EXTRASTATECRAFT

EXTRASTATECRAFT

ThePowerofInfrastructureSpace

KellerEasterling

TheauthorwouldliketothanktheGrahamFoundationforAdvancedStudiesintheFineArtsforitsgenerousassistance

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Zone

2. Disposition

3. Broadband

4. Stories

5. Quality

6. Extrastatecraft

Afterword

Index

Acknowledgements

Verso,andespeciallyeditorLeoHollis,deservesincerethanks.Thecareandgoodcheerwithwhichhe edited the text for a general audience prompted not only clarifications but also discoveries forwhich the author could not be more grateful. Thanks also go to Mark Martin, Tim Clark, anddesigners Andy Pressman and Michael Oswell at Verso. Like a parallel text, the notes hopefullyaccountfordebtstoongoingscholarlydiscoursesthatageneralaudiencemaynotwishtoparse.

YaleUniversity’sGustavRanisPrize, theGrahamFoundation forAdvancedStudies in theFineArts, theCornellSocietyfor theHumanities,and theJanvanEyckAcademieprovidedfundingforportionsoftheresearchandproductionofthisbook.

Colleagues and friends read drafts of the manuscript in progress: Ljiljana Blagojevic, RogerConover, Stephen Graham, Michelle Komie, Nancy Levinson, Mitch McEwen, Brian McGrath,SusannaNewbury,DaraOrenstein,VyjayanthiRao,AndreasRuby,andIlkaRuby.

Severalprojectsorcollectiveresearcheffortscontributedtosegmentsofthebook.Researchonthefreezonewasassembledforthe2007ArchitectureBiennaleinRotterdam(Head

of ProgrammeChristine de Baan).Material for the chapter titled “Zone”was first published as achapterinthebookVisionaryPower(2007).

A number of people assisted me in my research in Kenya including Mwangi Gathinji, BrianHerlihy, Professor Kigara Kamweru, John Mugabe, Pamela Odero, Simon Olawo, Dr. BitangeNdemo,JohnSihra,SteveSong,andKaiWolff.

Materialfromthechaptertitled“Broadband”wasfirstpublishedas“Cable”inNewGeographies(2009).Theresearchforthischapterwaspreparedtosupplementtheworkofaresearchunitat theJanvanEyckAcademie that includedSantiagodelHierro,GaryLeggett,DubravkaSekulić, VesnaTomse,andNadarVossoughian.Awebsite setup topresent someof the researchwasdesignedbyTomasCelizna,withvideobyMinOhandCelizna.

Thefinalsegmentofthebook,onalternativeactivisttechniques,wasfirstdevelopedin2008foramasterclassandpubliclectureattheBerlageInstituteattheinvitationofVedranMimicaandSalomanFrausto.Materialforthechaptertitled“Extrastatecraft”wasfirstpublishedinHunch12:Bureaucracy(2009).A collaborative exhibition at Storefront forArt andArchitecture in 2008 titledSome TrueStoriesexperimentedwithsomeoftheseactivisttechniques.TheteamofcollaboratorsincludedGabyBrainard, Ashima Chitre, Neil Donnelly, Mwangi Gathinji, Santiago del Hierro, Mustapha Jundi,RustamMehta,ThomMoran,JacobReidel,andCarolRuiz.

Thebookhasbenefitedenormouslyfromtheintelligenceofeditorswhohavepublishedportionsofit.IamgratefultoJustinMcGuirkforpublishinganebookessayTheActionIstheForm (StrelkaPress,2012)andtoNancyLevinsonforpublishing“Zone:TheSpatialSoftwaresofExtrastatecraft”inDesignObserver(2012)—twopreviewsofthepresentbook.JosephGrima,firstasthedirectorofStorefrontforArtandArchitectureandthenastheeditorofDomus,hassupportedthework,ashaveMarkWigleyandJeffreyInabaforC-LabandVolume.ThejournalPerspectaalsopublishedrelatedresearch,andthanksareduetoDeanRobertA.M.SternandeditorsKanuAgrawal,GabyBrainard,MelanieDomino,IbenFalconer,RustamMehta,ThomMoran,MatthewRoman,TalSchori,andBradWalters.Other editors towhom I am indebted includeMarcAngélil, ShumonBasar,HelenCastle,DanaCuff, CynthiaDavidson, PeggyDeamer,Alexander Eisenschmidt,Daniela Fabricious,HomaFajardi,RaniaGosn,DeborahHauptmann,AaronLevy,SinaNajafi,WarrenNeidich,AmandaReeser,Mark Shepard, Ashley Schafer, Lola Sheppard, Roger Sherman, Andreas and Ilke Ruby, NeyranTuran, Markus Miessen, Maya Przybylski, Daniel van der Velden, Marina Vishmidt, Srdjan

JovanovichWeiss,andMasonWhite.FriendswhoprovidedsupportorreflectionontheworkincludeArjunAppadurai,JulietaAranda,

Jonathan Bach, Shumon Basar, Chloe Bass, Ursula Beimann, Markley Boyer, Lindsay Bremner,JordanCarver,BenedictClouette,BeatrizColomina,JordanCrandall,TeddyCruz,ShielaandPeterDeBretteville, Santiago del Hierro, Tina di Carlo, Elizabeth Diller, Edward Dimendberg, KodwoEshun,HomaFajardi,RenateFerro,AnnetteFierro,RayGastil,JordanGeiger,EvaFranc-Gilibert,SaraGoldsmith, ClaudiaGould, PaulGunther,DoloresHayden,MollyHickock,NikolausHirsch,Jeffrey Inaba, Susan Jonas, Branden Joseph, Tom Keenan, Laura Kurgan, Jesse LeCavalier,Siddhartha Lokanandi, Marcell Mars, Reinhold Martin, Ana Miljacki, Mohsen Mostafavi, TimMurray, John Palmesino, Satya Pemmaraju, Alan Plattus, Irit Rogoff, Ann-Sofi Rönnskog, JennySabin, Joel Sanders, Fred Scharmen, Felicity D. Scott, Dubravka Sekulic, Michael Serino, BrettSteele,DanielvanderVelden,MisaMiodragVujošević,MarkWasiuta,EyalWeizman,InesWeizman,MarkWigley,DarienWilliams,BrianKuanWood,andGwendolynWright.

Several students—Ann-Marie Armstrong, A.J. Artemel, E. Sean Bailey, Swarnabh Ghosh,Brandon Hall, Gary Leggett, RustamMehta, Craig Rosman, and Ian Starling—provided researchassistance.And toomany students to name, in both seminars and lecture courses, contributed theirwisdomandcuriosity.

ThebookisdedicatedtothememoryofDetlefMertins.

Introduction

Microwaves bounce between billions of cell phones. Computers synchronize. Shipping containersstack, lock, andcalibrate theglobal transportationandproductionofgoods.Credit cards, all sized0.76mm,slipthroughtheslotsincashmachinesanywhereintheworld.Alloftheseubiquitousandseeminglyinnocuousfeaturesofourworldareevidenceofglobalinfrastructure.

The word “infrastructure” typically conjures associations with physical networks fortransportation,communication,orutilities.Infrastructureisconsideredtobeahiddensubstrate—thebindingmediumorcurrentbetweenobjectsofpositiveconsequence,shape,andlaw.Yettoday,morethangridsofpipesandwires, infrastructure includespoolsofmicrowavesbeamingfromsatellitesandpopulationsofatomizedelectronicdevicesthatweholdinourhands.Thesharedstandardsandideas that control everything from technical objects to management styles also constitute aninfrastructure.Farfromhidden,infrastructureisnowtheovertpointofcontactandaccessbetweenusall—therulesgoverningthespaceofeverydaylife.

Picture the placeswherewe live: the parking places, skyscrapers, turning radii, garages, streetlights,driveways,airportlounges,highwayexits,bigboxes,stripmalls,shoppingmalls,smallboxes,freezones,casinos,retailoutlets,fastfoodrestaurants,hotels,cashmachines,tracthousing,containerports,industrialparks,callcenters,golfcourses,suburbs,officebuildings,businessparks,resorts.Inthe retinalafterglowisasoupymatrixofdetailsandrepeatable formulas thatgeneratemostof thespaceintheworld—whatwemightcallinfrastructurespace.

Buildingsareoftenno longer singularlycraftedenclosures,uniquely imaginedbyanarchitect,but reproducible products set within similar urban arrangements. As repeatable phenomenaengineered around logistics and the bottom line they constitute an infrastructural technologywithelaborateroutinesandschedulesfororganizingconsumption.Ironically,themorerationalizedthesespatialproducts become the better suited they are to irrational fictions of branding, completewithcostumesandapatoisofmanagementese.1Thisfamiliarconfettiofbrightlycoloredboxesnestlinginblack asphalt and bright green grass—the same inTexas orTaiwan—weaves elaborate, emotionalstoriesaboutStarbuckscoffee,BeardPapacreampuffs,andArnoldPalmergolfcommunities.

Nownotonlybuildingsandbusinessparksbutalsoentireworldcitiesareconstructedaccordingto a formula—an infrastructural technology. We no longer build cities by accumulating singularmasterpiecebuildings.InsteadthemostprevalentformulareplicatesShenzhenorDubaianywhereinthe world with a drumbeat of generic skyscrapers. Computer-generated videos that fly throughshiningskylineshavebecomeastandardsignalofaspirationstoentertheglobalmarketplace.Here,manifestinthesestockspecifications,infrastructureisthennottheurbansubstructure,buttheurbanstructureitself—theveryparametersofglobalurbanism.

OperatingSystem

InNotre-DamedeParis,VictorHugofamouslyobservedthat“architecture[likethatofthecathedral]was developed in proportion with human thought; it became a giant with a thousand heads and athousandarms,andfixedallthisfloatingsymbolisminaneternal,visible,palpableform.”ThenovelproposedthatGutenberg’snewtechnologythreatenedthegiant;theprintedwordusurpedarchitectureas thevesselofcultural imaginationandstole its supernaturalpower.Hugoprophesied,“Thiswillkillthat.Thebookwillkilltheedifice.”

Whileevidenceofinfrastructurespacewithinthecontemporarycitymightappeartoconfirmthedeath of architecture, perhaps it really only demonstrates that the giant is alive again.Architecturemakesuniqueobjects—likestonesinthewater—whileaconstantflowofrepeatablespatialformulasconstructsaseaofurbanspaces.Architectsandurbaniststypicallycharacterizethisstateofaffairsasdisempowering, but if architecture was indeed killed by the book, perhaps it is reincarnate assomething more powerful—as information itself. Infrastructure space has become a medium ofinformation.Theinformationresidesininvisible,powerfulactivitiesthatdeterminehowobjectsandcontentareorganizedandcirculated.Infrastructurespace,withthepowerandcurrencyofsoftware,isanoperatingsystemforshapingthecity.

That operating system is something like the “medium” inMarshallMcLuhan’s famous dictum“themedium is themessage.”McLuhan highlighted the difference between the declared content ofmedia—music on the radio or videos on the internet—and the means by which the content wasdelivered.Thecontent,heargued,islikethe“juicypieceofmeatcarriedbytheburglartodistractthewatchdog of themind.”2 In other words, what themedium is saying sometimes prevents us fromseeingwhatthemediumisdoing.Intheurbancontext,wecanidentifythesingularlycraftedbuilding—the stone in thewater—as thedeclaredcontent.Yet, theactivityof themediumor infrastructuralmatrix—whatitisdoingratherthanwhatitissaying—issometimesdifficulttodetect.

Wemightnotthinkofspaceasaninformationtechnologyunlessitisembeddedwithsensorsanddigital media, and there is digital software to generate and analyze urban arrangements. Yetinfrastructure space, evenwithoutmediaenhancement,behaves like spatial software.Andwhilewealso do not typically think of static objects and volumes in urban space as having agency,infrastructurespaceisdoingsomething.Likeanoperatingsystem,themediumofinfrastructurespacemakescertainthingspossibleandotherthingsimpossible.Itisnotthedeclaredcontentbutratherthecontentmanagerdictatingtherulesofthegameintheurbanmilieu.

Infrastructure space is a form, but not like a building is a form; it is an updating platformunfolding in time to handle new circumstances, encoding the relationships between buildings, ordictating logistics. There are object forms like buildings and active forms like bits of code in thesoftware that organizes building. Information resides in the, often undeclared, activities of thissoftware—the protocols, routines, schedules, and choices it manifests in space.McLuhan’smeme,transposedtoinfrastructurespace,mightbe:theactionistheform.

KellerEasterling

Dubai,2005

Extrastatecraft

Contemporary infrastructure space is the secretweapon of themost powerful people in theworldpreciselybecauseitorchestratesactivitiesthatcanremainunstatedbutareneverthelessconsequential.Someofthemostradicalchangestotheglobalizingworldarebeingwritten,notinthelanguageoflaw and diplomacy, but in these spatial, infrastructural technologies—often because marketpromotions or prevailing political ideologies lubricate their movement through the world. Thesestoriesforegroundcontenttodisguiseordistractfromwhattheorganizationisactuallydoing.

Far removed from familiar legislative processes, dynamic systems of space, information, andpower generate de facto forms of polity faster than even quasi-official forms of governance canlegislate them. Large-scale spatial organizations like infrastructure projects (e.g., US rail in thenineteenth century, or global submarine cable networks) have long created the need for anadministrativeauthoritycomparabletothatof thestate,andtheycontinuetorequiredirectionfromnew constellations of international, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental players. As a site ofmultiple,overlapping,ornestedformsofsovereignty,wheredomesticandtransnationaljurisdictionscollide, infrastructure space becomes a medium of what might be called extrastatecraft—aportmanteaudescribingtheoftenundisclosedactivitiesoutsideof,inadditionto,andsometimeseveninpartnershipwithstatecraft.

For example, the world has dominant software for making urban space: the free zone—theformulathatgeneratesShenzhensandDubaisallaroundtheworld.SomeversionofthezoneisfoundinKingAbdullahEconomicCity inSaudiArabia,NewSongdoCity inSouthKorea,Cyberjaya inMalaysia, HITEC City in Hyderabad, and everywhere in between. Operating under authoritiesindependentfromthedomesticlawsofitshostcountry,thezonetypicallyprovidespremiumutilitiesandasetofincentives—taxexemptions,foreignownershipofproperty,streamlinedcustoms,cheaplabor,andderegulationof labororenvironmental laws—toenticebusiness.Theworldhasbecomeaddictedtoincentivizedurbanism,anditisthesiteofheadquarteringandshelteringformostglobal

powerplayers.Socontagiousisthisspatialtechnologythateverycountryintheworldwantsitsownfreezoneskyline.

KellerEasterling

Ordos,InnerMongolia,2008

Whilepromotedasrelaxed,open,andfreefrominefficientstatebureaucracy,thepoliticswritteninto the zone’s spaces and activities often diverges from the declared intent. It is usually anisomorphic exurban enclave that, exempt from law, can easily banish the circumstances andprotections common in richer forms of urbanity. Labor and environmental abuse can proceedunchecked by political process. Moreover, given its popularity, the zone has become a self-perpetuating agent in the growth of extrastate urban space—space beyond the reach of statejurisdictions.Yet,atthesametime,ithasalsobecomeanessentialpartnerforthestateasitattemptstonavigateandprofitfromtheverysameshadoweconomies.Inthisformofextrastatecraft,farfromoverwhelmingstatepower,thezoneisanewpartnerthatstrengthensthestatebyservingasitsproxyorcamouflage.

Inaddition to thezone, theglobalnetworksofbroadbandcomputingandmobile telephonyareanotherpervasiveandconsequential fieldof infrastructure space.Mobile telephony is the“world’slargestdistributionplatform,”andthebroadbandinfrastructurethatsupportsitistoutedasaresourceas importantaswater.Between2000and2013, theglobalnumberofcellphonesubscriptionswentfrom 740 million to 6.8 billion phones with over three-quarters of the phones in the developingworld.3 East African countries like Kenya have only recently received international fiber-opticsubmarine cable. They are nevertheless using their large populations of mobile phone users todevelop the world’s newest business models. M-PESA, an app developed in Kenya that uses themobilephoneforexchangesofmoney,hasbecomeaglobalbankingphenomenon.AdvertisementsforSafaricomandother telecoms in the region typically showMasaiwarriors, in full tribal garb,standingoutinthesavannahwithaspearinonehandandacellphoneintheother,abletoremotelyaccesstheworldwithanairbornetechnology.

Still, there is adisconnectbetween the storiesandpromisesassociatedwith the technologyandwhat theurban space is actuallydoing.Bothurban space and telecommunications are technologies

andmediumsofinformation.Fiber-opticcableburiedinthegroundgiveslandanewvaluemuchlikeahighwayorrailroad.Mobiletelephony,whileatomizedandairborne,mustneverthelesstapintothatphysicalbroadbandnetwork,andattheseoranyotherswitchingpoints,abottleneckormonopolycandevelop.Thepositionofthefiberinurbanandruralareasorthecharacterofnewenclavesandroadsareallspatialfactorswiththepowertoeitheramplifyordiminishtheaccesstoinformation.

As Kenya has become an investment field for global telecoms, the state must also convene aballooning number of other nonstate actors—intergovernmental institutions, consultancies, andnongovernmental institutions. All are hovering, advising, funding, researching, investing, andpotentially controlling the urban space—offering expertise as well as outmoded forms that mayforecloseon the real innovations tobroadbandurbanism.WhileKenya isuniquelypoised tomakethoseinnovations,itsversionofextrastatecraftmustmakespatialanddigitalsoftwareworktogethertoenrichratherthanobstructinformationbothrealms.

Yetanotherfieldofinfrastructurespace,atoncemoreimmaterialandmoreubiquitous,isabletocontactanykindofinfrastructurespaceanywhereintheworld.Iflawisthecurrencyofgovernments,standards are the currency of international organizations and multinational enterprises. ISO(InternationalOrganization forStandardization) is anextrastateparliamentof thisglobal standard-making activity. A private nongovernmental organization, convening both private companies andnational representatives, ISO oversees global technical standards for everything from credit cardthicknesstodashboardpictograms,computerprotocols,andthepitchofscrewthreads.Enhancingtheinfluenceofaraftofglobalorganizations(e.g.,TheITU[InternationalTelecommunicationsUnion],the IEC [International Electrotechnical Commission], the ICAO [International Civil AviationAuthority],NATO,theWorldBank,theIMF,andtheWTO),standardscreatea“softlaw”ofglobalexchanges.4

ISO’s seemingly innocuous technical specifications dictate the world’s critical dimensions, yettheir most popular standard, ISO 9000, is a management standard that promotes the ritualizedincantations of something called “quality.” Quality standards do not dictate specifications for aproduct but rather offermanagement guidelines for a process or quality system that may addresseverything from the environment to governance itself. ISO 9000 has been adopted as an essentialcredentialinmostcountriesoftheworld.ISOcomplianceisevenaconditionforthetradingpartnersofEUcountries.ThewholeworldnowspeaksadialectofISOEsperanto,onethatoftenresemblesthehilarious,upbeatargotofself-helpgurus.

Whilelackinganyspecificcontentorbindingrequirement,ISOisaperfectconduitofundeclaredactivities and intentions with potentially dangerous consequences. Companies may be certified asresponsibleplayerswithregard to laboror theenvironmentwithouthaving toabidebyanyglobalcompact regarding, for instance, worker safety or dangerous emissions. Of all the things ISOaddresses,remarkablytheorganizationoffersalmostnostandardsthatdirectlyaddresstheconflictedglobal frontiers of infrastructure space—where formulaic urban space confronts sensitivelandscapes,failedeconomies,andcomplexpoliticalsituations.Yetboth thefailureofISOtocreatemoreconsequentialstandardsaswellas itssuccess inshapingglobalhabits inspiresa rehearsalofspatialprotocolsthatjointhebargainsandoffsetsofcontemporaryglobalgovernance.

Space

While space may be enormously consequential in these infrastructure developments, privateenterpriseandotherforcesofextrastatecraftoftenspeakinothertechnicallanguages.Thefinancialindustry quants format the housing landscapes, the carbonmarket regulates rain forest landscapes,

informatic specialists shape the mobile telephony technoscape, McKinsey consultants offereconometrics,andISOintonesmanagementjargon.Politicalandeconomicdatacomecloakedintherationalityofscienceeventhoughtheymayreallypresentfalselogicsorsystemsofbelief.Despiteitsrelative physical durability—infrastructure space is often only regarded as a byproduct of morevolatilemarketsandpoliticalgames.Whoistreatingspaceitselfasinformation?Whoiswritingthesoftwareortheprotocolsinwhichspatialvariablestakethelead?

The interaction of people and technology in the development of social/technical networks likeinfrastructurealreadycallsonseveralareasoftheoryandscholarship,amongthese:socialsciences,arts, business history, science and technology studies, history of science, organization studies,informatics, media and communication studies, architecture, and urbanism. Some of the mostinnovative thinkers in these disciplines now insist on stretching disciplinary habits to question theauthority of their science or the purity of their master narratives. Rather than reinforcing thepresumptionsoftheory,theywanttodiscoverwhatisactuallyhappeningontheground.Notonlythesciences,butalsotheartsofarchitectureandurbanismcontributetotheconversationatthisjuncture.In the search for amore complex context, infrastructure spacemay be a fresh and potent field ofevidence.

This book visits three different strata of infrastructure space: the free zone phenomenon,broadbandmobiletelephonyinKenya,andISO’sglobalmanagementstandards.Eachisacrossroadsof transportation,communication,management, trade,anddevelopmentnetworks.Eachaddressesapressing contemporary issue in infrastructure spacewhile also harking back to the late nineteenthcentury when the growth of international infrastructure, organizations, and corporations began toaccelerate andglobal travel and communication timesbegan to shrink (theSuezCanal and theUStranscontinentalrailroadwerebothcompletedin1869).Eachvisitsinfrastructurespaceindevelopingcountries to findnewintelligenceon theflipsideof thisearly infrastructurehistory.Andeach isapotentialtestbedforspatialsoftware.

