Cabling and un-cabling Palestine/Israel: Toward a theory of cumulative infrastructural injustice

IF 4.7 1区 社会学 Q1 GEOGRAPHY Political Geography Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103242
Yara Sa’di-Ibraheem , Shira Wilkof
{"title":"Cabling and un-cabling Palestine/Israel: Toward a theory of cumulative infrastructural injustice","authors":"Yara Sa’di-Ibraheem ,&nbsp;Shira Wilkof","doi":"10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103242","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although urban infrastructure is designed to last for many decades and is characterized by its extensive lifecycle, it is typically studied through specific events or effects occurring within a narrow timeframe. What this restricted temporal perspective fails to capture is the enduring patterns through which infrastructural injustice, discrimination and exclusion build over time. To address this lacuna, recent studies, especially those focusing on colonial settings, have adopted a longitudinal perspective. In this article, however, we push the longitudinal perspective further, arguing that more than merely unveiling resemblances, reemergences, or continuities in power relations, it also allows us to (1) reveal the interconnections between different forms of infrastructural injustice across successive regimes and (2) understand the cumulative impact of these inequalities over time. Thus, we propose the concept of ‘cumulative infrastructural injustice’ to enable us both to identify diverse forms and mechanisms of infrastructural injustice that, in the aggregate, result in the continuity of discrimination, disenfranchisement, and racial hierarchies within various regimes and contexts, especially in colonial contexts; and to assess their cumulative impact. To develop this understanding, we focus on the establishment of the physical telecommunications infrastructure in Palestine/Israel, from the British colonial period to contemporary Israel's (infra)structural discrimination against its Palestinian citizens. Drawing on multilingual archival records and media from various periods, we analyze the changing modes of infrastructural inequalities that developed over time by means of what we term strategies of ‘skipping,’ ‘un-cabling,’ and ‘selective (re)cabling’ in the telecommunication system. The ‘cumulative infrastructural injustice’ lens reminds us not only to adopt a long-term view of infrastructural <em>development</em> but also to trace its opposite expressions—sustained lack, obstacles, erasure, willful neglect, and de-prioritization—and uncover the different mechanisms underpinning these strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48262,"journal":{"name":"Political Geography","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103242"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Political Geography","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629824001914","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Although urban infrastructure is designed to last for many decades and is characterized by its extensive lifecycle, it is typically studied through specific events or effects occurring within a narrow timeframe. What this restricted temporal perspective fails to capture is the enduring patterns through which infrastructural injustice, discrimination and exclusion build over time. To address this lacuna, recent studies, especially those focusing on colonial settings, have adopted a longitudinal perspective. In this article, however, we push the longitudinal perspective further, arguing that more than merely unveiling resemblances, reemergences, or continuities in power relations, it also allows us to (1) reveal the interconnections between different forms of infrastructural injustice across successive regimes and (2) understand the cumulative impact of these inequalities over time. Thus, we propose the concept of ‘cumulative infrastructural injustice’ to enable us both to identify diverse forms and mechanisms of infrastructural injustice that, in the aggregate, result in the continuity of discrimination, disenfranchisement, and racial hierarchies within various regimes and contexts, especially in colonial contexts; and to assess their cumulative impact. To develop this understanding, we focus on the establishment of the physical telecommunications infrastructure in Palestine/Israel, from the British colonial period to contemporary Israel's (infra)structural discrimination against its Palestinian citizens. Drawing on multilingual archival records and media from various periods, we analyze the changing modes of infrastructural inequalities that developed over time by means of what we term strategies of ‘skipping,’ ‘un-cabling,’ and ‘selective (re)cabling’ in the telecommunication system. The ‘cumulative infrastructural injustice’ lens reminds us not only to adopt a long-term view of infrastructural development but also to trace its opposite expressions—sustained lack, obstacles, erasure, willful neglect, and de-prioritization—and uncover the different mechanisms underpinning these strategies.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
6.60
自引率
14.60%
发文量
210
期刊介绍: Political Geography is the flagship journal of political geography and research on the spatial dimensions of politics. The journal brings together leading contributions in its field, promoting international and interdisciplinary communication. Research emphases cover all scales of inquiry and diverse theories, methods, and methodologies.
期刊最新文献
Creating the anti-sexist city: The potential of the local state in combatting sexual harassment Psychoanalytic political ecology Tigray war: Modern geographies of mass violence and the invisibilization of populations Multispecies imaginaries for river justice: Mobilising in defence of the Piatúa River, Ecuador Speculative connections: Port authorities, littoral territories and the assembling of the green hydrogen frontier
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1