Infrastructuring reading:
In this paper, the author states that infrastructure becomes visible to people when it fails in general or fails for a subsect of the population. Infrastructure, especially information systems/technical systems like social media algorithms or AI facial recognition, follows normative logics as infrastructure is created by people, and therefore is embedded with values, biases, and perspectives. This can then disrupt people’s lives when the perspectives of those creating the infrastructure misaligns with the people using the infrastructure, thereby further marginalizing groups using infrastructure outside of these normative logics. This paper asks, when infrastructure breaks down or people become aware of the biases inherent to the infrastructure causing routine disruptions, how do people utilize technology to restructure their world to develop resilience?
Slow Emergencies Reading:
This paper argues that declaring emergencies is enacted in hopes that liberal status quo will be restored, however the dual realities of “emergency” and “non-emergency” only exist for certain bodies, while other bodies experience the everyday as what can be defined as emergency. Additionally, this text argues that governing through emergencies seeks to reconsolidate and restore the liberal order after disruption. Many policies put forth by the federal government during the emergency declaration during COVID-19 exemplify this, as one-time stimulus payments were made to maintain social order and restore the liberal status quo. More specifically relating to energy, energy assistance programs were not rethought as crisis ensued and more households were in need of energy assistance, and larger sums were necessary for households to avoid energy emergencies, but rather more funding was placed in preexisting pools for energy assistance to again restore the liberal status quo.
The main argument of Routine Infrastructuring is that by generating routine infastructing practices, people were able to build resilience in their daily lives. Infrastructure is defined as creating arrangements of organizations and actors that must be brought into alignment in order for something to be accomplished. Resilience is defined in myriad ways, but the authors use a resource based: the creative and adaptive process through which people draw on resources as a means of overcoming everyday disruption. The narrative of this text is centered around the course case studies. Each of them involve a marginalized group who experience a daily disruption for one reason or another. Author Bryan Semaan goes through their stories and explains the ways in which they have created infrastructures outside of their normal socioeconomic systems. These three case studies also serve as Semaan’s evidence, as he conducted surveys from those marginalized groups. These surveys were semi-structured life histories that explored people’s lives and asked about their practices when living in disrupted environments.