Exposing evidence of the infrastructural operating system is as important as acquiring somespecial skills to hack into it. Interspersed between evidentiary chapters are more contemplativechapters. Rangingmore freely over other examples of infrastructure like rail, internet, andmass-producedsuburbs, thesechaptersdwellonanexpanded repertoireof form-making,history-telling,and activism. Together they consider the art of designing interplay between spatial variables—aninterplaypowerfulenoughtoleveragethepoliticsofextrastatecraft.

MarkTwain,onceasteamboatcaptainontheMississippi,developedtechniquesfornavigatingtheriver.Whilethepassengerssaw“prettypictures”oflandscapescenes,hewasextractinginformationfromthechanging“faceofthewater.”Alittleripple,eddy,or“faintdimple”signaledturbulenceorobstacles in a complex and potentially dangerous organization below the surface. These weremarkers of unfolding potentials or inherent agency in the river—what can only be called itsdisposition. Disposition is the character or propensity of an organization that results from all itsactivity. It is themedium,not themessage. It isnot thepatternprintedon thefabricbut theway thefabricfloats.Itisnottheshapeofthegamepiecebutthewaythegamepieceplays.Itisnotthetextbuttheconstantlyupdatingsoftwarethatmanagesthetext.Nottheobjectform,buttheactiveform.

For each technology in infrastructure space, to distinguish between what the organization issayingandwhatit isdoing—theprettylandscapeversusthefluiddynamicsoftheriver—istoreadthedifferencebetweenadeclaredintentandanunderlyingdisposition.Theactivitiesofatechnologymaybedifficulttoseeeventhough,giventheubiquityofinfrastructurespace,theyarehiddeninplainsight.Examiningeachone,eachactiveform—likeeachdimpleorrippleonthewateroreachbitofcodeinthesoftware—makesitmorepalpable.Detectinganddevelopingtheactiveformsthatshapedispositionisanessentialskilloftheurbanistininfrastructurespace,anditisthetopicofachapter

followingthediscussionoffreezones.Examiningthepowerofthestories,persuasions,orideologiesthataccompanyatechnologyalso

helps in detecting disposition. For instance, infrastructure has often been groomed as either aninstrument of militarism, liberalism, or universal rationalization. Yet we might question thedominanceof thesestories inorganizinghistory.Thepyrotechnicsofwarmaydistract fromothermoreinsidiousformsofviolence;theoriesofeconomicliberalismmayironicallygenerateprofoundconstraintsonfreedom;anddreamsofuniversalrationalitymaysponsortheirownspecialformsofirrationality.Well-rehearsedtheories,likethoserelatedtoCapitalorneoliberalismcontinuetosendustothesameplacestosearchfordangerswhileotherconcentrationsofauthoritarianpowerescapescrutiny.Moreover, the less dramatic or upstaged histories—regarding the growth of internationalorganizations,thedivisionoftheradiospectrum,orthecreationofsatellite,fiber-optic,andmobiletelephonynetworks—haveoftenbeentreatedasbureaucraticortechnicalfootnotes,despitethelong-termimpactthesedevelopmentshavehadonourlives.Shapingandmanagingthestoryisthenalsoanessentialskillininfrastructurespace.Achapteraboutthesepersistentideologicalstoriesfollowstheexaminationofbroadband.5

FollowingthediscussionofISO,thefinalchapterconsidersanenhancedrepertoireforpoliticalactivism tuned to more effectively address the powers of infrastructure space. The most familiarformsofpoliticalactivismdemanddeclaration.Yet,whiletherearemomentsinwhichtostandupandgiveitaname,dissentisoftenfooledbythesneakywaytheworldworks,astherealpowerplayersmaintain a currency in undeclared activities. Infrastructure space constitutes awildermongrel thananyfamiliarLeviathanforwhichwehaveawell-rehearsedpoliticalresponse.Thethingsthatmakeinfrastructurespacepowerful—itsmultipliers(e.g.,zones,cellphones,spatialproducts),itsirrationalfictions, or its undeclared but consequential activities—are perhaps the very things that make itimmune to righteous declaration and prescription. The rational, resolute, and righteous, whilecornerstones of dissent, are sometimes less consequential than the discrepant, fictional, or sly.Infrastructurespacetutorsashrewder,cagiercountertothelubricatedagilityofmostglobalpowers—analternativeextrastatecraft.

_______________1 For a discussion of spatial products, see Keller Easterling, Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and Its Political

Masquerades(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,2005).2 Marshall McLuhan,Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill and London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul, 1964, 2001), 19: “For the ‘content’ of themedium is like the juicy piece ofmeat carried by the burglar to distract thewatchdogofthemind.”

3 “A2010LeadershipImperative:TheFutureBuiltonBroadband”(ITU,TheBroadbandCommissionforDigitalDevelopment,2010); Mohsen Khalil, Philippe Dongier, and Christine Zhen Wei Qiang, “Overview,” in Information and Communications forDevelopment:ExtendingReachandIncreasingImpact,ed.WorldBankDevelopmentDataGroupandWorldBankGlobalInformation& Communication Technologies Dept. (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009); ITU, “World Telecommunications/ICT IndicatorsDatabase,17thEdition,”June17,2013,atitu.int.

4 NilsBrunssonandBengtJacobsson,“TheProsandConsofStandardization—AnEpilogue,”inBrussonandJacobssoneds.,AWorld of Standards (London: Oxford University Press, 2000), 171; Peter Mendel, “The Making and Expansion of InternationalManagement Standards: The Global Diffusion of ISO 9000 Quality Management Certificates,” in J. W. Meyer, G. S. Drori, and H.Hwang,GlobalizationandOrganization:WorldSocietyandOrganizationalChange (Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,2006),137–66.

5 Thisdiscussionofthestoriesthatattachtoinfrastructurespacegesturestoafewterms(e.g.,scriptandnarrative)alreadyinplayinahighlydevelopeddiscourseaboutthereciprocitybetweensocialandtechnicalnetworks—onethatwillbemorefullyengagedinthecourse of the book. For just two of many titles that contribute to this discourse, see Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social: AnIntroduction to Actor-Network Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) and David E. Nye, Electrifying America: SocialMeaningsofaNewTechnology(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,1990).

CHAPTER1

Zone

Promotionalvideosforthefreezoneinvariablyfollowthesametemplate.Azoomfromouterspacelocates a spot on the globe. Graphics indicating flight times to major cities argue that this spot,wherever it is, is thecenterofallglobalactivity.While the soundtrack for low-budgetversionsofthese videos may be a tinny, canned fanfare, many have high production values. Stirring music,appropriate foranadventure filmorawestern, is ethnically inflected to suit thecultureathand.Adeepmovie-trailervoicedescribestherequisiteinfrastructure.Asthezoomcontinues,cloudsparttorevealmultipledigitalsunflaresandasparklingnewskyscrapermetropolis.

Thezonehasnotalwaysbeentheworld’sglobalurbanaddiction.Oncerelegatedtothebackstage,it has, in the space of a few years, evolved from a fenced-off enclave for warehousing andmanufacturingtoaworld-citytemplate.Yetthewildmutationsoftheformoverthelastthirtyyearsonlymakeitseempenetrabletofurthermanipulation.

Freeportshavehandledglobaltradeforcenturies,butthemid-twentieth-centurydevelopmentoftheExportProcessingZone,orEPZ,asamoreformalizedeconomicandadministrativeinstrument,marksthebeginningofthemodernzone.Withpersuasiveargumentsaboutnation-buildingandfreetrade,theUnitedNationsandtheWorldBankpromotedtheEPZasatoolthatdevelopingcountriesshould use to enter the global marketplace and attract foreign investment with incentives like taxholidays and cheap labor. Although intended as a temporary experiment and judged to be asuboptimaleconomicinstrument,thezonespreadwidelyduringthe1970sevenasitalsospreadnewwavesof laborexploitation.Therewere,however,unexpectedconsequences: rather thandissolvinginto the domestic economy, as was originally intended, the EPZ absorbedmore andmore of thateconomyintotheenclave.

Thenextgenerationsoftheform,incubatedinChinaortheMiddleEast,essentiallybecameentirecitiesorcity-states, renderingurbanismasaservice industry. In the late-1970s,China’sexperimentwith the zone as a free market tool was so successful that it generated its own global tradingnetworks,whichinturnacceleratedzonegrowthworldwide.ForDubai,thezonewasafreshformofentrepôt not unlike those that had figured in its longer history. As zones multiplied they alsoupgraded, breedingwith other increasingly prevalent urban forms like the campus or office park.Mergingindustrialandknowledgeeconomies,thezonehasbeguntoincorporateafullcomplementofresidential,resort,educational,commercial,andadministrativeprograms—awarmpooltospatialproductsthateasilymigratearoundtheworld,thrivingonincentivizedurbanism.

Having swallowed the city whole, the zone is now the germ of a city-building epidemic thatreproducesglitteringmimicsofDubai,Singapore,andHongKong.Whileinthe1960stherewereahandfulofzonesintheworld,todaytherearethousands—somemeasuredinhectares,someinsquarekilometers.Nolongerintheshadowoftheglobalcityasfinancialcenter(NewYork,London,Tokyo,SãoPaulo), the zone as corporate enclave is themostpopularmodel for the contemporaryglobalcity, offering a “clean slate” and a “one-stop” entry into the economy of a foreign country. Nowmajorcitiesandevennational capitals, supposedly thecentersof law,havecreated theirownzonedoppelgängers,likeNaviMumbai;Astana,thenewlymintedcapitalofKazakhstan;orNewSongdoCity, a Seoul double that developer Stanley Gale considers to be a repeatable “city in a box.”Economicanalystschaseafterscoresofzonevariants,evenastheymutateontheground,oscillatingbetweenvisibilityandinvisibility,identityandanonymity.

As the zone mutates, it also resembles history’s various intentional communities with their

mixturesofwithdrawalandaspiration—mixingecstaticexpressionsofurbanitywithacomplexandsometimes violent form of lawlessness. Maintaining autonomous control over a closed loop ofcompatible circumstances, the isomorphic zone rejectsmost of the circumstance and contradictionthatarethehallmarkofmorefamiliarformsofurbanity.Initssweatshopsanddormitoriesitoftenremainsaclandestinesiteoflaborabuse.

Forallofitseffortstobeapolitical,thezoneisoftenapowerfulpoliticalpawn.Whileextolledasan instrumentofeconomic liberalism, it tradesstatebureaucracyforevenmorecomplex layersofextrastate governance, market manipulation, and regulation. For all its intentions to be a tool ofeconomic rationalization, it is often a perfect crucible of irrationality and fantasy. And while asspatialsoftware,thezoneisrelativelydumb—theurbanequivalentofMS-DOS—ithasquicklyspreadaround the world. Yet, for all these reasons, the zone is ripe formanipulation, and its popularitymakesitapotentialmultiplierorcarrierofalternativetechnologies,urbanities,andpolitics.

TheZoneIsAncientandNew

Thezoneisheirtothemystiqueofancientfreeports,pirateenclaves,andotherentrepôtsofmaritimetrade.TheRomanportofDelosinGreeceisfrequentlycitedastheprimordialmomentofthefreeport.1 The Mediterranean fostered free ports for trade along Italian, Phoenician, Armenian, andMuslimtraderoutes.FromthethirteenthtotheseventeenthcenturyintheBalticandtheNorthSea,theHanseatic League established a network of “free cities.” Fiercely independent, the Hansa traderscreatedaquasi-monasticsociety,livinganddiningtogetherintheirtradinghallsandfactorieswhere,inforeigncities,theywerealsosometimesconfined.HansacitieslikeHamburgandBrementradedwith London, Lübeck, Rostock, Gdańsk, Königsberg, Brügge, Köln, and Novgorod.2 In theMediterranean,Marseille,Genoa,andLivornowereearlyfreeports.Bytheseventeenthcentury,theEuropeanfreecitiesorfreeportsincludedNaples,Venice,Trieste,Porto,Dunkirk,andCopenhagen.Hamburgwouldremainaprominentfreeportforcenturies,abletoevadethejurisdictionalpowerofmonarchiesandnationalregulation.3

Inthelateeighteenthandearlynineteenthcenturies,as tradebegantoincludetheAmericasinatruly global network, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and Great Britain established free ports in SouthAmericaandtheCaribbean.BritishandFrenchfreeports inHongKong(1841),Singapore(1819),Djibouti(1859),andAden(1853)followed.4WhiletheusefulnessoftheCaribbeanportsdeclined,theAsianports,notablyHongKong,endured,andbothHongKongandHamburgcontinuedtobeglobalmodelsintothetwentiethcentury.WhenHamburgjoinedtheGermanEmpirein1871,thecityrefusedtobecomeamemberoftheGermanCustomsUnion,forfearoflosingitsvarioustradingfreedoms,andonlyjoinedin1888,whenitwasallowedtofenceoffanareathatremainedoutsideoftheunion’scontrol. Within this area, the city was granted increased freedom for sorting, manipulating, andmanufacturingwarehousedgoodsbeforere-export.5

In 1934, after sending delegations to Copenhagen and Hamburg, the United States passed theForeignTradeZoneAct.BasedinpartontheHamburgmodel,ForeignTradeZones(FTZs)allowedfor thesortingandmanipulationofgoods.6ThefirstFTZs in theUnitedStateswere inNewYork,NewOrleans,SanFrancisco,andSeattle.In1950,FTZlawwasamendedtoallowformanufacturing.Yet until the 1970s only three more zones—in Toledo, Ohio; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Mayagüez,PuertoRico—werecreated.7

Anumberofinstallations,speciallytailoredtoenablemanufacturing,appearedaroundtheworldafter World War II and served as forerunners of the Export Processing Zone—the formula that

arguablyspawnedaglobalproliferationofzones.AlthoughdiminishedafterWorldWar IIand theKoreanWar,HongKongreboundedasamemberofthisnewspeciesoffreeportinpartbecauseofitsownhighvolumeofexportedgoods.8WhenShannonAirportinIrelandwasnolongerneededforrefueling, it began a deliberate campaign to attract bothmanufacturing and service industrieswithlawsthatestablishedaCustomsFreeAirport(1947)andtheShannonDutyFreeAirportDevelopmentCompany(1959).9

In1947,PuertoRico,alreadyaduty-freesupplierfortheUnitedStatesduringwartime,venturedtobuildmanufacturingandwarehousingfacilities tailored toUSbusinesses.A ten-year taxholidayandprebuiltmodularbuildingsattractedalmost500USfirmsby1963.Onepromoteroftheprogramcharacterized it as the “first significant effort to alleviate human suffering in theCaribbean.” Thedevelopmentorganizationstaffweretrainedtodeliverclientstotheirnewbuilding,turnonthelights,stepaside,andsay“Thisisyourfactory,señor.”10

TheColónFreeTradeZoneintheRepublicofPanama,establishedin1948,wasalsodesignedtotakeadvantageofexistingrelationshipswiththeUnitedStatesthathadbeenforgedduringWorldWarII.Plansforaninternationalfreezonehadbeendiscussedsince1917,threeyearsaftertheopeningofthePanamaCanal,and investors fromNewYorkwere interested in financing theproject.By1946,PanamahadhiredtheexecutivesecretaryoftheUSForeign-TradeZonesBoard,ThomasE.Lyons,tostudythefeasibilityoftheproject.11

In1964,MexicoinauguratedtheBorderIndustrialProgram(BIP)justastheUS-MexicanBracero(or guest-worker) program was expiring.12 The BIP allowed foreign companies to operatemaquiladoras (or factories) within a twenty-mile strip along the border between Mexico and theUnited States, and by 1972 these factories could be established anywhere in the country. Takingadvantageofcheap,mostlyfemalelabor,thesezoneswereessentiallyinexpensivetwinsoffactoriesinthehomecountry.

These early outposts prompted experiments in other countries. HongKong and ShannonweremodelsforTaiwan’sKaohsiungExportProcessingZonein1965.AlloftheseservedastemplatesforzonesinAfrica,SouthAmerica,theMiddleEast,andotherpartsofAsia.13SouthKoreaestablishedsix free-tradezones, three inSeoul and three in Incheon in1965.14 India establishedKandla in thesameyear.15BrazilestablishedManausin1967.16PrefiguringtheirlateruseasamarketexperimentinChina,in1963thesocialistcountryofYugoslavialegislatedtradezonesalongtheDanube.17

Although descended from historic free ports, since the 1970s the zone had become a morethoroughly abstracted and formulaic instrument now distinct from the maritime spaces that hadpreviouslyshapedtrade.Ascontainershippingbecametheglobalstandard,whereveraplanecouldland or a truck could travel, new diasporic centers of global trade could develop—even in inlandareas,borderlands,andbackwaters thatwouldneverhavesponsored thecosmopolitanism typicallyassociatedwithglobal trade.Yet,as itopened itsdoor tomanufacturingand tonewpopulationsofworkers,thezonealsobegantodevelopitsownpeculiarformofurbanity.

KellerEasterling

Maquiladoras,Tijuana,2009

TheZoneIsExtrastatecraft

Perhapsthemostimportantfactorcontributingtotheexponentialgrowthofzonesinthe1970swasanendorsementfromtheUnitedNationsIndustrialDevelopmentOrganization(UNIDO).Establishedin1966, UNIDO began to study and disseminate data and economic statistics about the zone as aprescriptionfordevelopingcountries.ItestablishedaFreeZoneUnittoworkwiththeShannonFreeAirportDevelopmentCompany,Kaohsiung,andtheWorldBanktoinstructpotentialzonedevelopers.Shannon and Kaohsiung held seminars on EPZ formation around the world. By 1971, UNIDOclaimedthat“morethan30developingcountries”wereseekingthe“technicalassistanceservicesofUNIDO”increatingzones.18Thezonewasbecomingaglobalcontagion—awidelycopiedlegalandeconomictemplate.

UNIDO characterized the zone as a temporary phenomenon that could jump-start economies.Whennolongerusefulinonecountry,itwouldbetakenupbyanotheronthethresholdoftheglobalmarket. UNIDO even hoped to create an international “federation of free trade zones” that wouldconvenerepresentativesofgovernmentsaroundtheworld.19

Zonegrowthaccelerated throughout the1970s. In theUnitedStatesalone, therewasadramaticincreasefromfewerthantenin1970to118by1986.20Countingthenumberoffreezonesgloballyis,however, fraughtwithdifficulty, since the formhasbeenmutatingas itmigratesaround theworld.TheOrganizationforEconomicCooperationandDevelopment(OECD)andothersoftenrepeattheInternationalLaborOrganization(ILO)figureswithtalliesthatreflecttherecentexponentialgrowth.In1975,thereweretwenty-fivecountriesandaglobaltotalofseventy-nineEPZsemploying800,000.By1986,thosenumbershadnearlydoubled.In1997,93countrieshosted845zonesemploying22.5million. In 2002, 116 countries hosted 3,000 zones employing 43 million. In 2006, 130 countrieshosted3,500zonesemploying66million.21

Asa legalandeconomic instrument, thezonepresidesoveracocktailofenticementsand legalexemptions thataresometimesmixed togetherwithdomesticcivil laws,sometimesmanipulatedbybusiness to create international law, and sometimes adopted by the nation in its entirety. Incentivesvaryineverylocationbutmightinclude:holidaysfromincomeorsalestaxes,dedicatedutilitieslike

electricity or broadband, deregulation of labor laws, prohibition of labor unions and strikes,deregulationofenvironmentallaws,streamlinedcustomsandaccesstocheapimportedordomesticlabor,cheaplandandforeignownershipofproperty,exemptionfromimport/exportduties,foreignlanguageservices,orrelaxedlicensingrequirements.22

Thehoststatealsocreatesalegalentity, thezoneauthority, thathasthepowertonegotiatewithbusinessesandforeigngovernments.Asanearlyfreezoneanalystwrote:“TheexemptionsgrantedtoFTZoperatorsbytheseentitiesareexhaustiveenoughtostripthemoststringentcodeofcivillawofsubstance;infactinmostcountriestheFTZinvestorscannotbesuedinordinarydomesticcourtsbyindividuals.” The FTZ thus often supplants “domestic ministries, courts, revenue offices, centralbanks,planningauthorities,etc.”23

Acountrymayhavestrictlawsregulatinglabor,theenvironment,sanitation,healthandsafety,orhumanrights,anditmaybeasignatorytoglobalcompacts.Yetthezoneauthorityfrequentlyhasthepower,inindividualdeals,tograntexceptionfromanylaw.Inotherzones,thelocalgovernmentmayhelptomanagethezoneinexchangeforamajorityshare,and,intheory,astateministryforlabor,environment, or economic affairs can work with the zone authority in implementing selectiveregulation. In communist countries andMiddle Eastern kingdoms the state may retain even morecontrol.24

While UNIDO initially promoted the EPZ, a 1980 report expressed caution about treating theformat as anything other than a temporary catalyst. UNIDO evaluated a number of factors, fromgender roles to the benefits of introducing new technologies into developing countries. They firstdetermined that the formwasattractive forbothhostand foreigncountriesbecause it strengthenedcollaborationbetweenthemandfrequentlycreatedconditionsbetterthanthoseoutsidethezone.Yetthe report also highlighted the dangers posed by the zone as it redirected national resources thatmighthavebeenusedtoimproveinfrastructure,businessplatforms,andotherpotentialrelationshipswithforeigninterestswithintheregularterritoryofthestate.Theyarguedthat“thedisadvantagesoftheEPZwould appear to lie in the continuation of their enclavistic nature.The choice facing hostgovernmentsiswhethertoretaintheenclaveortoremoveit.Perpetuationoftheenclavewillretaintheproblems,thesocialandeconomiccosts,withouttheobviousoff-setoffurtherbenefits.”UNIDOrecognizedthatthezonewouldbealosingpropositionifitremaineddistinctfromtherestofthehosteconomy,yetitrealizedthattheformwouldlikelypersist.25

OECD andWorld Bank publications similarly acknowledged that, rather than an EPZ, simpleinvestmentinadomesticeconomywasthebestwaytoencouragetradeandprosperity.Consideringtheassociated infrastructure investments and lost tax revenue, thezoneapproachasopposed to the“enterpriseapproach”didnotalwaysyieldsignificantvalueor“spillover”effectsinthehostcountry.TheOECDcharacterizedEPZsas“asuboptimalpolicyfromaneconomicpointofview.”26

China’smorepowerfulversionofthezonewould,however,soonturbochargezonegrowthandturn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.27 In China, the zone often represented the first growth of acommunist-stylefreemarket.AspartofDengXiaoping’s“OpenDoor”economicpolicies,thefirstfiveSpecialEconomicZones (SEZs) of the 1980s—Shenzhen,Xiamen, Shangtou, Zhuhai, and theentireprovinceofHainan—wereplannedasexperimentswithmarketeconomies.By1984,Chinahadcreated sixteenmore zones.Since then, the countryhas establishedamultitudeof special zonesofvarious types,most ofwhich diverge from the typical EPZ formula. An SEZ like Shenzhen is anentirecity,includingbothbusinessandresidentialprograms.AstheILOtrackedthezonein2006,ofthe66millionworkers in theworld’sEPZs,only26millionwereemployedoutsideofChina.Thecountryhadgenerateditowncategoryofzonephenomena.28

TheZoneIsBreeding

As interest in the early EPZ form waned in 1980s and ’90s, the zone began to breed morepromiscuously with other enclave formats, or “parks,” merging with container ports, offshorefinancial areas, tourist compounds, knowledge villages, IT campuses, and even museums anduniversities.Itdidnotdissolveintothegeneralbusinessandindustrialclimateofitshostcountry,butratherbecameapersistentyetmutableinstrument,transformingasitabsorbedmoreandmoreofthegeneraleconomywithinitsboundaries.Reconsideringtherolethattheirdomesticlaborwasforcedto play in the typical EPZ, many countries began to “upgrade” their zones, offering, instead ofmanufacturedgoods,servicesrelatedtoITorfinance.

