Infrastructural insurgency

Abstract

This paper focuses onhow insurgenciesare continually recastin parallel to State-led redevelopment or 'upgrading'. It brings attention to communities that shape and are reshaped by inclusion of data in processes through which citizens participate in city-making. Drawing onacomparative casestudy of intensively upgraded informal settlements in São Paulo, Brazil, findings show that data-based insurgencies have been forged from prior collective action. The resultant co-created or situated data challenge the State’s legitimacy as sole arbiter of informal settlement representation and infrastructure transformation in cities. In this context, the term infrastructural insurgency is proposedas a way that socio-materialagencies iterate over time and in space, and to stimulate discourse about the future of upgrading. Itreflects onwhich interactions between data and redevelopment can inform planning in post-redevelopment conditions across global south.

Keywords

• insurgency
• infrastructure
• redevelopment
• situated data
• Brazil