The Fragile Night
Infrastructure systems are inherently fragile. Their functioning depends on routines of repair, replacement, and management. Infrastructure embodies networks of political power, capital, and territorial reconfiguration. Through the concept of instrumentalising fragility, I examine infrastructural vu...
Shranjeno v:
| izdano v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ardeth, |
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| Glavni avtor: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jezik: | Anglais |
| Izdano: |
Ardeth
2026
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| Teme: | |
| Online dostop: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Izvleček: | Infrastructure systems are inherently fragile. Their functioning depends on routines of repair, replacement, and management. Infrastructure embodies networks of political power, capital, and territorial reconfiguration. Through the concept of instrumentalising fragility, I examine infrastructural vulnerability not as a concealed weakness, but as a condition to be acknowledged and actively deployed to reform systems in socially responsive ways. Using Johannesburg as a case study – focusing on public lighting infrastructure – I explore how infrastructure has been used to divide and subjugate black residents historically. While today’s infrastructural challenges differ, their effects echo these past injustices. By uncovering and working strategically within the failings of infrastructural networks, designers are empowered to intervene, repair, and reshape these systems to better serve both human and non-human communities. This reframing sees fragility as a site for adaptive, hybrid, and strategic design – one that prioritises care, visibility, and transformation, offering pathways to more equitable and sustainable urban futures. |
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