Adaptingtothegrowingknowledgeeconomy,manyoftheearlyupgradedzonestooktheformofScience Industrial Parks (SIPs), based on the research park or campus.29 Palo Alto’s StanfordResearch Park, established in 1951, was themodel for scores of such parks in the United Saates,includingResearchTrianglePark inNorthCarolina (established in1959andbecominganFTZ in1983),CummingsResearchParkinAlabama(1962),andtheAustinTechnologyIncubatorinTexas(1989).30 TheUSSR built one of the first science cities in Siberia in 1957—Akademgorodok (theAcademic City), near Novosibirsk—but more recent science cities have been based on the AsianSIPs.31JapandevelopedKyushuSiliconIslandin1965andTsukubaScienceCityin1968,alongwithfourteenotherSIPsbeforethe1990s.TaiwanandSouthKorea,upgradingfromprocessingindustriesdependentoncheap labor,werealsoearlyadoptersofSIPs.32Anumberofhigh-techparks for IT,electronics,andpharmaceuticalsappearedinChinainthe1990s.

In1991,theIndiangovernmentestablishedSoftwareTechnologyParksofIndia(STPI)tobrokerbroadband from the country’s satellite fleet. As they attracted IT companies, Bangalore andHyderabadquicklydevelopedcybercityprogramsandhelpedtomakethecallcenterintoagloballypopularspatialproduct.InHyderabad’sHITECCity,buildingsresemblingfuturisticspacecraftroseupinanotherwisedustylandscape.33In2007,IndiaaddedSpecialEconomicZoneincentivestothemix of infrastructural offerings. Building on a long-standing cultural link toMauritius, STPIwaseven engaged to advise the island country onEbeneCybercity,which began construction in 2001.BolsteredbybroadbandfrominternationalsubmarinecableandofferingEPZstatus throughout theentire country,Mauritius has deployed new zone formulas to become one of themost prosperouscountriesintheAfricancontinent.34

In1996,Malaysia’sMultimediaSuperCorridor(MSC)usedthespecialeconomiczoneaspartofa national information technology initiativewith urban ambitions on a different scale.Based on astudy byMcKinsey, the initiativewould allow the country to leapfrog into the twenty-first centuryarmed with IT skills, facilities, and educational institutions. The MSC established a 750-square-kilometer zone of incentivized urbanism between the Petronas Towers and the Kuala LumpurInternationalAirport,offering,forinstance,premiuminfrastructure,taxexemptionfortenyears,andduty-free import of multimedia equipment. The plan was to develop cybercities and cybercentresaroundtheurbanhubofCyberjaya.35

Enjoying quasi-diplomatic immunities, global corporations provided nations with support orexpertise aswell as credentialswhen seeking funding from the IMF orWorldBank. ConstructioncompaniesandinfrastructurespecialistslikeBouygues,Bin-ladenGroup,Mitsubishi,Kawasaki,andSiemens delivered technologies for high-speed rail, automated transit, airport, and skyscraperengineering. Conglomerates such as PSA (Port of Singapore Authority), P&O, Hutchison PortHoldings,andECT(EuropeanContainerTerminals)servedaspost-colonialcounterpartsoftheoldBritishorDutchEastIndiaCompanyfranchises.Tocontainerportsaroundtheworld,theydelivered

automated transshipment andwarehousing technologies, “justin-time”management techniques, andothermaterials-handlingexpertiseforsortingandtrackingallofthecontentsofallofthecontainersmovingbetweenzonesonincreasinglylargerandlargerships.36

In1995,thesociologistandpoliticalscientistXiangmingChensketchedanevolutionofzonesinthreestages.Thefirst,fromthemid-1500stothe1930s,heassociatedwiththefreeportandearlyfreetrade zones. The second, from the late-1950s into the ’70s, was characterized by the inclusion ofmanufacturingEPZssuchasmaquiladoras.Thethirdstage,beginninginthe1980s,sawtheriseoftheSpecial Economic Zones (SEZs), Economic and Technological Development Zones (ETDs), andScience Industrial Parks (SIPs). Chen also drew attention to the development of cross-borderconurbations of zone formations on, for instance, theTumenRiver betweenRussia andKorea, aswellascross-nationalgrowthzonesintheSouthChinaSea.Thesezoneswerebeginningtoaggregateopportunistically to circulate products between jurisdictions, trading exemptions and filling quotaswithinthecomplexengineeringofsupplychains.37

Following the perfectly paradoxical scripts of liberalism or neoliberalism, private-enterpriseboostershavearguedthatthezone’sevolutionhasrepaireditsreputationandthatlaborunionsmayberesponsibleforanyfurtherfailures.Laborunionspresumablymanipulatethemarket,thusspoilingthe purity of an instrument for manipulating the market. The World Export Processing ZoneAssociation(WEPZA)recentlyclaimedthat,“Whiletheoldfreezonewasoftendescribedasastatic,laborintensive,incentivedriven,exploitiveenclave,thenewzoneparadigmisadynamic,investment-intensive,management-driven,enabling,and integratedeconomicdevelopment tool.”38 In1985, thetax and foreign trade experts Walter H. Diamond and Dorothy B. Diamond launched a quarterlynewsletterfor investors that trackedandmappedtax-free tradezonesacross theworld,consideringthemtobe“utilities”thatexist“toservethepublic.”39

In his 1995 book The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies, a formerMcKinseyite,KenichiOhmae,sketchedanewneoliberalregionstatethatboreastrongresemblancetozoneurbanism—aconurbationof5–20millionpeoplewithaninternationalairportandaharborcapable of handling international freight, all servicing a lean, Japanese-style multinationalcorporation.Heclaimedthatregionstateswouldbeblessedwithaneweconomicfreedomfromstategovernance, and with boundaries that could only be “drawn by the deft but invisible hand of theglobalmarket.”40

The increasing complexity of the zone has further confused those economists attempting toclassifyit,evenasithascontinuedtospreadinwavesacrosstheworld.Inadditionto“EPZ,”themostpopulardesignation,a1998WorldBankreporttrackednineteendifferenttermsforthezone.41Bythefirstdecadeofthetwenty-firstcenturythereweresixty-sixtermsincirculation.42Noneofthemodesof classification coincide.43 As the OECD notes, “The diversity of EPZs is matched only by thediversityofterminologyusedbyanalysts.”44

The urban world that the sociologist Manuel Castells described in The Informational City:Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban Regional Process (1989), and theworld that he and Peter Hall described inTechnopoles of theWorld: TheMaking of Twenty-First-CenturyIndustrialComplexes(1994),was,inpart,theworldofzoneurbanism—whatCastellscalledaspaceofinformation“flows.”Thezonewasnotanaccumulationofbuildings,buturbanspaceasthe product of more formulaic drivers. Digital capital created the landscapes of logistics and ITwithinwhich, asKevinKellyhaswritten, carswere“chipswithwheels”andairplaneswere“chipswithwings.”45

LicensedunderCreativeCommons

DubaiInternetCity,2012

TheZoneisaCity

The zone, in its next incarnations, began to call itself a “city”—an enthusiastic expression ofadvancementsinceitsoriginsinwarehousingandshipping.SomenationsusedEPZsasameansofannouncingtheirentryintoaglobalmarketandtheiravailabilityascontractorsofoutsourcingandoffshoring. Countless zoneswere called “cyber cities,” “technocities,” or “logistics cities,” where“city”mightdescribeasmallofficeparkanchoredbyoneortwobuildings.Nevertheless,Malaysia’sMultimediaSuperCorridoraswellasChina’sSEZswerebeginning todeliveranentireskylineofbuildings.While banishingmany of the circumstantial frictions of urbanity, the zone transformeditself into a model for the metropolis that welcomes every conceivable residential, business, orculturalprogram.

Just across the water from Hong Kong, one of the oldest and most powerful of free ports,Shenzhen, once an experimental enclave sited in a former fishing village, has ballooned into amegacitysproutingstalkafter stalkofgenericconcrete skyscrapers.Witha transientpopulationofaround14million,theSEZhasexpandedovertheyearstoencompassallsevendistrictsofthecityspreadacrossapproximately2,000squarekilometers.46Theentirecityoffers freezoneprivileges,although there are also distinct EPZswithin the SEZ, like the Shekou Industrial Zone (SKIZ), thatallow businesses to negotiate with a zone authority rather than the Guangdong ProvincialAdministration that controls Shenzhen SEZ. The SEZ offers a number of tax reductions or taxholidays and exemptions, but the biggest attractions for business are the low rent and cheap labor.Thereareincentivestocreate jointventuresandtoinitiate thedesiredhigh-techindustries.Mostofthe city’s investment comes from Hong Kong—a competitor that nevertheless finds advantage inShenzhen’sthrobbinggrowth.47

Afteraquartercenturyofgrowth,Shenzhenhasalsobecomeacrucibleforitsownformsofcivicactivism.Anewmiddleclasshas,onoccasion,actedtoprotectitsnewpropertyinterests,organizedaboycotttoprotestincreasingrealestateprices,oragitatedagainsttheconstructionofanewhighway.

Others have formed a research group, Interhoo, to monitor development activities or run forgovernment office at the municipal or district level.48 As an industrial coal smog envelopes theskyline,laxenvironmentalrules,togetherwithaseeminglyinexhaustiblesourceofinexpensivelabormigrating from the hinterland, have compounded both the corruption and the pollution. There arealsothousandsoflaborstrikeseachyearandpetitionsforhigherwages,butthesecanbesquelchedbythestate.49Thesheersizeofthiscity,thedistancebetweenthemoderndowntown,thefactory,andthe underworld, comprises a complex urbanity, a city in the shadow of a repressive regime thatneverthelessgrowsoutofcontrolinwaysbothproductiveanddangerous.50

AsShenzhenistoHongKong,PudongistoShanghai.PudongwasestablishedasanSEZin1993on the east bank of theHuangpuRiver.At 1,200 square kilometers it is comparable to the size ofShanghaiandhometoover5millionpeople.Withaskylineaspiringtosignatureratherthangenericoutlines,thecentralskyscrapersandhotels—theOrientalPearlTower,theJinMaoBuilding,andtheShanghaiWorldFinancialCenteramongthem—signalluxuryandworld-classfacilities.

ShenzhenandShanghaiarepartof“cityclusters”inthePearlRiverDeltaEconomicZoneandtheYangtzeRiverDeltaEconomicZone thatdevelop industrialsynergies.Sometimes the term“clustercities,” or “supply chain cities,” refers to backstage installations that optimize the logistics ofmanufacturingforonetypeofproduct.But“supplychaincities”or“superfactories”canalsorefertozones that concentrate all the phases of production fromdesign tomanufacturing into one area tominimize shipping costs and compress schedules. For instance, Chaozhou specializes in weddingdresses and evening gowns, Shengzhou in ties,Datang andZhuji in socks, Jinjiang andShenhu inunderwear,andXintangandZengchenginjeans.51

PerhapsevenmoresothanChina,theUAEhasusedthezonetoitsdistinctadvantage—tocontrolforeigninfluence,elevatethestatusofprivilegednationals,andleveragetheregion’soilandgastocreatediversifiedindustries.Shenzhenisacityaszone,butDubaiisacity-stateaszone.ForDubai—ananciententrepôtoftradingandsmugglingrecentlyreawakenedbyoil—thezonemayhaveseemedremarkablyfamiliarwhilenationhoodmayhaveseemedabitlikeaquaintcustomnecessarytojoinaglobalclub.

Dubai’sfirstfree-tradezone,theJebelAliFreeZone,wasestablishedin1985.Sincethen,Dubaihasrehearsedthe“park”orzonewithalmosteveryimaginableprogram,suchthatitsurbanfabricisnowanaggregateofzones,eachofwhichhasoftenbeennameda“city.”ThereisDubaiInternetCity,whichopened in2000 (the first tomix the ITcampuswith the free-tradezone),DubaiHealthCareCity,DubaiMaritimeCity,DubaiSiliconOasis,DubaiKnowledgeVillage,DubaiTechnoPark,DubaiMedia City, Dubai Outsourcing Zone, Dubai Industrial City, Dubai Textile Village, and DubaiInternational City, amongmany others. Each enclave offers a different set of incentives includingstreamlinedcustoms,inexpensivelaborfromSouthAsiaandAfrica,foreignownershipofproperty,orrightstoownrealestateinspecialprojectslikethePalmIslands.52Dubaiisanoffshorefinancialcenterforthewholeofitsterritory.Eachzonemayevenhaveitsownlaws.Forinstance,DubaiMediaCity, the headquarters for major news outlets, allows some freedom of speech not technicallypermittedelsewhereinthestateofDubai.53

TheresidentpopulationintheUAEisnotofferedascheaplabor,butratheristhebeneficiaryoffree trade and other special bargains of extrastatecraft. Inexpensive labor is imported from SouthAsiaandelsewherelikemachineryorotherequipment.Afterbecomingrulerin1966,SheikhZayedissuedlandgrantstoeachnationaltoensuretheywouldprofitfromdevelopment,andby1976hehadalso offered 5,000 units of “people’s housing.”54 The land grantswere similar in principle to themany other laws stipulating that partnerships or enterprises must include UAE nationals as eitherassociates or beneficiaries. The UAE government also established a program to channel foreign

investment into industries thatwould support thecountry’s long-termgoals.55 Since thenumberofnationals is small, the UAE has managed to convert the typically corrupt relationship betweengovernment and private-interest lobbies into a form of hyper-representation for a manageablehandfulofconstituents.56

After many cycles of breeding around the world, some surprising traits have surfaced in theMiddleEasternzonecity.DubaiHumanitarianCity,forinstance,isanoutpostofreliefagenciesandNGOs.57AbuDhabi’sMasdarCity,establishedbytheAbuDhabiFutureEnergyCompany,isafreezone for green-energy enterprises. Masterminded by Norman Foster, the zone’s square gridresemblesthatofanidealtown,whilethesectionalshapeofthecityisdesignedforshadeandsolarenergy collection.An underground channel for automated rapid-transit vehicles transfers to urbantransportationtechnologiesfirstdevelopedintransshipmentlandscapes.58QatarEducationCityusesthecampus/park/zonemodeltoprovideheadquartersforthefranchisesofmajoruniversitiesaroundtheworld. Corporate sponsorshipmakes of the university a kind of incubator of intelligence andmanpower for the corporation aswell as the region.While none of these programmatic ideas ofgreening,humanitarianism,oreducationareredemptive,eachdemonstratestheextrememutabilityofthezoneform.

Renderingofcitycenter,KingAbdullahEconomicCity

In King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), on the Red Sea near Jedda, the zone is again anaggregatecomponentofafull-blowncity.Launchedin2006bytheSaudigovernmentandtheDubairealestatedevelopersEmaar,thecitywilleventuallycover168squarekilometers(aboutthesizeofBrussels).TheSaudisalsoplantobuildKnowledgeEconomicCityinMedina,JazanEconomicCityin Jazan, and Prince Abdul Aziz bin Mousaed Economic City in Hail, among others. In KAEC(pronounced“cake”),thefirstareatobedevelopedwillbeanindustrialzonecoveringathirdofthecity’sentirearea.Thezonewillhouseitsownworker ’sdormitory,mosque,andprayerrooms,butitis not clear whether workers will have full access to the other “high-class” and “prosperous”securitizedareasofthecity.

TheKAECplansalsoenvisageamanufacturingzonecalled“PlasticsValley”asameanstotake

advantage of auxiliary petrochemical resources as well as an international container seaport withlogistics, warehousing, and transshipment facilities. As the city continues to grow over the nextfifteen years, it hopes to incorporate resort functions, e-governance, home automation, and aconnectionontheMecca-Medinarail line—partofa largernetworkofhigh-speedrailplannedforSaudiArabia. Incentives for foreign investment includeownershipofproperty, low-cost financing,exemptionsfromimportduties,nopersonalincometax,andaminimal20percentcorporateincometax.59 Digital fly-throughs render KAEC as a golden city with both modern skyscrapers andreferences to traditional Islamic buildings—all serving as a monument to the state and its “wiseleadership.”60

TheZoneIsaDouble

Shenzhen is a double of Hong Kong. Pudong doubles Shanghai. CIDCO, the City and IndustrialDevelopmentCompanyofMaharashtra,operatingunderthemotto“Wemakecities,”ismakingNaviMumbai the double ofMumbai.61Not only has the zone become a city, butmajor cities and evennational capitals are now engineering their own zone doppelgängers—their own non-nationalterritoriesinwhichtocreatenewer,cleaneralter-egos,freeofanyincumbentbureaucracy.ThezoneembodieswhatpoliticalscientistStephenD.Krasnercalls“hypocriticalsovereignty”—wherenationsoperate between multiple jurisdictions with potentially conflicting allegiances and laws—or whatinternational relations professor Ronen Palan calls “sovereign bifurcation,” where “statesintentionally divide their sovereign space into heavily and lightly regulated realms.”62 The worldcapital and national capital can now shadow each other, alternately exhibiting a regional culturalethos, national pride, or global ambition. State and non-state actors use each other as proxy orcamouflage as they juggle and decouple from the law in order to create the most advantageouspoliticaloreconomicclimate.63

HongKongandShenzhenareliketwinswhocantricktheworldortrickeachother.HongKonguses its sister cityas a sourceof cheap laborand rent;ShenzhencompeteswithHongKongwhileacceptinginvestmentfromitsbusinessmen.Shenzhenalsosmothersitsislandsiblingwithsymbioticoverachievement.ChinaDailyprojectsthemainland’sambitionswhenitchirpsthat,givenShenzhen’sspectacularsuccess,HongKongwillsurelywanttoformasinglemetropolitanregion.64

NewSongdoCityunderconstruction

Conforming to aglobal standard, thepromotionalvideo forNewSongdoCity inSouthKoreaflies infromouterspaceandthroughadigitalmodel,accompaniedbyanew-agesoundtrackfromtheIcelandicbandSigurRós.AcompleteinternationalcitydesignedbyKohnPedersenFox,SongdoisadoubleofSeoulinanexpansionoftheIncheonfree-tradeterritories.Itisthe“cityinabox”thatdeveloper Stanley Gale plans to reproduce elsewhere in the world. Aspiring to the cosmopolitanurbanityofNewYork,Venice,andSydney,thecityhasaCentralPark,aWorldTradeCenter,andaCanal Street, as well as commercial, residential, cultural, and educational programs including aninternational convention center, a hospital, a Jack Nicklaus golf course, office buildings, luxuryhotels,andshoppingmalls.Therearealsoadditionalfree-tradezoneareaslikea“Techno-park”anda“BioComplex.”65Songdowilleventuallycoveronly15,000acresandhouseaprojectedpopulationofaquarterofamillion.66Yet italreadyclaims tobeamajorworldcity,a“smartcity,”a“greencity,”an“aerotropolis,”and“acommercialepicenterofNortheastAsia”thatprovidesaccesstoone-thirdoftheworld’spopulationinthree-and-a-halfhours.67Thevideo’semotionalsoundtracktargetsinternationalbusinessfamilieslookingforahomeinthe“worldcommunity.”68

Insomecases,surpassingallirony,thenationalcapitalandthezonehavebecomethesameentity,making the zone itself the seat of governance fromwhich it is selectively exempt.69 In 1997, thecapitalofKazakhstanwassimplymovedfromtheoldcityofAlmaty to themorestrategicAstana,formingacentralSEZcalled“Astana-NewCity.”70Even thoughAstanahasapopulationofa littlemorethan600,000,itcallsitselfa“megacity.”71PresidentNursultanNazarbayevunabashedlycreatedatwenty-three-square-mile(5,900ha)areainwhichthenationcouldadvertiseitsmarketenticementsanddisplayurbanbuildingssaturatedwithnationalprideandregionalimagery.72Astanais,inmanyways,partofacampaigntopositionCentralAsiaasapaleo-GenghiscorridorreadytocompetewithDubai.

