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Engineering modernity: Water, electricity and the infrastructure landscapes of Bangalore, India

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  • Vanesa Castán Broto

    (Urban Institute, Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICOSS), University of Sheffield, UK)

  • HS Sudhira

    (Gubbi Labs, India)

Abstract

The concept of ‘nexus’ has gained popularity in urban studies to examine the interconnections between the management of resources and the provision of urban services. This article proposes a conceptualisation of the urban nexus as the contingent product of the operation of physical, ecological and social processes around urban technologies in a specific location. The article focuses on the configuration of the nexus within particular trajectories of urban development, and the wider consequences of these trajectories for urban life. The strategy of the article is to examine the water-energy nexus within a particular infrastructure landscape, that is, as it emerges from the historical co-evolution of social practices and the built environment. Such co-evolution can be described as an urban trajectory that reveals the consolidation of different aspects of the nexus at varying levels from the household to the extra-urban connections that shape the city. This perspective is applied to analyse processes of infrastructure development in the city of Bangalore, India, since the completion of the first works to establish a water network and the electrification of the city at the beginning of the 20th century. The analysis reveals a historically built and context-dependent nexus that reflects the interconnectedness of the mechanisms of infrastructure governance and urban inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Vanesa Castán Broto & HS Sudhira, 2019. "Engineering modernity: Water, electricity and the infrastructure landscapes of Bangalore, India," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(11), pages 2261-2279, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:11:p:2261-2279
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098018815600
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Yvonne Rydin & Catalina Turcu & Simon Guy & Patrick Austin, 2013. "Mapping the Coevolution of Urban Energy Systems: Pathways of Change," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(3), pages 634-649, March.
    2. Sundaresan, Jayaraj, 2017. "Urban planning in vernacular governance: land use planning and violations in Bangalore, India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 86388, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Harriet Bulkeley & Vanesa Castán Broto, 2014. "Urban experiments and climate change: securing zero carbon development in Bangalore," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 393-414, December.
    4. Broto, Vanesa Castán, 2017. "Energy landscapes and urban trajectories towards sustainability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 755-764.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sobratee-Fajurally, N. & Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe, 2022. "Inclusive sustainable landscape management in West and Central Africa: enabling co-designing contexts for systemic sensibility," IWMI Books, Reports H051652, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Vanesa Castán Broto & H.S. Sudhira & Hita Unnikrishnan, 2021. "WALK THE PIPELINE: Urban Infrastructure Landscapes in Bengaluru's Long Twentieth Century," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 696-715, July.
    3. Ana Luiza Fontenelle & Erik Nilsson & Ieda Geriberto Hidalgo & Cintia B. Uvo & Drielli Peyerl, 2022. "Temporal Understanding of the Water–Energy Nexus: A Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-21, April.
    4. Jochen Monstadt & Olivier Coutard, 2019. "Cities in an era of interfacing infrastructures: Politics and spatialities of the urban nexus," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(11), pages 2191-2206, August.

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