STS beyond the “modern infrastructure ideal”: Extending theory by engaging with infrastructure challenges in the South

With few exceptions, STS theories of infrastructure stability and change have not been applied to circumstances in the South. Developed in post-War Europe, these theories are often applied in ways that lack transferability to situations where infrastructure conditions are precarious and hybrid. This article seeks to broaden these theories by relating them to infrastructure challenges common to the South, drawing in particular on prevalent issues in water supply. Such engagement helps to identify shortcomings in these theories, to push their paradigms further, and to raise new questions related to infrastructure configuration, stability, and transition. As such, the study of sociotechnical systems across a range of contexts can be enriched. In particular, this article extends theory by placing coexistence among sociotechnical systems, as opposed to the universality of a single dominant infrastructure network, at the center of enquiry. Recognizing coexistence is important because it enables one to decouple key concepts in STS from the presumption of universalized and uniform networks, enabling them to become relevant for the South. Examples discussed in this essay include stability or “momentum” and transitions.