BayterekTower,Astana

In1997,KishoKurokawa,thelateJapaneseMetabolistarchitect,designedanaxialmasterplanforAstana-NewCityanchoredbyNormanFoster ’spyramidalPalaceofPeaceandReconciliation.Thereligiously neutral icon offers, at the top of the pyramid, a place of retreat and summit forworldleaders—the zone as a permanent version of an Olympic opening ceremony. Joining Foster ’spyramidwastheKhanShatyr(roughlytranslatedasthe“tentoftheKhan”),a500-foot-tall,140,000-square-meterETFEtentcreatinganinteriormicroclimateforrecreation,shopping,restaurants,andgreenspace.73Colored lights illuminate thebuildings, thegraphic flowerbeds, and the expressiveBayterek observation tower. Multicolored fountains and water shows, like those in Las Vegas orMacau, are also recognized as necessary accoutrements of the new zone.74 In 2010, three days ofcelebrations—coincidingwithNazarbayev’sseventiethbirthday—markedtheopeningof the indoorparkwithitsmonorail, tropicalzone,wavemachine,andbeach.AperformancebyAndreaBocelli,together with a circus and other spectacles, entertained the world leaders who gathered for theevent.75

TheZonePrefersNon-StateViolence

Administeredbyanauthorityindependentfromthestateandabletograntaraftoflegalexemptions,thezonewouldappear tobeaquintessentialexampleofastateofexception.76Thezoneaspires tolawlessness,butitisalsodistinctfromthelegaltraditionofexceptionthatappliestoanation.Zonescheat just as most maritime city-states have cheated for centuries, and in cross-national or cross-border growth zones productsmay circulate between a constellation of zones taking advantage ofdifferentlaws,wagescales,orfactoryquotas.77Zonespresideoveramongrelformofexceptionthatismore resilientandpotentiallymore insidious.Thematrixofexceptions—betweenstateandnon-statejurisdictions—ishardertotracethanthekindofexceptionassociatedwithasingleemergencyofthe state. While seeking out relaxed, tax free, extrastate spaces, businesses may also lobby forlegislationintheirhomestate,inordertopromote,forinstance,favorabletradeagreements.

Renderingofresidentialvillas,KingAbdullahEconomicCity

Inthezone,warisbadforbusiness.Thezoneharborsnottheviolenceofnationsbuttheviolencecamouflagedbynations,andwhilesomezonesadvertisetheirpresence,othersremainhidden.Fromitsinception,themostovertandroutineformsofviolencehavebeenaimedatworkers.Thezonehasbeena site for the fabled“3D” jobs (dirty,dangerous,anddemeaning),aswellasoneof thechiefinstruments in the so-called race to the bottom—the competition between countries to provide thecheapest laborand themostderegulatedconditionsat theexpenseofworkersand theenvironment.The2013RanaPlazacollapseintheDhakaEPZinBangladeshrevealedalistofretailerslikeWal-MartthathadlocatedproductioninBangladeshbecausethewageswereatthelowestendofthescale.Every player in that disaster had cheated the rules or chiseled the budgets to deliver inexpensivelabor.78

Yet the zone is also capableof organizing a formof labor exploitation that is relatively stablewithin the law. Workers confront unsafe, strenuous, physically abusive, and psychologicallyintimidatingsituations.Theyhavea job,but theirwagesfail tosupportadecentstandardof living.Attempts to organize or form labor unions are squelched with lockouts, threats, and firings.Accusationsofabuseorunsafeconditionsmaytriggeranaudit,buttheauditwillthenbecarriedoutaftertheaccusershavebeenfiredorduringatemporarycleanup.Companiesalsododgechargesofabusebysimplydisappearingorchangingtheirname.

Since the zone’s profits are quarantined and allowed to return directly to the multinationalenterprise,theremaybefewlastingdividendsforthehostcountry.Andifonecountrydecidesitisnolongerproudtoofferupitscitizensascheaplabor,thezonewillsimplymigratetoanotherpoorercountry,orwillimportthecheaplaborlikeanyothercomponentoftheindustrialprocess.

In her discussion of “zoning technologies,” the anthropologist Aihwa Ong notes that CarlSchmitt’sdefinitionofexceptionisausefultoolinanalyzingthe“variegatedsovereignty”presentinglobaltrade.Yet,sheargues,“ThesovereignexceptionthatIaminterestedinhereisnotthenegativeexception that suspends civil rights for some but rather positive kinds of exception that createopportunities,usuallyforaminority,whoenjoypoliticalaccommodationsandconditionsnotgrantedto the rest of the population.”79 In the altered landscape of neoliberalism, populated by newinstitutionsofgovernance(e.g.,NGOs,IGOs)andbystatesthathavegivenupsomeoftheirpowertoproxies,shefindsbothnewdangersandnewopportunities.80Intermediaryorganizationsmayactaswatchdogs,supportgroups,voluntaryregulatoryagencies,or,alternatively,asadministrativeshills

for camouflaging, even perpetuating, abuses. Ong suggests that, rather than deliver laws andprotectionsthroughcitizenship(anofferingthatmanyworkersdonotevenwant),thecartographyofthisNGOconstellationmightrenderstrongerandmoresalientformsofleverage.81

The ILO, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and the International TextileGarment andLeatherWorkersFederation are among themost prominent organizations in amuchlargernetworkofNGOsthathavebeenmonitoringthezoneandadvocatingforworker ’srightsforover forty years. The ITUC has fought for a social clause in WTO agreements that will ensureminimumlaborstandards,includingfreedomofassociation,collectivebargaining,andtheabolitionof forced labor, child labor, and labor discrimination.82 The ILO has compiled a similar list ofstandards, butwhilemanyof the countries hosting the zones are signatories, theUnitedStates andmostofthemajorWesternpowersarenot.

In theabsenceof anyother rights,often theonly legal instrument that laborcanuse to redressgrievances is a contract. In Dubai, workers can call a Ministry of Labor hotline to register acomplaint.TheMinistryofLaborcanpressureacontractortomakerestitution,oritcandeporteitherthelaborersorthecontractors.Insomecases,thirdpartiesthattrain,support,orcontractworkersinvarious locations have the power to create contractual pressures. There have also been riots anddemonstrationsthatengagedboththeMinistryofLaborandthepolice.83

Thelaborcompoundsinsomeofthemorerecentzoneshavebecomeareascordonedoffwithinthe global city.Many zones now have a newmodel village for labor, with sports fields and air-conditioneddormitories.One such laborvillage formspart ofDubai IndustrialCity, located somedistancefromthecenterofDubai.Theworkersinthesevillagesoftenhaveinsufficientfundstotravelwithinthecitieswheretheywork,andthushavenochoicebuttoboardthebusthattakesthembacktothe laborcamp—farenoughawayfromthecitycenter toensure theywillnotbeseen.AShenzhenworker,forexample,askedifheevervisitedthedowntownskyscrapersandshoppingmalls,repliedsayingthathehadneverhadthetime:“Ihavetoworkeveryday.”84

Countriesclaimingtohaveupgradedtheirzoneshaveoftenportrayedthemasessentialtoolsforgenerating jobs and training. WEPZA advisor Richard Bolin continued to promote the zone innewsletters,onceevenquotinga2001letterfromPeterDruckerclaimingthat“tocreatewealth,jobsandincomesindesperatelypoorcountries, it [WEPZA]is theonlypovertyprogramthatworks.”85The ITcampuses in IndiaandMalaysia insiston thepresenceofaneducational institution tooffertheircitizenssubstantialtraininginsoftwarewriting.Zonesmayalsoofferchildcareandcommunityorglobalcontactsforyoungentrepreneurs.Somecountriesclaimthatthejobsoutsidethezonearefarworsethanthoseinside.86

Yet,despitetheso-calledupgrades,someofthezone’sproblemshavesimplybeencamouflaged.Aclean,air-conditioned,high-techfirmlikeFoxconninShenzhenisamega-mutationofthetypicalzone factory. As theworld’s biggest electronicsmaker, it is theWal-Mart of zone suppliers, with800,000employeeswearingcrispwhiteoveralls.Foxconnexperiencedarashofworkersuicidesin2010thatappearedtobeaconsequenceofoverworkinthehighlyregimentedconditionsaswellasintimidation,stress,andisolationfromfamilyandfriends.MostofthebigbrandnamesinelectronicsusecomponentsmadebyFoxconn,andclaimtohavereviewedtheconditionsatthefactories.SteveJobs was quoted as saying that the Foxconn facilities were “not a sweatshop.”87 The Fair LaborAssociation’srelativelypositiveassessmentofFoxconnhasdrawnfurthercriticismsincetheNGOispartiallyfundedbycompanieslikeApple.88

While the zone often delivers the slow, debilitating, extrastate violence of denial, it cannevertheless exacerbate the largermilitary conflicts between states. For instance, inKhartoum, thecapitalofSudan,developmentexperts fromAbuDhabiandDubaihelped theAlsunutDevelopment

CompanytoplanAlmogran,aprojectof1,660acresofskyscrapersandresidentialpropertiesattheconfluenceoftheWhiteandBlueNile.Whiletheprojectmaynevergoforward,thenorth’splansforovertexpressionsofoilwealtharetheverythingsthatintensifytensionsbetweenSudanandthenewcountry of South Sudan.89 In the promotions for Al-Mogran—laced with persuasions aboutbrotherhood and unity—the disconnect between rhetoric and disposition were all too apparent.Similarly, since 1967, Israel has been using zones as well as settlements to develop outposts inPalestinianterritoryinEastJerusalemandtheWestBank.OfferingwagestoPalestiniansworkersthatare difficult to refuse, zoneshavebeen characterized as a benefit. Still, thoseworkers, in order tosurvive,mustindirectlysupporttheIsraelioccupation.90

TheZoneIsonVacation

Operatinginafrictionlessrealmofexemption,thezonequitenaturallyadoptsthescriptsoftheresortand theme park,with their ethereal aura of fantasy. IT campuses in India andMalaysia sometimesevenrefer to themselvesasresorts.Here,businessesare“members” ina specialmixtureof small-scale vernacular buildings and shiny offices set in lush vegetation. The transient workers,businessmen,andtouristscreateatemporarypopulationthat,liketemporaryagreementsandshiftingidentities, is good for business. The tourists arrive to spend their vacation money at shoppingfestivals,golftournaments,andthemeparks,andleavewithoutmakinganydemandsongovernment.

In keeping with its maritime history, the zone often gravitates to island retreats. In China, thelargest SEZ, the island of Hainan, has some industrial facilities, but it largely attracts Japaneseinvestment for beachside resort installations. Macau, which along with Hong Kong is a SpecialAdministrative Region (SAR), remains a global tourist destination with special rules permittinggamblingandotherindulgencespreviouslyavailableonthePortuguesecolonybeforeindependencein1999.Since1965,theUnitedStatesForeignTradeZoneNumberNine—aseriesofduty-freeareasinHawaii—hasmixedfree-tradebusinessactivitywithtourism.91Dubaihasmarketedandexpandeditswaterfrontresortsforexpatbusinessmen,andisoneofthetopvacationdestinationsintheMiddleEast.

Jeju,offthecoastofKorea,isaquintessentialislandretreatthat,likemanyothers,hasshelteredallthoseprogramsorillicitactivitiesthatdonotfitintothelogicsofthemainland.Yettodayithastransformed itself fromapenal colonyand strategicmilitaryposition into a “free economic city.”CitingDubai,Singapore,andHongKongasmodels,theJejuislandzone“guaranteesthemaximumconvenience for the free flowofpeople,goods,andcapitaland for tax freebusinessactivities.”Aplaceofecologicalpurity,boastingcasinosandagolfer ’s“amnesty”(a50percentreductioningreenfees),thiscorporateretreatalsohostsglobalsportingeventsanddiplomaticsummits.92

Already the perfect spatial instrument for externalizing obstacles to profit, most zones alsofunction as tax havens of some sort, and somemerge the island resortwith the offshore financialcenter.BritishterritoriesliketheCaymanIslands,theTurksandCaicosIslands,Anguilla,Bermuda,theBritishVirginIslands,Gibraltar,Montserrat,andtheChannelIslandsareatthecoreofaglobalmoney-sheltering network that radiates from the City of London. Beyond the outposts of formercolonialpossessions, therearenowmanyothersuchglobalnetworks tied toNewYork,aswellascities in the Middle East, Central Asia, and China. A company like Halliburton that receives UScontractspaidbytaxpayerdollarsisperfectlyfreetomoveitsheadquartersfromHoustontoDubaitotake a break from taxes. The zone is also a natural interstice in the networks of transfer-pricinggames in which corporations inflate the prices of items moved internally to hide profits or takeadvantage of currency differentials.93 Investigative journalist Nicholas Shaxson has assembled

evidence indicating that “over half of all bank assets, and a third of foreign direct investment bymultinationalcorporations,areroutedoffshore.”Asoffshorepracticesbecomemoreprevalentandastheycollidewithgloballendingandcorruptgovernmentsorindividuals,thezonecanbecomethevortexofanenormousdrainofcapital.94

No longer relyingmerely on a hidden address or a bit of server space, countries now deployelaborateformsofhigh-profileurbanismtocelebratethevacationfromtaxesasasoundeconomictoolessentialtotheoperationofglobalcorporations.Suchcorporationsareoftenonlyreservoirsforliberated money, and real estate operators will outfit the zone with the spatial environments andamenities that appeal to this kind of wealth.While corporate headquarters around the world onceportrayedasoberatmosphereofbusiness-likecompetence,thenew-styleheadquartersoftenprojectanimageofkingdomswithunlimitedwealth.

DariushGrandHotel,Kish

HarkingbacktoitshistoryasanancientcrossroadsoftradersandexplorerslikeMarcoPoloandIbn Batuta, the island of Kish, off the coast of Iran, became a free-trade zone shortly after therevolution.TheKishFreeZoneOrganizationprovidesspacesforwarehousingandbusinessaswellastheregularmenuoftaxanddutyexemptionstowhichcorporationshavegrownaccustomed.Theisland is also notorious for allowing a loosening of headscarves and greater opportunities forsocializingbetweenmenandwomen.ItisthethirdmostpopulartouristdestinationintheMiddleEastofferingresorts,malls,andotherleisureactivitiesasextraincentives.NearbyfantasyhotelsliketheDariushGrandHotelrecreatethegrandeurofPersianpalaceswithperistylehalls,giganticcaststonesphinxes,andornatebas-reliefsdepictingancientscenes—aperfectplaceforpetrodollarstogetawayandrelax.95

TheZoneLaundersIdentities

Yetthezonelaundersmorethanmoney.Countriesjustenteringtheglobalmarketplacemayusethezone as a frontwhilemaintaining the purity of state rhetoric. China’s SEZs are themodel of this

phenomenon.In1993,followingtheChinese,NorthKorea’slawonFreeEconomicandTradeZonesestablishedtheusualsetoftaxexemptionsandoptionsforforeigninvestmentinRajin-Sonbong,andthecountryhassinceestablishedothereconomicfreezones.SomeofthesecontributetothevastzoneconurbationsthatcontinuetoproliferateintheTumenRiverRegionbetweentheDPRKandRussia.TheStalinistdynastyofDPRKunderstood thezoneprotocolssowell theyevencharacterized theirMountKumgangresortneartheDemilitarizedZoneasa“specialtouristzone.”96

Announced in2009, thenewestRussian sciencecity,Skolkovo,nearMoscow,departs from theprevious norms for secret science compounds while also distancing itself from the Russian statebureaucracy.Likemanynewsparklingcities,ithasattemptedtoattractfamousglobalarchitectsandworld-classbusinesseswithitsincentivizedurbanism.PartofSkolkovo’slaunderedidentityreliesonitsmembershipintheTECHNOPARK-Allianz.Foundedin2002,thisglobalfederationisanetworkof branded communities including Aargau, Luzern, Winterthur, Zürich, and now Skolkovo.Demonstratingthatthecityitselfhasbecomeanuber-transnationalspatialproduct,allmembersmustadheretothenetwork’smethodforcreatingurbanism.97

AllianceTexas, north of Ft. Worth, a classic corporate city as office park and distripark,redistributesmanyoftheproductsmadeinMexicounderNAFTAagreementssothattheycanbesoldin theUnitedStates foraprofit.Designated in1993as the196thForeignTradeZone in theUnitedStates,AllianceTexas isaplannedcitywithabroadrangeofurbanprogramsina17,000-acresite,approximately10,000acresofwhichistheactualForeignTradeZonewithafreightairportandhugeintermodalinstallation.98Subsumingthenameof thestatewithinitsownname,AllianceTexas,asaglobal space dropped into a national space, wears “Texas” as a brand.99 Pushing goods throughAllianceTexas, the US auto industry now relies on a new Detroit composed of a constellation ofmanufacturingsitesfromMexicotoCanada.100

Somezoneslaunderproductsinthenameofdiplomacy.DifferentfromtheindustrialzonesthatIsraelhasestablishedintheWestBankandEastJerusalem,QualifyingIndustrialZones(QIZs)areaspecial zonevariant legislatedby theUnitedStates in1996. In theQIZ, Israel andeither JordanorEgypt are encouraged to collaborate in making a product. Those products are granted duty-freeaccesstotheUnitedStatesaslongasIsraelhascontributedapercentageoftheirvalue—8percentforIsrael-Jordan and 11.7 percent for Israel-Egypt.101 Filling the remaining percentages, manycompaniesfromallovertheworldcanoperateintheQIZandtakeadvantageoftheduty-freeaccesstotheUSmarket.InJordanin1998,theAl-HassanIndustrialEstateinIrbidwasdesignatedasthefirstQIZ,andby2010sixmore“specialized investmentcompounds”wereestablished.102EgyptdidnotentertheQIZprogramuntil2005,buthassinceestablishedfifteenQIZsites.103

Many of theQIZ employ inexpensiveworkers,most ofwhom arewomen. In Jordan some oftheseworkersevencomefromthenearbyPalestinianrefugeecamps.Still,someChinese,SriLankan,andBangladeshimanufacturershavefoundthatitischeapertoimportlaborfromsouthernAsia.TheILOalleges that forced labor and traffickingoccur in theQIZs.104 In her studies of theAl-HassanIndustrial Estate, filmmaker Ursula Biemann concludes that “the poorest and most marginalizedsegmentsofthepopulation,thePalestinianrefugees,findthemselvesironicallytiedintoaneconomicagreement that normalizes the very relations that segregate them.” In Biemann’s film, the youngwomeninthefactory,wearingworksmocksandheadscarves,smilebecausetheyareshyaboutbeingfilmed.Theyholdupthefinishedproduct:aflesh-coloredgirdleforVictoria’sSecretstamped“MadeinIsrael.”105

In2011, theInstituteforGlobalLabourandHumanRightsbeganreportingcasesofserial rapeandabusethathadbeenoccurringsinceatleast2007intheClassicFashionApparelfactoryinJordan.The considerable amount of evidence they collected caught the attention of the global press and

exposedclientsofthefactorylikeWal-Mart,Target,Macy’s,Lands’End,Hanes,andKohl’s.BetterWorkJordan,anorganizationpartneredwiththeILO,claimsthatithasbeenunabletosubstantiatetheallegations. Nevertheless, it acknowledges that “there may be a culture of quid pro quo sexualharassmentat thefactoryinquestion,”andnotesthat25percentofall“Jordaniangarmentworkersfeel that sexual harassment is a concern for workers in their factory.” Meanwhile, to cleanse atarnishedimage,theClassicFashionApparelwebsitebristleswithcertificationsandawardsfromISOandotherorganizations.Thesiteprovidesvirtualtoursofitsbright,cleanfactoriesaswellasphotosof nearby dormitories. It congratulates itself on championing sustainability, corporate socialresponsibility,andprogressivelaborrelations,allaccompaniedbyimagesofsmilingworkers.106

TheZoneIsItsOwnAntidote

In someways, theonly reason for theuniversal appealandcontinualproliferationof thezonehasbeen the continual proliferation of the zone. Although rationalized by many experts, perhaps itspopularitystemslessfromeconomicprinciples,andmorefromirrationalsocialandculturaldesirestoconformtoaglobalnorm.DespiteeverythinglearnedfromtheEPZs,thirtyyearsaftertheirmostexplosive growth spurt, there is a persistent belief that the form can continue to help the world’sdeveloping countries as a reliable economic instrument.Eachuninitiated country angles for a newzone as their ticket into the globalmarket. Each also anticipates the jobs that the zonemay bring.Decadeslater,poorercountries likeKenyaareeagerlyawaitingfreshnewSEZs,evenastheirownbusinessandtechnicalinnovationsmayhaveoutgrowntheform.

Evenasmanyprojectsfail,countriescontinuetoplayaconfidencegamewiththeglobalmarket,announcingfluidplansandgamblingheavily,perhapsevenrecklessly,onthezoneoronnewcitiessupportedbyzones.Countriesandcompanieswithzoneexpertiseexporttheformasaheavyindustryandanewforeignoutpost.LekkiFreeZone—the largest freezone inWestAfricaandadoubleofLagos—continuesitsexpansion,withChinese,notNigerian, interestsas thelargeststakeholders.107Indiaisbuildingthe$90billionDelhiMumbaiIndustrialCorridorwithnine“mega-industrialzones,”high-speed rail, three ports, six airports, and a superhighway funded in large part by Japaneseloans.108 On the other side of theworld, Korean entrepreneurs have proposed a new science citycalledYachayforthehighlandsofImbaburanorthofQuitoinEcuador.109Whiletheprojecthasnowbeencanceled,inAprilof2012,GeorgiaannouncedplansforthenewcityofLazikaneartheBlackSea.Thecustomarypromotionalvideoscannedgolfcourses,fieldsofidenticalcartoonvillas,andaclusterofskyscrapersthat,sitedonaswamp,wouldrequirefoundationseightyfeetdeep.110

Fuelinggrowthoftheform,storiesaboutthezoneasarationaleconomicinstrumentjoinstoriesabout the liberalism, freedom, and openness it promises to deliver. The zone is a quintessentialapparatus of the neoliberal state, a mascot of “Washington Consensus” economics.111 Yetparadoxically, state bureaucracy may be merely replaced with a more complex extrastateadministration.Thezoneoffersaclean,relaxed,air-conditioned,infrastructure-richurbanismthatismorefamiliar to theworld thanthecontextof itshostcountry.Yet themasqueradeoffreedomandopennessturnsveryeasilytoevasion,closure,andquarantine.Zonesfosterself-reflexivenetworks,andthesamesubsetofcorporationssticktogetherinlegalhabitatsthatcanberecreatedanywhereinthe world. The optimized, RFID-tagged zone promotes fluid, information rich, and error freeenvironments.Yetbecauseitonlyreceivesorrecyclescompatibleinformationinclosedloop,thereisalso theriskofwhat the industrycalls“controlerror”—apotentiallyfataldenialof information tomaintainthestatusquo.112

Promotionalvideo,NewCityLazika,Georgia

The story that the zone is a perfectly apolitical city is also decoupled from its reality on theground.Notyetasiteofintensifiedurbanity,thezoneisoftenaplaceofsecrets,hyper-control,andsegregation. It oscillates constantly between closure and reciprocity as a fortress of sorts thatorchestratesacontrolled formofcheating.Moreover, as theentrepôtof theworld’s resources, thezone,despite itsattempts tobeapolitical, invariablyendsup in thecrosshairsofpirates, terrorists,andtraffickersofallkinds.

