[Infrastructure-readinggroup] short follow-up

Wed Jan 8 14:16:14 CET 2025

Interesting observation! Thanks for sharing!
Personally, I would say that's a necessary but insufficient characteristic
of imperial overstretch.
A lot of countries (including rich and powerful ones) have a share of
run-down key infrastructures (you rightly mentioned Germany and US), but
their respective governments are still in control of their territory and
unlikely to collapse in smaller units any time soon (having said that, I'm
horrible at predictions...).

Just my two cents :)

Cheers,

Riccardo

On Wed, Jan 8, 2025 at 11:48 AM Niels ten Oever <mail at nielstenoever.net>
wrote:

>
> Hi all,
>
> I was reading through the infrastructure book by Dirk van Laat [0] and was
> reading about the lifecycle of infrastructures, here roads and bridges are
> mentioned as well as the near permanent maintenance deficit they are under
> in the US and Germany. I was wondering: to what extend is this similar to
> the investment of Great Britain in the telegraph, discussed yesterday in
> 'Telegraphic Imperialism'? In other words, can a main characteristic of
> imperial overstretch be defined as the inability to maintain or renew
> existing infrastructures that play a key role in society?
>
> Am also still looking through the books below (x2) as well as some new
> ones for our future planning - please do let me know if you have books or
> topics to suggest for joint reading! For instance, if you all would like to
> read more about submarine cables, colonialism, historical infrastructures,
> modern infrastructures, quantum, telecommunications, China, Russia, Latin
> America, etc, that is all excellent - please do let us know :)
>
> The tentacles of progress : technology transfer in the age of imperialism,
> 1850-1940 / Daniel R. Headrick.
>
> Lightning wires : the telegraph and China's technological modernization,
> 1860-1890 / Erik Baark
>
> Power over peoples : technology, environments, and western imperialism,
> 1400 to the present / Daniel R. Headrick
>
> Technology: a world history Daniel R. Headrick
>
> Best,
>
> Niels
>
> [0] Van Laak, Dirk. 2023. Lifelines of Our Society: A Global History of
> Infrastructure. MIT Press.
>
> >
> > Dalrymple, William. 2019. The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East
> India Company. Bloomsbury Publishing.
> >
> > Deudney, Daniel. 2020. Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary
> Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity. Oxford University Press, USA.
> >
> > Knox, Hannah, and Penny Harvey. 2015. Roads: An Anthropology of
> Infrastructure and Expertise. Cornell University Press.
> https://muse.jhu.edu/book/57674/.
> >
> > Long, Pamela O. 2019. Engineering the Eternal City: Infrastructure,
> Topography, and the Culture of Knowledge in Late Sixteenth-Century Rome.
> University of Chicago Press.
> https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7208/9780226591315/html.
> >
> > Swenson, Edward. 2024. Infrastructures of Religion and Power:
> Archaeologies of Landscape, Ritual, and Semiotics. Taylor & Francis.
> >
> > Van Laak, Dirk. 2023. Lifelines of Our Society: A Global History of
> Infrastructure. MIT Press.
> >
> > This might be a bit too Europe focused for us, but the series approach
> looks really great:
> >
> > Diogo, Maria Paula, and Dirk van Laak. 2016. Europeans Globalizing:
> Mapping, Exploiting, Exchanging. Making Europe : Technology and
> Transformations, 1850-2000. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
> >
> > Fickers, Andreas, and Pascal Griset. 2019. Communicating Europe:
> Technologies, Information, Events. Making Europe : Technology and
> Transformations, 1850-2000. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
> >
> > Högselius, Per, and Erik van der Vleuten. 2016. Europe’s Infrastructure
> Transition: Economy, War, Nature. Making Europe : Technology and
> Transformations, 1850-2000. Houndmills, Basingstoke Hampshire: Palgrave
> Macmillan.
> https://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy1613/2015001279-t.html.
> >
> > Kaiser, Wolfram, and J. W. Schot. 2014. Writing the Rules for Europe:
> Experts, Cartels, and International Organizations. Making Europe :
> Technology and Transformations, 1850-2000. Houndmills, Basingstoke,
> Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
> > Trischler, Helmuth, and Martin Kohlrausch. 2014. Building Europe on
> Expertise: Innovators, Organizers, Networkers. Making Europe : Technology
> and Transformations, 1850-2000. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
> http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=43809.
> >
>
> --
> Niels ten Oever, PhD
> Co-Principal Investigator - critical infrastructure lab - University of
> Amsterdam
> Assistant Professor - Department of European Studies - University of
> Amsterdam
>
> W: https://criticalinfralab.net
> W: https://nielstenoever.net
> PGP: 4254 ECD5 D4CF F6AF 8B91 0D9F EFAD 2E49 CC90 C10C
>
>
> --
> Infrastructure-readinggroup mailing list
> Infrastructure-readinggroup at criticalinfralab.net
> https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/infrastructure-readinggroup
>

-- 
Riccardo Nanni
Researcher in data governance
Digital Commons Lab, Fondazione Bruno Kessler

Adjunct professor in "Technology, Politics and Human Rights"
University of Padova

Member of the editorial board
Peace Human Rights Governance (PHRG)
<https://phrg.padovauniversitypress.it/>

Check out my latest work!
Nanni, R. (2024). *Rising China and Internet Governance
<https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-97-0357-9>.* Palgrave
Macmillan.

Maccabiani, E., Usmani, M., Nanni, R., & Napolitano, M. (2025). Investigating
Social Vulnerability to Extreme Heat <https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi14010017>:
Heat Islands and Climate Shelters in Urban Contexts: The Case of
Bologna. *ISPRS
International Journal of Geo-Information*, *14*(1), 17.
Nanni, R., Bizzaro, P. G., & Napolitano, M. (2024). The false promise of
individual digital sovereignty in Europe <https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.424>:
Comparing artificial intelligence and data regulations in China and the
European Union. *Policy & Internet*, 1–16.

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