to the imagination, Amin and Thrift (2017)
‘political project’ inscripted into the design of call for a ‘new science of cities’, which is multi-scalar,
infrastructure, authors work to identify the many interdisciplinary and multi-register.
political projects and practices that are built into,
shape and are shaped by infrastructure (Young and There are undeniably many ways to understand and
Keil 2010, De Boeck 2011, Anand 2012, Von ‘make sense of’ urban infrastructure. Equally, there
Schnitzler 2013, Collier, Mizes et al. 2016). Reflecting are many ways to deploy studies of urban

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LSE Cities Working Papers Cirolia, L., Rode, P. 2019: Urban infrastructure & development

infrastructure to reflect on conceptual questions grave mistake to take the easy route wherein all
related to, among other things, cities, development, technical intervention is ‘decried as tools of
politics and society. In the earlier sections, we have domination and surveillance’ (von Schnitzler 2013, p.
focused on four important infrastructure ideals and 668) and where all social analysis points away from
two broad framings that we believe provide valuable the infrastructure in question.
insights for shaping this study.
Social and political accounts of urban infrastructure
Importantly, infrastructure ideals have shaped the draw our attention to the powerful nature of
infrastructure arrangements and investment infrastructure; powerful both in the way it shapes
strategies in countries. In many developing countries, places and in the way in which power is inscripted
these have been shaped by ideals that are propelled into its design. More importantly, social and political
within global policy discourse. Equally relevant, the accounts widen the scope for considering alternative
academic study of infrastructure was, until recently, pathways. They allow us to read infrastructure as
dominated by the technical disciplines. In more ‘ambivalent’, described as ‘[a] process of
recent years there has been more interest from the development suspended between different
social disciplines. This goes beyond understanding possibilities.’ However, we must recognise that its
basic things like the social impacts of infrastructure. reconfigurability is shaped by the unique fixities and
It includes the use of infrastructure to analyse social fluidities that particular infrastructures have.
and political concepts and their manifestation in Contemporary arrangements reflect a contingent
particular places. There is significant conflict history of decisions; contemporary options for
between the ideals as well as between the technical alternatives are thus neither path-dependent nor
and social readings of urban infrastructure. They infinite.
have underlying differences around epistemological
approaches, which translates into different priorities Where the two approaches/camps come together is in
in terms of both knowledge and intervention. the increasing focus on place-based solutions. Even
the very technical work is increasingly attentive to the
The infrastructure ideals and the two framings that inability to generalise methodological approach and
we presented here could sit in productive tension response. Context and place is increasingly
with one another. However, the fundamentally understood to be central to this – as shown earlier,
different methodological and analytical tools, this is the common ground that connects engineering
ideological positions, aims and objectives and logics and humanities.
of prioritisation make the prospect of a Habermasian
utopia of transdisciplinary understanding a distant Critically, trans- and interdisciplinary approaches to
prospect. In this sense, endeavours to embrace these infrastructure will need to find ways to address the
productive tensions and travel ‘a third path’ that cutting-edge issues within the current context, in
weaves them together faces difficult questions, trade- particular those with relevance to African and
offs and compromises. developing cities. There are a range of important
issues a propositional lens must contend with. These
In an effort to cut through what could become a black include issues such as digitisation, which allows for
hole of intellectual debate, we would like to propose leapfrogging of some of the older infrastructure
the following: models, climate change, which equally challenges
now-dated models, the end of the commodity boom,
Technical accounts offer tools that are indispensable which will require new modes of resource utilisation,
to the project of reconfiguration. Without and the emergence of new lenders, which are shaping
commandeering the technical register, it is the global and African agenda (such as those from
impossible to embrace the full breadth of Asia).
ambivalence and redesign infrastructure in
alignment with alternative visions and goals. In order
to understand the full scope of possibility and to Acknowledgements
consider propositions for reconfiguration, it is
imperative to commandeer the mechanics and This working paper is part of the ‘Governing
operations of infrastructure logics. It would be a Infrastructure Interfaces’ project by LSE Cities at the

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LSE Cities Working Papers Cirolia, L., Rode, P. 2019: Urban infrastructure & development

London School of Economics in partnership with the contesting neo-liberalism and reimagining urban
African Centre for Cities (UCT) and the EiABC at governance?" Space and Polity 19(1): 76-90.
Addis Ababa University. The authors acknowledge Belaieff, Antoine, Gloria Moy and Jack Rosebro (2007).
the support of the Cities & Infrastructure Programme Planning for a Sustainable Nexus of Urban Land Use,
run by the British Academy on behalf of all the Transport and Energy, Blekinge Institute of Technology.
National Academies, as part of the Global Challenges Bernstein, Henry (1971). "Modernization theory and the
Research Fund. Any findings, interpretations, and sociological study of development." The Journal of
Development Studies 7(2): 141-160.
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attributed in any manner to any of the infrastructure in developing countries: reconciling
principles and practice, Institute on Municipal Finance
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and Governance.
Boyer, M Christine (1986). Dreaming the rational city:
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