Yetall theparadoxicalstoriestogetherwiththemutabilityofthezonesuggest that this, theMS-DOSofurbansoftware,mightbeproductivelyhacked.Despiteits internal isomorphism,theglobalepidemic of zone building also means that it has become a powerful multiplier, one capable ofcarryingmessages that unravel the zone formula itself. Its ubiquity represents at once a threat andopportunity.Thefirsthacktothezoneformulamightdeployanynumberofactiveformsrelatedto,forexample,labor,theenvironment,buildingconstruction,telecommunications,orsecurity—formsthat might circulate within a population of zones with compounding effects. Reconditioning atransnationalnetworkalreadyinplace,thesemultiplierscanencouragealternativeurbandispositionsandpoliticalgoals.

Yet the most important manipulation of the zone software is even simpler. The wisest urbanentrepreneurswillaskaquestionalreadyposedbysomeoftheearliestcriticsofthezone:Whycreateanenclave?Despitetheinfrastructureconditionsthatexistedattheadventofthezone,anddespiteitsantecedents in fenced compounds, how does incentivized urbanism benefit from being physicallysegregatedfromtheurbanspaceofexistingcities?Whataretheeconomicandtechnicalbenefitsthataccruefromconstructingadoubleofthecity?Thenewzoneentrepreneursmayfindintheenclavenotfreedombutentrapment,justasdomanyofthetransientpopulationswholaborwithinthem.Ofthemanyirrationalitiesdrivingthedevelopmentofthezone,theenclavemaybetheleastproductivecomponent.

Zone incentives can bemapped onto existing cities instead of exurban enclaves, thus returningzone operations to the rule of law and bringingmore financial benefits to the domestic economy.Differentfromanobjectformasmasterplanandmorelikeanactiveformascontagion,thissimpleshiftcouldhaveenormous impactoncontemporaryglobalurbanism.Themosthighlyprizedzonemodels—Singapore,HongKong,andDubai—arealreadycity-states.Giventhezone’sambitiontobea city, perhaps ironically, it is the carrier of its own reversal or antidote—an antidote that can bemultipliedthroughouttheglobalpopulationofzones.

Ratherthangivingawaynationalassetsinexchangeforthezone,amoretransparentbargainwith

foreigninvestmentusestheexistingcityasamediumofinformationandintelligence—theotherhalfofaninterplaythatleveragesmoreinfrastructureandresources.Thenextcountriesinlinetoadoptthezonemightsurprisetheglobalconsultanciesandfinancialinstitutionsthatarepushingtheforminits current state. They might proudly offer selected economic incentives as well as the symboliccapitalthatattendshigherlaborandenvironmentalstandards.Aprogramtoeliminatetheexpenseoftheoldmirror-tiledskylineandtoreinvestinthecityitselfwouldsetthesecountriesapartinthenextnegotiationsofextrastatecraft.

_______________1 GuangwenMeng, “TheTheory and Practice of FreeEconomicZones: aCase Study ofTianjin, People’sRepublic ofChina”

(PhDdiss.,Ruprecht-KarlsUniversity ofHeidelberg, 2003), 25;GuangwenMeng, “EvolutionaryModel of FreeEconomicZones—DifferentGenerationsandStructuralFeatures,”ChineseGeographicalScience15,no.2(2005),1;R.J.McCalla,“TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”Geoforum21,no.1(1990),122;D.L.U.Jayawardena,“Free-TradeZones,”JournalofWorldTrade17,no.5(1983),427.

2 SeeHelenZimmern,TheHansaTowns,2nded.(London:T.FisherUnwin,1889).3 Meng,“TheTheoryandPracticeofFreeEconomicZones,”29.4 Meng, “EvolutionaryModel ofFreeEconomicZones,” 105.By1900, therewere, by some counts, eleven free ports in the

world.Inthefirsthalfofthetwentiethcentury,eighteenmorefreeportswerecreatedinEurope,primarilyinSwedenandSwitzerland.SeeMcCalla,“TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”123;andMeng,“TheTheoryandPracticeofFreeEconomicZones,”27.OftheeightcreatedinLatinAmerica,fivewerepuertoslibrescreatedafterMexicoestablishedfreeportlawsin1924.SeeDaraOrenstein,“Foreign-TradeZonesandtheCulturalLogicofFrictionlessProduction,”RadicalHistoryReview 109 (Winter 2011),36–61.Freezoneswerealsoestablished inAfricaandAsia.SeeMcCalla, “TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”127.

5 McCalla,“TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”125,127.6 Approachingmanufacturing, this “manipulation” often involved refining or curing processes. Themanipulation of goodsmade

zonesdistinctfromthebondedwarehousesalreadypermittedintheUnitedStatessince1846.SeeOrenstein,“Foreign-TradeZonesandtheCulturalLogicofFrictionlessProduction,”7.

7 McCalla,“TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”130.8 HongKongisnowaSpecialAdministrativeRegion(SAR)ofthePeople’sRepublicofChina.9 McCalla,“TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”128–9.10 RichardL.Bolin,“WhatPuertoRicoFacedinBeingFirsttoCreateEPZsin1947…AndItsHugeSuccess”(paperpresentedat

theAwardCeremonyduringtheconferenceoftheLatinAmericanFreeTradeZonesCommittee,SanJuan,PuertoRico,2004).11 Seecolonfreetradezone.com; andThomasE.Lyons, “Report onProposal toCreate aForeign-TradeZone in theRepublic of

Panama: An Analysis of Some of the Many Direct and Indirect Benefits Which Would Accrue to the Republic of Panama by theEstablishmentofaForeign-TradeZone,”Washington,DC:USDept.ofCommerce,1946.Despite installations thatprecede them,bothPuertoRicoandColónclaimtobethefirstfreetradezone.

12 Jean-Paul Marhoz and Marcela Szymanski, “Trade Union Campaign for a Social Clause, Behind the Wire: Anti-UnionRepressionintheExportProcessingZones”(1996),athttp://actrav.itcilo.org

13 ThecountriesusingKaohsiungasamodel included:IvoryCoast,Liberia,Mauritania,Jordan,Columbia,Panama,CostaRica,SouthKorea,SouthVietnam,ThePhilippines,Indonesia,andIndia.SeeMcCalla,“TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”129.

14 D.L.U.Jayawardena,“Free-TradeZones,”JournalofWorldTrade17,no.5(1983),433.15 McCalla, “The Geographical Spread of Free Zones Associated with Ports,” 132. It was not until 1978 that a zone was

establishedinSriLanka.BangladeshandPakistandidnotdevelopzonesuntil1980.16 WalterH.DiamondandDorothyB.Diamond,Tax-FreeTradeZonesoftheWorld(NewYork:MatthewBender,1986).17 McCalla,“TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”129–30.18 Tsuchiya Takeo, “Introduction,” AMPO: Japan-Asia Quarterly Review, Special Issue on Free Trade Zones and

IndustrializationofAsia (1977),4.WhileTakeo refers to anorganizationwith theacronymWIFZA, theWorldEconomicProcessingZoneAssociation(WEPZA)claimsthesesameoriginswith1978asaninauguralyear.In1980,althoughtherewereotherfreezonesofvarious types in both developing and developed countries, UNIDO listed the following developing countries as operating what itregardedtobeexportprocessingzones:Liberia,Malta,Mauritius,Senegal,andTunisiainAfrica;India,Malaysia,ThePhilippines,SouthKorea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan in Asia; Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador,Guatemala,Haiti,Honduras,Jamaica,Mexico,Nicaragua,andPuertoRicoinLatinAmerica;Egypt,Jordan,andSyriaintheMiddleEast;andWestern Samoa. See “Export Processing Zones in Developing Countries,” inUNIDO Working Papers on Structural Changes,InternationalCentreforIndustrialStudiesGlobalandConceptualStudiesSection(UNIDO,1980).

19 Takeo, “Introduction,” 4; and wepza.org. While initially established by UNIDO as an organization of governments, whenWEPZAprivatizedin1985itwasmanagedasanindependentnon-profitresearchorganization.Thedirector,RichardBolin,hadhelpedtoprepare a 1964 study for the Mexican government that influenced the maquiladora program. As the WEPZA described itself, “the

Instituteisalsoactiveineducatinggovernments,internationalorganizations,andregionalandglobaltradeorganizationsontheefficiencyof EPZs in attracting ForeignDirect Investment to poor countries and the importance of their economic freedoms inmany aspects ofnational and global development.”TheWEPZAwas perhaps characteristic of the so-called “neoliberal” shift in global organizationsfromintergovernmentalorganizationswithmembernationstonongovernmentalorganizationswithmembershipfromprivateenterprises.

20 McCalla,“TheGeographicalSpreadofFreeZonesAssociatedwithPorts,”131–2.21 In1986,forty-sevencountrieshosted176EPZs.SeeMichaelEngman,OsamaOnodera,andEnricoPinali,“ExportProcessing

Zones: Past and Future Role in Trade and Development,” inOECD Trade Policy Working Papers (OECD Publishing, 2007), 12;TakayoshiKusagoandZafirisTzannatos,ExportProcessingZones:AReview inNeedofUpdate (Washington,DC:SocialProtectionGroup,HumanDevelopmentNetwork,WorldBank,1998),5;Jean-PierreSingaBoyenge,“ILODatabaseonExportProcessingZones”(Geneva: International Labour Office, 2007), 1, at ilo.org; and Thomas Farole and Gokhan Akinci, eds., Special Economic Zones:Progress,EmergingChallengesandFutureDirections(Washington,DC:TheWorldBank,2011).

22 KusagoandTzannatos,ExportProcessingZones,6–7.23 Jayawardena,“Free-TradeZones,”428.24 Xiangming Chen, “The Evolution of Free Economic Zones and the Recent Development of Cross-National Growth Zones,”

InternationalJournalofUrbanandRegionalResearch19,no.4(1995),595–6.25 UNIDO, “Export Processing Zones in Developing Countries,” 40–1. While UNIDO may have envisioned the zone as a

temporary catalytic agent in a changingmarket environment, the zone authoritywas even able to issue legal guarantees that the hostnationwouldnotreabsorbzoneterritories.

26 See Engman, Onodera, and Pinali, “Export Processing Zones: Past and Future Role in Trade and Development,” 6, 25,“Improvementofthebusinessenvironmentthroughtradeandinvestmentliberalization,establishmentofgoodinfrastructure,ruleoflawand administrative simplification remains the optimal policy option to promote investment, employment and growth.” Kusago andTzannatos,ExportProcessingZones,16–22.Laborrepresentativeshavecalledthezonea“healthandenvironment‘time-bomb.’”SeeJesper Nielsen, “Export Processing Zones or Free Zones—The Experience Seen from a Trade Union Point of View,” at labour-inspection.org.

27 GaryGereffi,“DevelopmentModelsandIndustrialUpgradinginChinaandMexico,”EuropeanSociologicalReview25,no.1(2009),37,40–1,46–9.

28 Engman,Onodera,andPinali,“ExportProcessingZones:PastandFutureRole inTradeandDevelopment,”8;andBoyenge,“ILODatabaseonExportProcessingZones,”1,atilo.org.

29 Manuel Castells and Peter Hall, Technopoles of the World: The Making of Twenty-First-Century Industrial Complexes(London:Routledge,1994).

30 Seertp.org; andDiamond andDiamond,Tax-Free TradeZones of theWorld. In 1983,RTP applied for ForeignTradeZonestatusandhasheadquartersandwarehousesaswellassitesofover800acresthatqualifyastax-freezones.RTPnowhasapopulationofalmost3millionandcoversasixty-mileradius.SeeChen,“TheEvolutionofFreeEconomicZones,”605.

31 TheUSSRalso built a number of top-secret science cities likeSverdlovsk-45 for developingColdWar technologies.Morerecent sciencecities, someofwhichare located in theold sciencecities, include:Tomsk,Dubna,Zelenograd, andSt.Petersburg.SeeChen,“TheEvolutionofFreeEconomicZones,”605.

32 Starting in 1980, Taiwan eventually established three science parks (Hsinchu Science Industrial Park, followed by SouthernTaiwanSciencePark andCentralTaiwanSciencePark); andSouthKorea,Singapore,France, theUK, andGermany also establishedSIPs.Seehttp://eweb.sipa.gov.tw/en;singaporesciencepark.com;Meng,“TheTheoryandPracticeofFreeEconomicZones,”35–6;andChen,“TheEvolutionofFreeEconomicZones,”605.

33 Seestpi.in;andKellerEasterling,EnduringInnocence:GlobalArchitectureandItsPoliticalMasquerades(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,2005),135–60.

34 Seee-cybercity.mu.35 Seemscmalaysia.my.36 For a discussion of the development of global automated ports seeEasterling,Enduring Innocence, 99–122. In the 1990s,

SchipholGrouplaunchedtheirplanstomanageandbuildtwenty-four-hour“airportcities”worldwide.WithSchipholAirportasamodel,theyhopedtocreateaformulaorspatialproductthatsynchronizedlayovertimeswithshoppingtimesandoptimizedtonnageoffreightandnumbersofpassengers.Seepanix.com/~keller/wildcards/Index.html.This 1999website collects research about a rangeof spatialproductsincludingtheproposedairportcitiesofSchipholGroup.

37 Chen, “TheEvolutionofFreeEconomicZones.”Chen settledon the term“FreeEconomicZone” for all of these formsandspeculatedontheensuingphasesofgrowth.Buildingonthisanalysis,GuangwenMengidentifiedsevengenerationsofFEZdevelopmentthat largely conformed to those described by Chen. A first generation associated with trade evolves to a second that includesmanufacturing. The third generation includes service and the fourth includes science. Meng designates the fifth generation ascomprehensive,inclusiveofmanybusinessandindustryfunctions.Thesixthandseventhhedesignatesascross-borderandcross-nationaltypes, noting, as does Chen, that these conurbations often now operate independently from the local state jurisdiction but inmultipleextrastatenetworks.SeeMeng,“EvolutionaryModelofFreeEconomicZones,”103.

38 Robert C. Haywood, “Free Zones in the Modern World,” inWorld Economic Processing Zones Association, Evergreen,Colorado,USA,CFATFMeeting(Aruba,2000).

39 DiamondandDiamond,Tax-FreeTradeZonesoftheWorld.40 KenichiOhmae, “TheRise of theRegion State,”ForeignAffairs 72, no.2 (1993), reprinted in PatrickO’Meara,HowardD.

Mehlinger, andMatthew Krain, eds.,Globalization and the Challenges of a New Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,2000),93,95.

41 Thelistincluded:freetradezone,foreigntradezone,industrialfreezone,freezone,maquiladora,exportfreezone,dutyfreeexportprocessingzone,specialeconomiczone,taxfreezone,taxfreetradezone,investmentpromotionzone,freeeconomiczone,free

export zone, free export processing zone, privileged export zone, and industrial export processing zone. SeeKusago and Tzannatos,ExportProcessingZones,Annex1.

42 Meng,“EvolutionaryModelofFreeEconomicZones,”103.43 Seewepza.org.TheWorldExportProcessingZoneAssociation,has,liketheILOandtheOECD,keptdatabasestrackingzone

growth.TheWEPZAcategorizes thevarious types as “wide area”—zoneswith a residential population that act as newcities, such asChina’s Special EconomicZones; “small area”—zones smaller than 1,000 hectares and surrounded by a fence; “industry specific”—whichincludesthosezonesrelatedtoaparticularindustry,suchasanoffshorebankingzonethatcanattractinvestmentfromanywhereintheworld;and“performancespecific”—zonesthatconformtoestablishedcriteriasuchas“degreeofexports,leveloftechnology,sizeofinvestmentetc”;amaquiladoraorresearchparkwouldbeanexampleofthistype.Meng,forinstance,indentifiesanumberofcross-borderzonesinanareaaroundtheconfluenceofnationalbordersbetweentheNetherlands,Brussels,andGermany.Yet,accordingtoWEPZA, there are no EPZs in Brussels.WEPZA has a designation for industry specific zones that would include offshore bankingfacilities,andyetwhileDubaiisanoffshorefacilityforthewholeofitsterritory,theUAEislistedasacountrywithoutindustryspecificzones.SeeMeng,“TheTheoryandPracticeofFreeEconomicZones,”104.AWorldBankpublication from2011 listed four typesofzones: Free Trade Zone, Traditional EPZ, Free Enterprises, Hybrid EPZ, and SEZ/Freeport; see Farole and Akinci, eds., SpecialEconomicZones:Progress,EmergingChallengesandFutureDirections,2.

44 Engman,Onodera,andPinali,“ExportProcessingZones:PastandFutureRoleinTradeandDevelopment,”6–7.45 KevinKelly,NewRulesfortheNewEconomy(NewYork:PenguinBooks,1998),76.46 Seeenglish.sz.gov.cn/gi/;and“AWorkinProgress,”Economist,March17,2011.47 Expansion was intended to ease real estate prices in downtown Shenzhen while also providingmore citizens with the better

healthcareandeducationnowavailableinthezone.SeeDiamondandDiamond,Tax-FreeTradeZonesoftheWorld;andJayawardena,“Free-TradeZones,”438.

48 Howard W. French, “In Chinese Boomtown, Middle Class Pushes Back,” New York Times, December 18, 2006; seeinterhoo.com.

49 TheAllChinaFederationofTradeUnions,ofwhich theGuangdongFederationofTradeUnions is apart,permitsonly tradeunionactivityorganizedfromwithinthestatehierarchy.Organizationsofmigrantworkerswhofrequentlyworkinabusiveanddangeroussituationsarewithoutmuchrecourse.Seeclb.org.hk.

50 HowardW.French,“ChineseSuccessStoryChokesonItsOwnGrowth,”NewYorkTimes,December19,2006.51 Gereffi,“DevelopmentModelsandIndustrialUpgradinginChinaandMexico,”46–7.52 Seefreezonesuae.com.53 KellerEasterling,“Extrastatecraft,”inKanuAgrawal,MelanieDomino,andBradWalters,eds.,Perspecta39,Re_Urbanism:

TransformingCapitals(2007),2–16.54 MohammedAl-Fahim,FromRagstoRiches:AStoryofAbuDhabi(London:TheLondonCenterofArabStudies,1995),140;

FraukeHeard-Bey,FromTrucialStatestoUnitedArabEmirates:ASocietyinTransition(DubaiandAbuDhabi:MotivatePublishing,2004,firstpublishedbyLongman,1982),405.

55 Seetec.tawazun.ae.TheUAEOffsetProgramBureau, recentlyrenamedTheTawazunEconomicProgram,wasestablished in1992todiversifytheUAE’seconomybypartneringwithdefensecontractors.Theseoffsetprojectshavefundedavarietyofindustriesincludingfishfarms,air-conditioning,healthcare,agriculture,shipbuilding,banking,andeducation.

56 uaestatistics.gov.ae;uaeinteract.com.57 Seeihc.ae.58 Seemasdarcity.ae. It is in thisway that the zonemay be a peculiar form of intentional community like the repeatable urban

formatsofSpain’sLawsoftheIndiesortheexperimentsofdefectingreligiousgroupsintheNewWorldoftheAmericas.59 Seekingabdullahcity.comand“SaudiArabiatoAllowForeignOwnershipinKAEC,”atarabianbusiness.com.60 Emaarpressrelease,September12,2006,atemaar.com.61 CIDCOistodeliverinfrastructurethatisthezonestandard:anairport,massrapidtransit,railwaystations,industrialcompounds,

aharbor,acentralpark,agolfcourse,andresidentialareas.Asimilarcompany,SKILInfrastructureLtd.,willcontractforsomeportionoftheinfrastructureasaprivate-sectorendeavor.NaviMumbaiwillbeequippedwithinfrastructuralandlegalenvironmentslikethoseinShenzhenandPudong—city-stateswithnotonlycommercialareasbutalsoafullarrayofprograms.Seecidco.maharashtra.gov.in andskilgroup.co.in.

62 Krasnerdescribesseveralformsofsovereigntythatthenationmustjuggle:Westphalian,Interdependence,Domestic,andLegal.The zone sometimes eliminates conflicts between these different jurisdictions to streamline relationswith foreign investment even as itcreatesyetanotherindependentjurisdiction.StephenKrasner,Sovereignty:OrganizedHypocrisy(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1999), 3–25; Ronen Palan,TheOffshoreWorld: SovereignMarkets, Virtual Places, andNomadMillionaires (Ithaca,NY:CornellUniversityPress,2003),8,182.SeealsoRoyE.H.Mellor,Nation,State,andTerritory:APoliticalGeography(London:Routledge,1989),59.

63 Thisargumentjoinsthoseofotherscholarswhonotethatnewincarnationsofstatehood,likethosethezonesponsors,strengthenratherthandiminishthepowerofthestate.AsprofessorofurbantheoryNeilBrennerwrites,“thenotionofstaterescalingisintendedtocharacterizethetransformedformof(national)statehoodundercontemporarycapitalism,nottoimplyitserosion,withering,ordemise.”NeilBrenner,NewStateSpaces:UrbanGovernanceandtheRescalingofStatehood(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,2004),4.

64 “ShenzhenSEZAimstoBe5TimesBigger,”ChinaDaily,May22,2009.65 Seesongdo.com.66 ChungjinKim,“AStudyon theDevelopmentPlanofIncheonFreeEconomicZone,Korea:BasedonaComparison toaFree

Economic Zone in Pudong, China” (master’s thesis, University of Oregon, 2007), 13. Korea’s four main Free Economic Zones areIncheon,Busan,Jinhae,andGwangyang.

