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Fluid populations, immobile assets: Synchronizing infrastructure investments with Shifting democracy
Atif Ansar,Martin Pohlers 한국외국어대학교 국제지역연구센터 2014 International Area Studies Review Vol.17 No.2
In this article we reconstruct and test conventional economic theory’s deductive claims aboutthe nature of infrastructure assets and the demography of end-users who demand infrastructureoutputs. We find that the conventional theory puts forward three mutually reinforcingpropositions: that infrastructure assets have a natural tendency towards monopoly owing totechnical economies of scale; that infrastructure outputs (such as cubic metres of water orkilowatt–hours of electricity) and end-users of these outputs are essentially homogenous; andthat future demand of infrastructure is predictable with a reasonable degree of certainty. Theseconventional propositions in practice have promulgated a ‘bigger is better’ paradigm in the planningof infrastructure assets and networks that has entrenched the practice of building large immobileinfrastructure assets. In contrast, building on evidence from multiple cases – Berlin water authority(Berliner Wasserbetriebe) and World Bank-financed water supply projects in six developingcountries – we show that conventional economics theory has led to the development of poorplanning practices that are yielding unfavourable outcomes in infrastructure investments. Wefind that the heterogeneous populations of end-users (individuals, households and organizations)are fluid across space and time. This fluidity makes immobile assets subject to frequent andcostly obsolescence. Instead of being theorized as large immobile (and monopoly tending) assets,infrastructure assets should be viewed as modular, plug-and-play, increments. These modules canbe flexibly assembled over time to expand or contract capacity in specific places for specific users.