67 ForadiscussionoftheAirportCityseeJohnD.KasardaandGregLindsay,Aerotropolis:TheWayWe’llLiveNext(NewYork:

Farrar,StrausandGiroux,2011).68 “ABrandNewCity,”atsongdo.com.69 InHongKong,Macau,Singapore,Mauritius,Fiji,Gibraltar,andThailand,zonelawsarepermittedthroughouttheentireterritory.

SeeDiamondandDiamond,Tax-FreeTradeZonesoftheWorld,FarEast,iii.70 “PrivilegesforParticipantsinSpecialEconomicZones,”athttp://invest.gov.kz.71 “IndustrialZones,”atjordaninvestment.com.72 In linewithotherworldpowers,Kazakhstandevelopsconurbations inbusinessparkunits called“cities.”Alatau ITCity,one

example outside of Almaty, follows the familiar template and features mirror-tiled buildings and towers with monumental butindeterminatereference.

73 Seefosterandpartners.com.74 Seeastana.gov.kz/en/.75 “GiantIndoorParkOpenedforKazakhPresident’sBirthday,”attelegraph.co.uk.76 Thestateofexception,alegalconceptdeployedbytheGermanjuristCarlSchmitt,grantedtheThirdReichanexemptionfrom

law during a moment of war or emergency—essentially legalizing the lawlessness of the concentration camps and other atrocities.GiorgioAgamben’srecentanalysisconsidersthestateofexceptioninlightofRomanlawandasaspatialentity—thecamp.Hesuggeststhattheideaofthecampisevennaturalizedinordinaryspaces—the“zonesd’attentesofourairportsandcertainoutskirtsofourcities.”GeorgioAgamben,HomoSacer:Sovereignty,PowerandBareLife(Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress,1995),175.

77 Chen,“TheEvolutionofFreeEconomicZones”;andXiangmingChen,AsBordersBend:TransnationalSpacesonthePacificRim(Lanham,MD:Rowman&LittlefieldPublishers,2005).

78 SarahButlerandSaadHammadi, “RanaPlazaFactoryDisaster:VictimsStillWaiting forCompensation,”Guardian, October23,2013.

79 AihwaOng,Neoliberalism as Exception:Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,2006),103,7.

80 Similarly, the philosopher Etienne Balibar considers the possible instrumentality of intermediary organizations outside of thestate’s limited palette of options for labor in a global market. See Etienne Balibar, We, the People of Europe?: Reflections onTransnationalCitizenship(Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,2004).

81 Ong,NeoliberalismasException,12–13,21.82 The ITUCwas formerly the InternationalConfederation ofFreeTradeUnions or ICFTU.SeeMarhoz andMarcela, “Trade

UnionCampaignforaSocialClause,BehindtheWire:Anti-UnionRepressionintheExportProcessingZones”,athttp://actrav.itcilo.org.83 Seemol.gov.ae.84 French,“ChineseSuccessStoryChokesonItsOwnGrowth.”85 Seewepza.org.RichardBolinwasanoriginaladvisortoWEPZAwhenitwasestablishedbyUNIDOin1978.In2003,hewas

named“DirectorEmeritus”ofWEPZA.TheWEPZAwebsiteincludesanumberofhisundated“editorials”promotingzonedevelopment.86 Author interview with Tariq Yousef, Global Art Forum, Doha, Qatar, March 17, 2013. Yousef is a director of Silatech, an

initiativepromotingyouthemploymentandentrepreneurshipintheArabworld.87 DavidBarboza,“ElectronicsMakerPromisesReviewafterSuicides,”NewYorkTimes,May26,2010;“AfterSuicides,Scrutiny

ofChina’sGrimFactories,”NewYorkTimes,June7,2010.88 “FairLaborAssociationFindsProgressatAppleSupplierFoxconn,”atfairlabor.org.89 “GlitteringTowersinaWarZone,”Economist,December7,2006.90 JodiRudoren,“InWestBankSettlements,IsraeliJobsAreDouble-EdgedSword,”NewYorkTimes,February11,2014.91 DiamondandDiamond,Tax-FreeTradeZonesoftheWorld.92 Seejeju.go.kr.93 JohnChristensen,“DirtyMoney:InsidetheSecretWorldofOffshoreBanking,”inStevenHiatt,ed.,AGameasOldasEmpire:

TheSecretWorldofEconomicHitMenandtheWebofGlobalCorruption(SanFrancisco:Berrett-KoehlerPublishers,2007),41–68.94 NicholasShaxson,Treasure Islands:Uncovering theDamage ofOffshore Banking and TaxHavens (PalgraveMacmillan,

2012),11,14,16,88,140–1;JamesHenry,BloodBankers:Tales fromtheUndergroundGlobalEconomy (NewYorkandLondon:FourWallsEightWindows,2003),xxiii–xxxii.

95 Seekish.ir.96 ForadiscussionoftheMountKumgangresortseeEasterling,EnduringInnocence,15–38.97 AleksanderVekselberg, “ThePoliticsof Innovation:Skolkovoand its Impacton theModernizationofRussia,” senior thesis,

YaleUniversity,2011;seealsoNataliaKolenikova,“ARussianSiliconValleyIsBeingBuiltfromScratch,”NewYorkTimes,April11,2010.

98 DiamondandDiamond,Tax-FreeTradeZonesoftheWorld.99 Seealliancetexas.com.100 DiamondandDiamond,Tax-FreeTradeZonesoftheWorld.101 Seeqizegypt.gov.eg.Thirty-fivepercentoftheentirevalueoftheproductmustbederivedfromworkintheactualzoneineither

EgyptorJordan.Portionsofeachzonemustbeinbothpartneringcountries,but theyneednotbecontiguous.Althoughthereareothersectorsinplay,inmostcasestheQIZprotocolappliestoindustriesthatimportfabricfromIsrael,oftenatarelativelyhighprice,andthenexportgarmentstotheUnitedStates.102 See“Qualifying IndustrialZones”atmoital.gov.il.RecentQIZ include theAl-Hussein IbnAbdullah II IndustrialEstate inAl

Karak, the Aqaba Industrial International Estate in Aqaba, Al-Tajamouat Industrial City in Amman, Ad-Dulayl Industrial Park nearZarqa,CyberCityinIrbid,andAl-MushattaandHallabatIndustrialParkinZarqa.Seejordaninvestment.com.103 SeetheFAQatqizegypt.gov.eg.104 See“ForcedLabourandTraffickingInJordan—APilotProgrammeontheQualifiedIndustrialZones,”atilo.org.

105 BiemannandOroubEl-Abed,thenaPhDattheGraduateInstituteofInternationalandDevelopmentStudies(IHEID)inGeneva,wereamong the first to researchandfilm theQIZ inJordan.Biemann’svideoresearch,X-Mission, features interviewswithOroubEl-Abed.Awebarticle,“TheRefugee-IndustrialComplex:TheQIZinJordan,”atarteeast.org,providesadditionalinformation.106 See“Campaigns”atgloballabourrights.org;“SexAbuseAllegedatApparelMaker,”WallStreetJournal,June30,2011,B3;

“MajorAmericanBrandsSilentonAllegedRightsAbusesatOverseasFactories,”HuffingtonPost, July21,2011; and“Response toClassicFashionApparelIndustriesAllegations,”athttp://betterwork.org;classicfashionapparel.com107 Seelfzdc.comandlekkizone.com.108 Seedelhimumbaiindustrialcorridor.com.TheauthorisindebtedtoSwarnabhGhoshforsharinghisresearchonDMIC.109 Seeyachay.ec.110 EllenBarry,“OnBlackSeaSwamp,BigPlansforInstantCity,”NewYorkTimes,April22,2012.Seealso“NewCityLazika”

onYouTube.GiorgiVashadze,adeputyministerofjustice,“wasbrowsingontheInternetwhenhecameacrosstheideaofa‘chartercity,’withdistinct regulatoryand judicialsystems thatcouldattract foreign investors tobuild factories.”Achartercity is similar toaspecialeconomicregion.Likeazonevariant,itusesforeigninvestmenttoestablishanewcitywithanautonomousgovernment.Someexemptionsfrom lawmay also be granted. See also “Lazika Construction to be Stopped in Georgia,”Black SeaNews, October 10, 2012. Seeblackseanews.net.111 ReferencinganargumentofgeographerBae-GyoonPark,urbanist JonathanBachdescribes thezoneasa tool forselectively

implementingneoliberalpolicies.JonathanBach,“ModernityandtheUrbanImaginationinEconomicZones,”Theory,Culture&Society,28,no.5(September2011),105.SeealsoBae-GyoonPark,“SpatiallySelectiveLiberalizationandGraduatedSovereignty:PoliticsofNeo-liberalismand‘SpecialEconomicZones’inSouthKorea,”PoliticalGeography24(2005),850–73.112 Foradiscussionof“specialstupidity”seeEasterling,EnduringInnocence,195.

CHAPTER2

Disposition

Highways, first promoted with stories about freedom and uninterrupted movement, possessed anorganizationallogicthatactuallycausedcongestion.ARPAnet,firstcharacterizedasastealthnetworkfor themilitary, lent itself to thekindsofexchanges thatfinallygeneratedthe internet.Promisesofdecentralization accompanied the first electrical utilities, just as promises of open access haveaccompanied contemporary broadband networks. Yet both networks, at certain junctures in theirevolution, have sponsored constricting monopolies, whether scattered or centralized. The mass-produced suburbs sold unique country homes but delivered the virtually identical products of anassembly-lineorganization.Facebook,aplatformcreatedforsocialnetworkingonacollegecampus,revealed another initially unrecognized potential when, in the Arab Spring, it was used as aninstrumentofdissent.Likewisethezone,createdandpromotedasatooloffreetradeandeconomicliberalism,hasoftenproducedclosed,exurbanenclaves.

In all these cases, some of the most consequential political outcomes of infrastructure spaceremainundeclaredinthedominantstoriesthatportraythem.Informationresidesinthetechnologies—from telecommunications to construction—as well as in the declared intent or story—fromdecentralization tostealth.Yet informationalsoresides inacomplexofcountlessotherfactorsandactivities.Alltheseactivities,takentogether,lendtheorganizationsomeotheragencyorcapacity—adisposition—thatoftenescapesdetectionorexplanation.

Reading disposition in infrastructure space is like Twain’s reading of thewater ’s surface. Theshinynewtechnologyorthepersuasivepromotionalstorymaycommandattentionjustliketheprettylandscapes of the river, but in excess of that material, spatial organizations are always providinginformation about their inherent, if undeclared, activities.While beyond complete comprehension,dispositiondescribessomethingofwhattheorganizationisdoing—activitiesthatmaydivergefromthestatedintent.Thismisalignmentwiththestoryorrhetoricisonemeansofdetectingdisposition,butadditionalorganizationalattributesarealsohelpfulinassessingit.

Perhapstheideaofdispositionisnotreallysomysterious.Aballatthetopofaninclinedplanepossessesadisposition.1Thegeometryoftheballanditsrelativepositionarethesimplemarkersofpotential agency. Even without rolling down the incline, the ball is actively doing something byoccupyingitsposition.Disposition,incommonparlance,usuallydescribesanunfoldingrelationshipbetweenpotentials.Itdescribesatendency,activity,faculty,orpropertyineitherbeingsorobjects—apropensitywithinacontext.

Infrastructurespacepossessesdispositionjustasdoestheballatthetopofanincline.Fewwouldlookatahighwayinterchange,anelectricalgrid,orasuburbandperceiveagencyoractivityinitsstatic arrangement. Spaces and urban organizations are usually treated, not as actors, but ascollectionsofobjectsorvolumes.Activitymightbeassignedonlytothemovingcars,theelectricalcurrent, or the suburb’s inhabitants.Yet theball doesnot have to roll down the incline tohave thecapacitytodoso,andphysicalobjectsinspatialarrangements,howeverstatic,alsopossessanagencythat resides in relative position. Disposition is immanent, not in the moving parts, but in therelationshipsbetweenthecomponents.

Whennavigating the complexdispositions of a river, dimples or ripples on thewater serve asmarkers; andwhennavigating or hacking the complex dispositions of infrastructure, some simplemarkers are equally useful. The infrastructural operating system is filled with well-rehearsed

sequencesofcode—spatialproductsandrepeatableformulaslikezones,suburbs,highways,resorts,malls,orgolfcourses.Hackingintoitrequiresformsthatarealsolikesoftware.Differentfromtheobjectformsofmasterpiecebuildingsormasterplans,theseactiveformsoperateinanothergearorregister, to act like bits of code in the system. Active forms are markers of disposition, anddispositionisthecharacterofanorganizationthatresultsfromthecirculationoftheseactiveformswithinit.Sincetheseformsarealwayschanging,asisthecomplexionofdisposition,theycannotbecataloguedaselementalbuildingblocksortermsinaglossary.Rather,identifyingjustafewamongthemanyactiveformsthatmightbemanipulated, redesigned,or rewrittenonlybegins tocrack thecode, making more palpable the dispositions they inflect and providing some instruments foradjusting political character in infrastructure space. Still, as signs of ongoing processes—like theripplesusedforrivernavigation—thepracticalityoftheseformsreliesontheirindeterminacy.

An important diagnostic in the fluid politics of extrastatecraft, disposition uncovers accidental,covert, or stubborn forms of power—political chemistries and temperaments of aggression,submission,orviolence—hidinginthefoldsofinfrastructurespace.

ActiveForms

MultiplierAfieldofmass-producedsuburbanhousesisacommonphenomenonininfrastructurespace,anditisan organizationwith clearmarkers of disposition. In the case of theUS suburb of Levittown, thedeveloperdidnotsetouttomake1,000individualhouses,butadoptedakindofagriculturalmethodof house building—1,000 slabs, 1,000 frames, 1,000 roofs, and so on. The sitewas effectively anassembly line separating the tasksofhousebuilding into smaller activitieseachofwhichcouldbeappliedacrosstheentirepopulationofhousesinsequence.Beyondtheactivityofthehumanswithinit,thearrangementitselfrenderedsomethingssignificantandothersinsignificant.Theorganizationwasactivelydoingsomethingwhenitdirectedurbanroutines.Itmadesomethingspossibleandsomethingsimpossible(e.g.,thebuildingofanindividualhousedifferentfromalltheothers).Thereweredifferentkindsofforminvolved:theobjectformofthehouseandtheactiveformsthatorganizedthecomponentsofthefield.Levittownwassimplesoftware,andoneobviousmarkeroractiveforminitsorganizationwas themultiplier. The housewas not a singularly crafted object but amultiplier ofactivities.Thedeveloper,WilliamLevitt, turned thesite intoanassembly lineand thehomes intoapopulationofcommodities,fromtheirframesandroofstotheirTVsandwashingmachines.

Redesigning a single house, or the object form of the housewithin the suburb,may not be aspowerfulasaddressing theactiveform—inthiscaseamultiplier.Adesignerwhointervenes in therepetitive fields of suburban space with a single house will have little impact. But designingsomethingtobemultipliedwithinapopulationofhouseshasthepotential toreconditionthelargersuburbanfieldorhackthesuburbansoftware.Forinstance,whenthecararrivedinsuburbia,itwasamultiplier that required a garage to be attached to every house, and today recalibrating orreconceivingthecaranditsgaragewouldmultiplyandspreadspatialchangesthroughoutafieldofhouses. More powerful than a single object form in these landscapes, multipliers piggyback onrepetitivecomponents.

The city grows or changes because of the multipliers that circulate within it—cars, elevators,mobilephones, laws, real estate formulas, structural innovations, and security technologies amongthem. Just as the car is amultiplier that determines the shape anddesignofhighways andexurbandevelopment, the elevator is a simple example of a multiplier that has transformed urbanmorphology. In the late nineteenth century, the elevator, together with the stackable floors of

structuralsteelskeletons,madeverticalbuildingspossible.ThosethatfirstappearedinChicagoandNewYorkhaveevolvedintothemodernskyscraper—aprevalentspatialproductincitiesaroundtheworld.Theelevator ’spropagation, rather than itsmovementupanddown,makes itanactiveformwith adisposition tomultiply inurbanenvironments.Since the elevator carries thegeneticsof theskyscraper,alteringitsroutinespotentiallyhascollateraleffects.Forinstance,contemporaryelevatortechnologies thatexperimentwithhorizontalaswellasverticalmovementsare thegermofaverydifferenturbanmorphology.Thedesignerwhodeploysanewconveyancevehiclemaynotdesignthevehicleitselfbutthewayinwhichitpropagatesinandrewritestheurbanlandscape.

Thepresenceofamultiplierisnottheonlyreasonwhyamass-producedsuburbdoesnotdeliveronitspromiseofaleafycountryhome,justastheelevator,asmultiplier,isnottheonlyreasonfortheurbanityofacitylikeNewYorkortheisomorphismofthezoneskyline.Themultiplierisonlyoneactiveform,onefactorinassessingoradjustingadisposition,butitispresentinalmostallofthesoftwareofinfrastructurespace.

Switch/remoteIn addition to themultiplier, another commonactive form in infrastructure space is the switch.Aninterchangeinahighwaynetworkactslikeaswitch.Adaminahydrologicalnetwork,aterminalinatransitnetwork,anearthstationinasatellitenetwork,oraninternetserviceproviderinabroadbandnetworkareall switches.Like theballon the inclinedplane, theyestablishpotentials.Likeavalve,theymaysuppressorredirect.Theswitchmaygenerateeffectssomedistancedowntheroadortheline.Itisaremotecontrolofsorts—activatingadistantsitetoaffectalocalconditionorviceversa.Exceeding the reach of a single object form, the switch modulates a flow of activities. Howeverdeliberatetheactivitiesoftheswitch,itcannotcontrolallofitsownconsequencesanymorethanonecouldaccountforeveryuseofthewaterflowingthroughadam.

Infrastructurespaceisfilledwithswitchesandremotecontrols,mostofwhicharealsomultipliersrepeated throughout the system, and tuning these active forms tunes the disposition of anorganization.Forexample,attheendofthenineteenthcenturyandinthefirstpartofthetwentieth,theelectricalnetworksthatspreadacrossdevelopedcountriespromisingdecentralizedaccesstopowerwereoftenactuallycomposedof apatchworkof localutilities—powerfulnodesor switches in thenetworkthathadcontrollingmonopolies.2Inthedevelopmentoftelegraph,telephone,andfiber-opticsubmarine cables, any landing point for the cable acted like a switch in the network that couldsimilarly develop a monopoly and affect onward service and pricing. In both cases, generatingredundantswitchesintheformofmultiplecablelandingsandmultipleserviceproviderspotentiallygavethenetworkamorecompetitiveandmorerobustdisposition.

Atypicalhighwayinterchangeoffersonlyachangeofdirectionatconstantspeed.Itisaswitchinthenetwork,butnotaverysmartswitch.Intrafficengineering,itwasbelievedthatstatisticalevidenceof larger and larger populations of carswarrantedmore andmore lanes of traffic.Yet increasingcapacityonlyincreasedcongestion,inpartbecauseofinadequateswitches.Tuningtheswitchesinthenetworkwouldbeonewayofaddressingthefallaciesofthetrafficengineeringinterchange.Volumesof traffic, like those in rushhour,couldbestbehandledby the largercapacitiesofmass transit.Asmarter,more resilient transportation interchangeor stationmight thenoffer an intermodal switchbetweenhighway,rail,air,andmasstransit.

Thecharacteroftheswitchesinelectricalorhighwaynetworksisnottheonlyreasonwhytheycanfostermonopoliesorcongestion.But ineachcase theswitch isoneactiveform—one leverordialindeterminingunanticipateddispositionsinthenetworks.

Wiring/topology

The Königsberg Bridge Problem started with a bet in a pub. The challenge was to find a routethrough the eighteenth-centuryPrussian cityofKönigsberg thatwent from the city’s central islandandbackagainwithoutcrossinganyofitssevenbridgesmorethanonce.In1735,themathematicianandphysicistLeonhardEulerdemonstratedthattherewasnopossibleroutesatisfyingthatcriteria.Indoing so, he developed amode of analysis fundamental to contemporary thinking about networktopologies—expressions of relative position and sequence in a network. Topologies model the“wiring” of an organization. It is perhaps telling that topological thinking originatedwith a gameabout circulating through urban space. Just as an electronic network is wired to support specificactivities,socanspacebe“wired”toencouragesomeactivitiesandroutinesoverothers.

Topologiesareintuitivemarkersofdispositioninanorganization,andtheycanbeconsideredtobeassembliesofmultipliersandswitches.Justasweknowthepotentialoftheballat thetopoftheincline,wearefamiliarwiththepotentialsandcapacitiesofnetworksthathave,forexample,linear,multi-centered, radial, serial, or parallel topologies. A linear network connects successive pointsalong a line, as in the case of a bus, a train, or an elevator that connects sequential floors. Thedispositionofalinearrailsystemoralinearfiber-opticcableburiedinthegroundisdifferentfromthedispositionofanatomizedseaofmobiletelephones.Inaradial,orhubandspoke,network,likemassmedia televisionor radio, a single central point controls the flowof information.Mainframecomputingwasaserialnetworkthatpassedinformationsequentially,whileaparallelnetworkmightbemodeledasamoreopenmeshwithinformationflowingsimultaneouslyfrommanypoints.

Topologiesarealsomarkersofpoliticaldispositioninsofarastheyhighlightthewaysinwhichthe authorities circulate or concentrate information. In the United States, the patchwork of localelectrical utilities that generated a scattering of monopolies and inefficiencies was eventuallyabsorbed into larger centralizedmonopolies likeGeneralElectric andWestinghouse.The internet,oftentheorizedasanopenmeshinwhicheverypointinthenetworkcanreacheveryotherpoint,mayreallybemorelikeamulti-centeredorganization.SiteslikeGoogleorFacebookmayeitherhelptofilter information,making thewebmoresalientand lesschaotic,or shapean internet thatoperatesmorelikeautilitynetworkwithmonopolycontrol.3Whileportrayedasrelaxedandopen,thezoneenclave often assumes the disposition of a closed loop that will only recirculate compatibleinformation.Yetmappingsomeofthezoneincentivesontothecitypotentiallychangesitswiringanddisposition, inviting more channels of information, circumstance, and contradiction that are thehallmarksofopen,publicurbanspace.

Again, although a contributing factor, topology alonedoes not determine the dispositionof anorganization. The same topology can sponsor very different kinds of social and political activity.Dispositionininfrastructurespacealmostalwaysinvolvescompoundconditions,relyingnotjustonmultipliers, switches, or their topological arrangement. It can be modeled as a network or as aninterplayofmanydifferentkindsofactiveformstocreateincreasinglycomplexspatialsoftware.

Interplay/governorIn 1733, JamesOglethorpe designed a scheme for theNewWorld city of Savannah, Georgia. Tocontrolrealestatespeculationanddamagefromfire,heproducednotagraphicmasterplan—aplator a complete set of rectilinear blocks—but rather a growthprotocol or governor that establishedrelationships between different species of urban space. The town was to grow by wards, each ofwhichwastocontainaratiooflotstogreenopenspace.Apercentageofthelotsaroundthegreen,called tythings,were reserved for residential andcommercialproperties,while anotherpercentagewas reserved for public or civic functions. For each ward that was developed, a quotient ofagriculturalspaceoutsideoftownwasautomaticallyreserved.Thewardwasatonceamultiplierand,likeacalculusfunction,anexpressionofvariabilityandinterdependencywherecomponentsbalanced

and offset each other. The Savannah protocol provided explicit geometrical instructions for eachward, but the pattern of accumulated wards could evolve without having to determine a fixedboundaryormasterplanofthetown.

Typicalward,Savannah,Georgia

Savannahprovidesavividexampleofasuiteofactiveforms,likemultipliersandremotes,linkedas interdependentvariables insimplebutsophisticatedsoftware that regulatedanurbandisposition.Thegrowthprotocolwas like a governor in an engineor a thermostat thatmodulated the relativeproportions of public, private, open, and agricultural space over time. It could direct not onlyadditional development but also its cessation or contraction. Different from an object form, theSavannahsoftwareestablishedthetermsofaninterplaybetweenspatialvariables.

Thegolfcoursecommunity—anotherquintessentialglobalspatialproduct—involvesaninterplayofactiveformsthat,liketheSavannahsoftware,linksinterdependentspatialvariablestoperformasagovernor.IfthegoalofSavannahwastocontrolspeculation,thegoalofthegolfcoursesuburboranyspatialproductistomaximizeprofit.Twocrucialinterdependentvariablesarethedebtincurredfromcreatingthegolfcourseandthesurfaceareaofthecourseitself.Thesurfaceareadeterminesthe number of lots for course-side golf villas that can be sold to offset the debt incurred inconstructingthecourse.Thesurfaceareagovernstheshapeofthecourseandviceversa.SecuringacelebrityendorsementfromthelikesofJackNicklausorArnoldPalmeradds15percenttothevalueofeachvilla—justoneofmanyvariablesinthegamethedevelopersplay.Whiletheappearanceofthecourseisimportant,theobjectformislessimportantthanitssoftware—thepowerfulbitsofcodeunderlyingmillionsofacresofdevelopmentallaroundtheworld.

Manyactiveformscirculating in thesoftware thatmakesup infrastructurespacecanbeused tohackthatsoftware.Whilenotofferingcomprehensivecontroloveranorganization,activeformscanneverthelessbeinsertedtocounterbalanceorredirectadisposition.Theycanmultiplyacrossafield,reconditionapopulation,orgenerateanetwork.Likecosxorthemathematicaldelta,theycanbepartofanexplicitexpressionforonewaythatthefieldchanges.Activeformsestablishasetofparametersforwhat theorganizationwill bedoingover time.Theyhave time-releasedpowers and cascading

effects.Whentheobjectofdesignisnotanobjectformoramasterplanbutasetofinstructionsforan interplaybetweenvariables, design acquires someof thepower and currencyof software.Thisspatial software is not a thing but ameans to craft amultitude of interdependent relationships andsequences—anupdatingplatformforinflectingastreamofobjects.LiketheengineofinterplaythatphilosophersGillesDeleuzeandFélixGuattaricalla“diagram,”anactiveformdoesnotrepresentasinglearrangement.Itisan“abstractmachine”generativeofa“realthatisyettocome.”4

As the levers of disposition in infrastructure space, active forms, in different linkages andinterplays,aretoolsofextrastatecraft.

KnowingThatandKnowingHow

Ascriptionsofdispositionsareactions.—LudgerJansen5

Most urban and architectural designers—perhaps reflecting sentiments of the broader culture—aretrained to work on object forms or master plans rather than active forms in interplay. Whensummonedtocreateanactiveform,designersnaturallyrelyonwhattheyarebesttrainedtocreate—aformalobjectrepresentingactionordynamicprocess.Amoresimple-mindedconfusion(mademorepowerful by being simple-minded) arises when action or activity is confused with movement orkineticism.Abuildingisshapedtosuggestadynamicblurofmotion,orthecirculationofinhabitantsismappedwithablizzardofarrows.Themorecomplexoragitatedthesetracings,themore“active”the form is seen tobe.Or, reflectingamodernist faith in the successionof technologies, the formmightbeconsideredtobeactiveonlyifitiscoatedwiththenewestresponsivedigitalmedia.6

ThedistinctionbetweenformasobjectandformasactionissomethinglikephilosopherGilbertRyle’s distinction between “knowing that” and “knowing how.” With characteristic clarity andsimplicity,Ryleonceexplainedthedifferencebetweenthetwobyusingtheexampleofaclown.Theclowndoesnotpossessthecorrectanswertothequestion,“Whatisfunny?”Theclown’santicsarenot a single reasoned executive order. His knowledge and experience unfold in relation to thesituation, from encounter to encounter, circumstance to circumstance. He has well-rehearsedknowledge of how to do a pratfall, exaggerate his facial expressions, modulate his voice, orintroduceanyothergagfromhisbagoftricks.Whatisfunnyinvolvesasetofchoicescontingentontheaudience’sreactions,andtheclown’sperformancerelieson“knowinghow”ratherthan“knowingthat.”ForRyle,theclown’sskillrepresents“disposition,oracomplexofdispositions.”7“Knowinghow”is,forRyle,dispositional.8

Ryle’s contemplation of disposition supports his broader critique of the mind-body split—aconsequenceofwhatheregardedtobethefalselogicsofCartesiandualism.Herelishedthefactthathe often had to look no further than expressions in everyday speech to find the most witheringchallenges to these logics. Intelligence isoftenmeasured in termsof theamountofknowledge thatcanbeacquired,identified,ornamed.Yet,asRylepointsout,askillisnotalogicalproofthatcanbecorrectlyor incorrectly reasoned.He argues for an intelligenceorwayofknowing that has todowith knowing how in mind and body. “A soldier does not become a shrewd general merely byendorsingthestrategicprinciplesofClausewitz;hemustalsobecompetenttoapplythem.Knowinghow toapplymaximscannotbe reduced to,orderived from, theacceptanceof thoseor anyothermaxims.”9Addressingthedesigner,Rylemighthavesaidthattheobjectformofamasterplanbetraysadesire forknowing that,whileagrowthprotocol likeSavannah thatunfoldsover timeexhibits adesireforknowinghow.Ininfrastructurespace,toask“whatisthemasterplan?”islikeasking“whatisfunny?”

With simple examples Ryle demonstrates that disposition is something we already understandgiven thatweusedispositional expressions to explainmanycommonphenomena in everyday life.RylecitesJaneAusten’schangingperspectiveonthedispositionsortemperamentsofhercharactersas each novel unfolds. Onlymultiple observations of a person dealing with events over time canprovideclues to their likelybehaviors.10Healsonotes thatnon-humanobjectspossessdisposition.Onlymultiple deformations of rubber signal thematerial’s disposition to elasticity, and only aftertimecanoneobservethatithaslostitselasticity.11Justastheballthatdoesnotneedtorolldowntheincline,glassdoesnothavetobeshatteredinordertobebrittle.Thereisnoneedformovementorevent.Dispositionremainsasalatentpotentialor tendencythat ispresentevenintheabsenceofanevent. To “possess a dispositional property,” Ryle writes, “is not to be in a particular state, or toundergoaparticularchange; it is tobeboundor liable tobe inaparticular state,or toundergoaparticularchange,whenaparticularconditionisrealized.”12Itisa“hypotheticalproposition”abouttheglassdifferentfromaneventor“episode.”13

Toassessdispositionistoassesshowanorganizationdealswiththevariablesovertime—howitabsorbsordeflects theactive formsmovingwithin it.Dispositiondoesnotdescribeaconstantbutrather a changing set of actions from which one might assess agency, potentiality, or capacity.Considering disposition to be determinatewould be impractical. For Ryle, it is a subject of somemirth that dispositional attributes are sometimes regarded as fuzzy imponderables because theycannot be reified in an event or name. Ryle refutes those theories that associate disposition with“occult”agenciesorregardthingsliketheunshatteredglassastemporalprocessesthatarein“asortoflimboworld.”14

ArchitectureandurbanismmighthavebeenasubjectofRyle’ssport.Treatingactiveformsanddispositions as mysterious, unknowable conditions that cannot be legitimatized as objects orrepresentationsriskslosingaccesstotheenormouspoliticalpowerresidingininfrastructurespace.15Thedesigner is left, for instance, trying toaddressamachine formakinggolfvillaswitha singlehouse,oravolatilelandscapewithamasterplan.

Activeformisnotamodernistproposition;itdoesnotreplaceorsucceedobjectformbutratheraugments it with additional powers and artistic pleasures. The potential for both kinds of form isalways present in any design.Using either is an artistic choice.Active formmaypartnerwith andpropelobjectformdetermininghowitwillalignwithpowertotravelthroughinfrastructurespace.Adesignideaforsuburbiabecomesmorepowerfulwhenitispositionedasamultiplierthataffectsapopulationofhouses.Anurbanschemedesignedasagovernorhasagreaterlikelihoodofremaininginplacetoinfluencegrowth.

Activeforms,whileperhapsunder-rehearsedinthedesigndisciplines,arequiteordinaryinmanyothers.AgeneticistcannotrepresentallthegenesequencesofDNAwithanimageofadoublehelixbutcanengagetheongoingdevelopmentofanorganismwithanactiveformthataltersoneofthosegene sequences.An environmentalist does not attempt tomanage a forest bywiring every bird ineverytreeorplantingeverysprigofundergrowth,butwillsendininstrumentalplayers that inflectecologiesovertime.Entrepreneursdesignnotonlytheproductbutalsoitspassagethroughamarket,perhaps using amobile phone network or a repetitive suburb tomultiply products and desires. Acomputerscientistwouldneverattempttofullyrepresenttheinternetbutwouldratherauthoractiveformsthatridethenetworkwithveryexplicitinstructions.Inalltheseexamples,thereisnodesireforasingular,comprehensiveorutopiansolution.Powerliesratherintheprospectofshapingaseriesofactivitiesandrelationshipsovertime.

Theextrastatecraftofinfrastructurespaceisartisticallyandintellectuallyattractedtotheideaofdesigning action and interplay aswell as designing objects. Even though design orthodoxiesmay

favor a training in knowing that, some of the real power players in the world, for whominfrastructureisasecretweapon,wouldneverrelinquishtheirfacultiesfordesigningbothobjectandactiveform—forknowingthatandknowinghow.

Temperament

WhenthesocialscientistandcyberneticianGregoryBatesonreferredtoaman,atree,andanaxasaninformationsystem,hemadeself-evident theideathat theactivitiesof infrastructurespacecanbeamediumofinformation.ForthoselikeBatesonwhoforetoldthedigitalrevolutionbutwerenotyetcompletelysurroundedbydigitaldevices,itwasperhapseasiertounderstandthatanything—humanornon-human,digitalornon-digital—couldbeacarrierofinformation.LikeRyle,Batesondidnotregardthisactivitytobe“supernatural”oroccult,butrathersawinformationasanordinarycurrencyfor exchanges between humans and non-humans.16 “Information is a difference that makes adifference,” he famously wrote.17 Objects do not need to be enhanced by digital technologies orcoatedwithsensors.Tothedegreethatthey“makeadifference”intheworld,theycreateinfluences,intentions, and relationships that constitute information. The information manifests, not in text orcode,butinactivity.

Bateson’s work also tutors an understanding of the active forms that manage information ininfrastructurespace.Hewroteabout“governors,”likethosefoundinathermostatorasteamengine,as mechanisms for modulating information—the temperature or pressure in a system—just asSavannahwasagovernorformodulatingrealestatespeculation.Ofswitches,hewrotethataswitchisathingthat“isnot.”Inotherwords,theswitchcontrolsadispositionalflowofchanges—aflowofinformation.“Itisrelatedtothenotion‘change’ratherthantothenotion‘object.’”18

WhileBateson’smorecomprehensivecyberneticspeculationsabouthomeostasisinorganizationsare perhaps to be avoided, his work further deepens an understanding of disposition with itsspeculations on temperament or political bearing—the tension, violence, stability, or resilienceimmanent in organizations. Bateson’s catholic intelligence ranged across mathematics,communicationtechnology,neurophysiology,gametheory,andlogicanddidnotsubdividetheworldintothesubjectsofdifferentsciences.Assessinganysubjectwiththiscyberneticepistemology—beitelectroniccircuits,nations,tribesfromNewGuinea,orAlcoholicsAnonymousmeetings—Batesoncould also transpose sociological assessments of tension and violence to behaviors inherent ingroupsortosimpletopologiesandnetworkrelationships.

Bateson began by looking at a number of binary patterns in humanbehavior,whether betweenindividualsorbetweengroups,asin“Republican-Democrat,politicalRight-Left,sexdifferentiation,Godandthedevil,andsoon.”Henotedthatpeopleevenattempttosquareoffinbinaryoppositionsoverthingsthatare“notdualinnature—youthversusage,laborversuscapital,mindversusmatter.”Soingrainedarethesebinaryhabitsforgroupbehaviorthattheyinducemyopiaintheirproponents.Bateson was interested in ternary systems as an alternative to binaries. He suggested that theproponentsofbinaryrelationships“lacktheorganizationaldevicesforhandlingtriangularsystems;the inception of a ‘third party’ is always regarded, for example, as a threat to our politicalorganization.” He was especially interested in how and why such binaries generate divisivesituations.19Threemodels of binary relationships receive themost attention inBateson’swritings:symmetrical,complimentary,andreciprocal.

Insymmetricalrelationshipsbothsidesofthebinarycompeteforsamedominantposition.Theymirroreachother,andtheirmimicrymayescalatetoward“extremerivalryandultimatelytohostilityandthebreakdownofthewholesystem.”20Imagineidenticaltwinscompetingforparentalaffection.

Some of these binaries he characterized as complementary motifs: “dominance-submission,succoring-dependence,andexhibitionism-spectatorship.”21

Incomplementarybehavior,onepartyprovidesaningredientnecessaryfortheother.Thinkofthebetadogconsistentlysubmittingtothealphadogtomaintainthestabilityofthepackhierarchy.Whilesubmissionmight be reinforcing and stabilizing in some instances, it can also lead to hostility if“submissiveness promotes further assertiveness which in turn will promote furthersubmissiveness.”22

In reciprocal relationships, individuals or groups oscillate between symmetrical andcomplementaryrelationships.Thereisanunderstandingthatdominancemightbeshared,orthatonegroup might be submissive in some encounters and dominant in others. Reciprocal relationshipsdistributepowerovertimeandallowforthetradingofrolesinawaythatstabilizestherelationship.Imagineagroupofpokerplayerswho take turns lettingeachotherwin so thatnoonemember iswipedoutandtheentiregroupcancontinueplaying.23

It may seem far-fetched to assign temperament to infrastructure spaces, but concentrations ofpower, tension,competition,andsubmissionare immanent in theirarrangements.Applied tourbanspace,itiseasytoseethelatentviolenceinbinariesofcompetitionandsubmissionsuchasEastandWest Jerusalem,SanDiegoandTijuana,NorthandSouthSudan,or themirroringshoresofSpainandNorthAfrica.

Batesonalsotreatsviolence,tension,competition,andsubmissionintermsofinformationflow.Incompetitiveordestructivestates,theflowofinformationcollapses,whereasinbalancedreciprocalorganizations, information is more easily exchanged. Bateson considers the stabilizing effects ofbreaking binaries and increasing the possibility of exchange. His thinking highlights networkarrangementsthatconcentrateauthorityorconstrictinformation,spatialrelationsthatescalateviolentsituations, as well as organizations that are plural and robustly networked. Restrictions ofinformation, like theclosedloopof thezoneor themonopolies inelectricalor telecommunicationnetworks, are—like the surface ripples on the river—markers of more complex and potentiallydangerousdispositions.

StoriesareActiveForms

Storiesthataculturetellsaboutinfrastructurespacecanscripttheuseofthatspace;yetinthecaseofhighways,ARPAnet,electricalutilities,Facebook,orthezone,theorganizationsslippedawayfromthestoriesthatwereattachedtothem.Themisalignmentbetweentheactivityofanorganizationandits stated intent is often the first signal of anundeclareddisposition.Yet beyond thedeclarationofintent, some social stories play an additional, powerful role in the ongoing process of shapingdisposition.

Thesociologist,anthropologist,andtheoristBrunoLatourhaslongrecognizedthatnetworkslikeinfrastructure space are active and that they are composed of social and technical actors.Humansshapeinfrastructurespacedeciding,forinstance,thatelectricitywillbeusedforpower,lighting,andtelecommunications as a public utility accessed via sockets and plugs. But for Latour non-humantechnologiesarealsoactors.Humanscreatecomputers,forexample,butcomputersinturnactuponhumans. They are shaped to human needs as devices that respond to hands and laps, but they alsoinspire further humanuses and even theverymental structures that conceiveof them.That alteredwayofthinkinginfluencesinturnthenextiterationofthecomputer.Inotherwords,technologiesarenon-humanactorsor“actants”influencingthedesiresandpracticesofthehumanswhoreciprocallyshape them. Indeed, beyond the human/non-human binary for Latour nothing ismerely an object.

Everythingis“doingsomething”andcannotbeseparatedfromitsactions.24Latourusesthisobservationtodestabilizethehabitsofhisowndiscipline.Hehasbeencriticalof

thosestudiesofsocial-technicalnetworksthatuseevidencemerelytoconfirmexistingpresumptionsabout social patterns or habits.25 In response, he offers an analytic framework that he calls actor-networktheory(ANT)torenovateand“[redefine]sociologynotasthe‘scienceofthesocial’,butasthetracingofassociations.”26Ratherthancodifyingortaxonomizingthesocialorculturalstory,hedescribesadialoguebetweenhumansandnon-human technologies that isconstantlyunfoldingandimpossibletofix.

An active form can be organizational like amultiplier, a remote, a switch, or a governor, butsincethesocialandtechnicalinteractwitheachother,anactiveformcanalsobeasocialstory—notavesselinwhichtofixmeaningbutacarriertochannelaflowofmeanings.Form,Latourwrites,is“simply somethingwhich allows something else to be transported fromone site to another…Toprovideapieceofinformationistheactionofputtingsomethingintoaform.”27

A story as an active form, however immaterial and non-spatial, can inflect disposition ininfrastructure space and can be deployed with spatial intent. For example, the developerWilliamLevitt associated his suburban housingwith familial and patriotic narratives thatwere particularlyinfectious in the post-war period, and such stories accelerated the spatial effects of the house asmultiplier.Thehouse,itsrepetitiveorganization,andthestoryattachedtoitallconstituteinformationthat contributes to disposition. Similarly, cultural stories about the zone as a rational, apoliticalinstrument of economic liberalism are active forms that, however disconnected from the actualactivitiesoftheorganization,drivethezone’spopularityandshapeitsdisposition.Anewpersuasionaboutthezonemappedbackontoexistingcitiescanbedesignedasamultiplierwithbothsocialandtechnologicalcomponents—actorsandactantsthattogetheralterurbanspace.

Latour, likeRyle,alsousestheatricalperformanceasamodelforthewaysinwhichastringofsocialactionsor storiescan influence social-technicalnetworks.Noting that it is “notbyaccident”that words like script and actor are used in social studies, Latour writes, “Play-acting puts usimmediatelyintoathickimbrogliowherethequestionofwhoiscarryingouttheactionhasbecomeunfathomable.”Actionsare“dislocated…borrowed,distributed, suggested, influenced,dominated,betrayed,translated.”28Socialnetworksare“aconglomerateofmanysurprisingsetsofagenciesthathavetobeslowlydisentangled.Itisthisvenerablesourceofuncertaintythatwewishtorendervividagainintheoddexpressionofactor-network.”29

In some of his formulations of ANT, Latour evenmakes passing reference to the sociologistErvingGoffman.Whiledistancinghimselffrommoreconventionalsociology,LatourusesGoffmanto make palpable the activities that surround social interactions in excess of declared intentions.Goffmanused theword “disposition” to refer to all the gestures, postures, facial expressions, andmyriadsubtextsdeployedinanindividual’salmosttheatricalpresentationofself.30Hemarveledthatwhileallthesesignalsoftenoverwhelm,orare“discrepant”from,whatapersonisactuallysaying,theyarerarely“systematicallyexamined.”31

Discussions of performance, indeterminacy, and discrepancy inRyle,Latour, andGoffman aresuggestiveofspecialaestheticpracticesusedtoconfrontthepoliticsofinfrastructurespace.Withanartistic repertoire like that of a performer, the designer of active forms, comfortable with lesscontrol, works on an unfolding stream of objects rather than a single shape. For the designer ofstoriesasactiveforms—social formsthatarenevertheless intendedtohavespatialconsequences—discrepancypresents additional opportunities. Just as thepowers that be in infrastructure space areusually offering persuasive stories that are decoupled from what their organizations are actuallydoing, performers are accustomed to the idea that action is a carrier of information that may be

discrepantfromthestatedtext.Actorshaveascript(e.g.,“comehomeson”),buttheirrealworkliesin crafting an action, usually with an infinitive expression (to grovel, to reject, to caress).32 Theaction, not to be confused with movement or choreography, is the real carrier of information,meaning, and change, and it may be entirely disconnected from the text. Comfort with craftingdiscrepant,indeterminateactionallowsdesigntoengageboththenaturallyoccurringdislocationsofmeaningaswellastheduplicitouspoliticsofextrastatecraft.

Diagnostics

Neither deterministic nor wholly malleable, technology sets some parameters of individual and social action … Differenttechnologiesmakedifferentkindsofhumanactionandinteractioneasierorhardertoperform.—YochaiBenkler33

Disposition is an extra diagnostic tool for assessing undisclosed capacity or political bearing ininfrastructurespace.Amultitudeofactiveformscanbeusedtobothdetectandadjustadisposition.Like powerful bits of code that can hack the infrastructural operating system, these formsmay betechnological,organizational,orsocial.Indeterminateinordertobepractical,suchformsdelivernotaplanbutaninterplaycapableofadjustingdifferentsituationsandmanagingadispositionovertime.

A contemplation of disposition also summons Michel Foucault’s theories about a social andpolitical“apparatus”or“systemofrelations”thathecalledadispositif.ForFoucaultadispositifwas“a thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms,regulatorydecisions, laws, administrativemeasures, scientific statements,philosophical,moral andphilanthropicpropositions—inshort,thesaidasmuchastheunsaid.”34

Thedesignerofdispositionin infrastructurespaceisaperformer.Activeformsupplements theaestheticsofobjectformwhileaddressingthepoliticsofdiscrepancyinextrastatecraft.Notlimitedtoprescription,thedesignercanengageinimprovisation—inthepleasuresofknowinghowaswellasknowingthat.

Finally, a reading ofLatour also offers cautions that are further discussed in the chapter titled“Stories.” The stories that humans attach to technologies like infrastructure space can becomeenshrinedorossifiedasingrainedexpectations.Storiesmayevolvebeyondfluidscriptsforshapingatechnologyintoideologiesthatdictatethedispositionofanorganization.Howeverimmaterial,theseideologicalstorieshavethepowertobuckleconcreteandbendsteel,andtheycanoftenbedifficulttoescape.

_______________1 FrançoisJullien,ThePropensityofThings:TowardaHistoryofEfficacyinChina(NewYork:ZoneBooks,1995),29.2 ThomasP.Hughes,NetworksofPower:Electrification inWesternSociety1880–1930 (Baltimore: JohnsHopkinsUniversity

Press,1983),14,404–60;DavidE.Nye,ElectrifyingAmerica:SocialMeaningsofaNewTechnology(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,1990),182,266,349,385–9.

3 Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (New Haven: YaleUniversityPress,2006),20,7–16,19–20,278–85.

4 GillesDeleuze,Foucault, trans. S.Hand. (Minneapolis:University ofMinnesota Press, 1988), 37;GillesDeleuze and FélixGuattari,“OnSeveralRegimesofSigns,”inAThousandPlateaus(Minneapolis:UniversityofMinnesotaPress,1987),141,142.

5 Ludger Jansen, “OnAscribingDispositions,” inMaxKistler andBrounoGnassounou, eds.Dispositions andCasual Powers(London:Ashgate,2007),161.

6 Manycontemporaryarchitectsusecomputersoftwareandparametricthinkinginthedesignofobjectforms.Thedisciplinerarelyappliesparametricthinkingtoactiveforms—totherelationshipsbetweenobjectsinthetimeandspaceofanexpandedurbanfield.Whiledigital software is not necessary to the contemplation of spatial software, Bruno Latour muses about digital software that not onlymanipulatesgeometrybutalsodrawsintointerplayawebofotherurbancircumstancesandconsequences.SeetheinterviewwithBrunoLatourbyMaría J.Prieto andEliseS.Youn, “Debriefing theCollectiveExperiment,” July5,2004, at academia.edu.CarloRatti and

JosephGrima’s“OpenSourceArchitecture”isamanifestothatimaginesamorediverserolefordigitalmediainarchitectureandurbanism.Digitalmediaprovidesacommonplatform, likeawiki, tocollectsharedcomponents,direct fabrication,and interfacewith thecity—acitysoembeddedwithdigitaldevices that ithasbecomean“internetof things.”CarloRatti, JosephGrimaandadditionalcontributors,“OSArc,”DomusMagazine,no.948(June15,2011);KellerEasterling,“AnInternetofThings,”E-flux,(Spring2012),ate-flux.com.

7 GilbertRyle,TheConceptofMind(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1949),27–33.8 Ibid.,27–32,17–33.9 Ibid.,31.10 Ibid.,42–4.11 Ibid.,125.12 Ibid.,43.13 Ibid.,89,116.14 Ibid.,119–20.15 Artistsandarchitectshave,atvariousjunctures,pursueddesignassoftwareoraninterplayofactivecomponents.Forartistslike

Jack Burnham or Les Levine, software was at once a literal tool and a model or metaphor. The architect Cedric Price designedarchitecture as aperformanceof components rather thana singleobject, inprojects likeFunHouseorGenerator, amongmanyothers.Architect and mathematician Christopher Alexander used set theory to organize the relationships between components of urban andarchitectural design, arguing for the semi-lattice rather than the hierarchical tree as the underlying structure. Nicholas Negroponte’sArchitectureMachineGroupattemptedtouseurbanspaceasaphysicaltestbedforanexpandedfieldofcomputing.Whiletheoccasionaldesirefordeterminacyarguablyweakenedsomeoftheseexperiments,theyhave,howeveranecdotally,nourishedtheprojectofactiveforms.SeeJackBurnham,BeyondModernSculpture:TheEffectsofScienceandTechnologyontheSculptureofThisCentury(NewYork:G.Braziller,1968);CedricPrice,TheSquareBook(London:Wiley-Academy,2003),reprintofCedricPrice,WorksII(London:ArchitecturalAssociation,1984);ChristopherAlexander,“TheCityisnotaTree,”ArchitecturalForum122,nos.1and2 (April-May1965),58–62;andNicholasNegroponte,TheArchitectureMachine(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,1970),70–93.

16 GregoryBateson,StepstoanEcologyofMind(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,2000),464,472.17 Ibid.,381,462,315,272,21.18 GregoryBateson,MindandNature:ANecessaryUnity(NewYork:HamptonPress,2000),101.19 Bateson,StepstoanEcologyofMind,95.20 Ibid.,68.21 Ibid.,9522 Ibid.,68.23 Ibid.,68–9.24 Latour,ReassemblingtheSocial,52.25 STSscholarsandtheoristswouldincludeBrunoLatour,WiebeE.Bijker,TrevorPinch,ThomasP.Hughes,ThomasJ.Misa,and

DavidE.Nyeamongothers.26 Latour,Reassembling the Social, 8n11, 5. Latour criticizesDurkheimian practices and steps away from, for instance, Erving

Goffman’sorPierreBourdieu’swork.GoffmanandBourdieubothuse the term“disposition” inawaymostpertinent to social studies.Bourdieu,whowasalso transposinghiswork to anactive realmofpractice,used theword todescribea repeatedly structured setofculturalactivitiesorhabitus.Latourperhapsextendsthisbysuggestingthatsociologymightovercomeitsownhabitustofurtherconsiderevolving practices. In this he departs from a branch of sociotechnical studies, arguing that it sometimes enshrines social forms asstructured patterns and habits or reifies the structures of social “science.” These are the very constructs he wishes to renovate byconsideringbothhumansandthings,actorsandnon-humanactants, innetworks.Heraisesquestions,forinstance,aboutWiebeBijker’saccount in Social Shaping of Technology (1995), because “the social is kept stable all along and accounts for the shape oftechnologicalchange.”

27 Ibid.,39,223.28 Ibid.,46.29 Ibid.,44.30 Ibid.,46;ErvingGoffman,ThePresentationofSelfinEverydayLife(NewYork:AnchorBooks/Doubleday,1959),141–66.31 Goffman,ThePresentationofSelfinEverydayLife,254–5.32 Sharingasensibility for theater,Ryle, for instance,makesadistinctionbetweenactiveor“performance”verbsandverbs like

“‘know,’ ‘possess’ and ‘aspire.’” One would not say, for example, “‘he is now engaged in possessing a bicycle.’” See Ryle, TheConceptofMind,130,116.

33 Benkler,TheWealth ofNetworks, 16–17.Network theoristYochaiBenkler refers towhatSTSphilosopherLangdonWinnercalledthe“politicalproperties”oftechnology,orwhatsociologistBarryWellmancalledits“affordances,”whichdescribessomeofthespecialcapacitiesofsocialmediaandtheinternet;seealsoJaneBennett,VibrantMatter:APoliticalEcologyofThings(Durham,NC:DukeUniversityPress,2010).

34 MichelFoucault,“TheConfessionoftheFlesh,”aroundtableinterviewfrom1977,inFoucault,Power/Knowledge:SelectedInterviewsandOtherWritings,ed.ColinGordon(NewYork:VintageBooks,1980),194.

CHAPTER3

Broadband

The road betweenNairobi andMombasa is linedwith, and virtually lit by, advertisements for themobilephonecompanies thathaveentered the region—allpromisingnewfreedomsandeconomicopportunities. With their images of Masai tribesman in native dress phoning from a remotewilderness, the ads employ an essential trope of leapfrogging—the desire for a perfect collapsebetweentechnologyandnature,traditionandmodernity.Thebillboardsexpresstheenthusiasmofaworldturnedupsidedown,inwhichnotthedevelopedbutthedevelopingworldhasitshandsaroundamajorityoftheworld’scellphones.

Overthelast150years,theoceanfloorhasbeenlaidwiththousandsofmilesofsubmarinecableofall typesfortelegraph,telephone,andfiber-opticinfrastructure.Inthenineteenthcentury,it tookonlythirtyyearsfortheBritishcable-layingcompaniestostringtheworldwithtelegraphcable,andalittleover adecade from the late-1980s to the late-1990s formostof theworld tobeconnected tofiber-opticcable.Yetuntilrecently,EastAfrica,oneofthemostpopulousareasoftheworld,hadnofiber-opticsubmarinecablelinkandlessthan1percentoftheworld’sbroadbandcapacity.AcountrylikeKenyahadtorelyforitsbroadbandonexpensivesatellitetechnologyacquiredinthe1970sthatcosttwentytofortytimesitsequivalentinthedevelopedworld.Before2009,oneMbps(megabitpersecond)ofbandwidthcouldcostasmuchas7,500USdollarspermonthagainsttheworldaverageof$200.Themonthlycostofputtingtwenty-fiveagentsonthephonewas$17,000amonthinsteadofthe$600–900thatitwouldcostinotherdevelopedcountries.1

If telecommunications in EastAfrica has until recently been distinguished by deprivation, it isnowoftenheraldedforitsexplosivegrowth.InKenya,thenumbershavebeenskyrocketing.Between2000and2008,thenumberofcellphonesubscriptionsincreasedoverahundredfold(from127,404in 2000 to 16,573,303 in 2008), and from 2008 to 2012 they nearly doubled again (30,731,745 in2012).2Afternearlyfifteenyearsofplanning,by theendof2010Kenyahadgonefromhavingnofiber-opticsubmarinecabletohavingthreeinternationalcablesandanexpandingnationalfiber-opticsystem. The country needs broadband formobile telephony,3 butwhilemany of itsmobile phoneusers are now able to access the internet, Kenya is nevertheless still sorely lacking high-capacitypremiumfixedbandwidthforbusinessandeducation.

The new power players of extrastatecraft are all present in Kenya—nations, kingdoms, globalconsultancies,andanarrayofinternationalorganizationsandmultinationalenterprises.BroadbandisnowwrittenintothepoliciesofnationalgovernmentsandintothedevelopmentgoalsofbusinessesaswellasinternationalorganizationsliketheWorldBankandtheUN.TheWorldBankdeclaresmobiletelephonytobe“theworld’slargestdistributionplatform.”4Aswarmoftelecomsfromallovertheworld compete for market share in underserved Africa. The expansion of new infrastructurecapacitiesintodenselypopulated,developingcountrieshasalsosponsorednewbusinessmodelsandtechniquesofgovernance.Entrepreneursidentifymultipliersandborrowcrowd-sourcingtechniquestopenetrate themarketwith a flurryofnewapps.Kenya is nowbeingcharacterized as apotentialleader in developing information and communication technologies—a “silicon savannah” for theentirecontinentofAfrica.5

Kenyaisagoodplacefromwhichtoconsiderthespatialvariablesofbroadbandinfrastructure.Plenty of analysts on the ground are trying to predict the effects of broadband on what they call“Development2.0.”Suchanalysisisundertakeninthelanguagesofbusiness,technology,informatics,

and econometrics, but there is as yet little study of the interdependencies between broadbandinfrastructureandspace.Urbanistsfrequentlyanalyzetheurbanvaluesandmorphologiesassociatedwith physical infrastructure such as rail, highway, power and water utilities, yet the discipline isunder-rehearsedinananalysisofthespatialdispositionsattendingbroadbandinfrastructure.

The advent of satellite during the 1960s and ’70s coincided with the emergence of manydeveloping countries, andwas seen as ameans of leapfrogging the infrastructuremonopolies andhierarchiesofdevelopedcountrieswithanairbornenetwork.6Yetsomeofthesefuturisticprojectionsofafullymodernizedworldcoexistingwithanundisturbedpastorallandscapefounderedat theso-called lastmile—thepositionof fixedutilities likeelectricity thatwerenecessaryauxiliariesof thesatellite signal. The device receiving the signals had to be plugged in, and where the auxiliarynetworkswereinadequate,newnetworksfortransportation,electricity,andbroadbandwerebundledtogether and delivered to enclaves—self-contained office parks or zones that could attract foreigninvestment.

Broadband capacity from the new fiber-optic cable is distributed in a three-part organization.Buried in the ground and extending from the landfall of the submarine cable, the terrestrial cableassumes a linear topology that physically territorializes like a railroad or highway. InKenya, thefiberfavorsawell-wornpathbetweenNairobiandMombasa,butitwillalsocontactremotevillages.As it evolves, it is not clear whether the fiber will strengthen existing cities, generate zone-likeenclaves,orencouragenewapproachestodevelopmentinruralareas.Relyingonthesamecableforbandwidth,mobiletelephonyformsasecondatomizedtopologyofmicrowavetowersandhandsets.Whileagainpromisingaubiquitousairbornemedium,thistimethedevicethatreceivesthesignalsisbatterypoweredandsomewhatlessreliantonlast-milecontingencies.Theserviceproviderswhosellandtransferbroadbandbetweentheseoverlappingorganizationsaddathirdlayeroforganization—aclusterofswitchesorpointsofaccess.Inthesamewaythatanyutilitycanharborlocalmonopolies,abottleneckcandevelopanywherewithintheselinear,atomized,andclusteredtopologies.

Just as mobile telephony is an information network, infrastructure space itself is a carrier ofinformation,anditreciprocallyshapestheresilienceandrobustnessofall thebroadbandnetworks.TheroadbetweenMombasaandNairobi—twolanesforsomeofitslengthandpoorlymaintained—is a reminder that despite the ubiquity of the cell phone, major improvements are needed in theauxiliary infrastructure. Along the same road, a billboard cites the country’s 40 percentunemploymentrate.Whilemobile telephonyisadevelopmentengine, reducingunemploymentwillheavily rely on universities and businesses with fixed high-capacity broadband in urbanorganizations.Theseurbanorganizationsareimportantswitchesinthenetwork.

ForallthenewdigitalsoftwareinplayinKenya,theoutmodedzoneistheonlyspatialsoftwarepresentlyonoffer,evenassomeofthenewcapacitiesofbroadbandbegintorenderitobsolete.Thecellphone,likethenewelevator,isapowerfulmultiplierthatcanbeplacedinameaningfulinterplaywith all of theother active forms in thebroadbandnetwork to alter thedesignof the city, village,road,school,andmarket.Designingnewinterdependenciesbetweenallofthesespatialandtechnicalvariablescouldmaximizeaccesstotheinformationcarriedintelecommunicationnetworksaswellasthe information carried in the space of the city. Just as Kenya and other populous countries areoffering the world new business models, they might also offer an advanced lesson in broadbandurbanism.

BroadbandIsExtrastatecraft

BroadbandinfrastructurerecallstheglobalindustrialnetworksofthenineteenthcenturywhenBritain

and the United States were the two most powerful developers of telegraph networks.7 The firsttranscontinental telegraph line in the United States was completed in 1861, and by the end of thecentury Great Britain had deployed a fleet of cable-laying ships to wire its colonial empire withterrestrial and submarine telegraph cable. By the turn of the twentieth century, British telegraphcompanies vastly outnumbered those from other countries, and they controlled two-thirds of thecablesinthewater.8Thecapacitiesofthenewtechnologiestogetherwiththeterritorialconquestsoftheprivateinfrastructureindustrieslentextrapowersto,andeveninspired,theambitionsandpoliciesof these states.By the end of the nineteenth century, theAmericas andmost ofEurope, aswell asJapan, India, Russia, China, Australia, and Africa, all had terrestrial telegraph networks linked tosubmarinecable.9

Since 1879, John Pender ’s Eastern & South African Telegraph Company had been layingtelegraph cable in Africa, and soon after the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC),established in 1885, began operating in what would become Kenya, telegraph cable landed inMombasa.10TelegraphlineseventuallyparalleledtheIBEAC’srailroadfromMombasatoNairobi,alinethatwasintendedtopenetrateintoUgandaandconnecttoCecilRhodes’sprojectedCapetoCairorailroad.

The heavy industries delivering telecommunications infrastructure fueled a global financialmarketandsimultaneouslycreatedaneedforinternationaltechnicalcoordinationandgovernance—aglobal exchange or extrastatecraft in a new form.11 The International Telegraph Union (ITU)conveneditsfirstconferencein1865.Witheachsucceedingconference,theorganizationdevelopednewlayersofgovernanceforthenextgenerationsoftelecommunicationtechnologies.TheITUwassooncoordinatingnotonlytelegraphandtelephonenetworksbutalsoradioandthenewgenerationsofcoaxialcable.By1963,theyearKenyagainedindependencefromtheBritish,theconferencewasallocatingfrequenciesforsatellitecommunication.12Acrosspost-colonialAfrica,however,mostofthestrandsofsubmarinetelegraphcablelaidbytheBritishandothersintheirfrenzyofcolonizationwere not replaced with the newest coaxial, telephone, and fiber-optic cable. In 1964, the ITUdetermined that Kenya had 50,842 phones. The figure in the United States for the same year was88,787,000.13

While requiring or submitting to coordination from international or intergovernmentalinstitutions,thebigmultinationalindustriescontinuedtoenjoyenormousextrastateindependenceandpower on the seas and airwaves. Companies like AT&T, Siemens,Western Union, and Cable andWirelesssurvivedwartimestateco-optionaswellasvariousmergerstoresurfaceasoperatorsinthenewworldofcoaxialandfiber-opticcable.TheGermanelectricalengineeringcompanySiemenshadaspired to become an international company from its inception.14 It would work for or with anypowerfulplayer,stateorcorporation,thatwouldfurtheritsambitions,insinuatingitselfintodifferentstrataofthetelecommunicationsbusinessasmanufacturer,heavyindustrycontractor,andinventor.15

TheAmerican Telegraph and Telephone Company, Bell Telephone Laboratories, and SiemenswereallassociatedwithTAT-1,thefirsttransatlantictelephonecablelaunchedin1956.AT&T,FranceTélécom, and British Telecom collaborated on TAT-8, the first transatlantic fiber-optic cable thatcameon line in1988.Alcatel-Lucent, aFrench firmwith roots in late-nineteenth-century electricaland communication companies, has become amajor player in contemporary fiberoptic cabling inAfrica.16

Kenya, like many post-colonial African countries, merged colonial and privatetelecommunications entities into a parastate telecom with monopoly status. The British Cable andWirelessCompany,anothercompanywithahistorydatingbacktothecable-layingenterprisesofthelatenineteenthcentury,hadalreadymanagedinternationalcommunicationsinKenya,andsince1933

the East African Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (EAP&TC) had administeredtelecommunicationsforKenya,Uganda,andTanzania(afterthemergerofTanganyikaandZanzibar).In1977,theKenyaPostsandTelecommunicationsCorporation(KP&TC)wasestablishedforKenyaalone, and by 1984 it had consolidated the administration of both domestic and internationaltelecommunicationsintoasingleentity.17KP&TCwouldeventuallyadministerrelationswithIntelsat,andafterKenyabecameamemberofthesatelliteconsortiumin1968,thecountryreceiveditsfirstearthstationin1970onMountLongonotjustnorthofNairobi.18

In addition to the established global telecommunications companies (some associated withcolonialism), new players from developing countries approached telecommunications with newambitions.Alcatel-LucentandtheJapanesecompanyNECjoinedwithcollaboratorsfromtheMiddleEast andSouthAsia toconstructSEA-ME-WE1, the first analogcable system in the IndianOceanconnectingSoutheastAsia, theMiddleEast,andWesternEurope.19RelianceGlobalcom,amassiveIndiancommunicationscompany,acquiredtheFLAGorFiber-opticLinkAroundtheGlobe,acablesystemthatcirclestheearth.

TheChinesecompaniesHuaweiandZTEwereestablished inShenzhen in the1980s.TheyhavesubsequentlyacquiredexpertiseinpartnershipwithsomeofthemostprominentICTfirmsandhavedevelopedresearchoutpostsinStockholmandBangalore.Theyprovideeverythingfromfiber-opticnetworks to switching, to handsets. Both companies operate all over Africa as ICT contractors.20Mixinginnovationwithlowbidsforcontracts,theyhavestrategizedaglobalconquestofITbusiness.From the company’s campus in Shenzhen, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei speaks of using “thecountryside to encircle and finally capture the cities,” feeding its “wolf spirit” with each newacquisitionofterritory.21Alloftheseplayers,oldandnew,areinvolvedinsupplyingbroadbandtoEastAfrica.

Since independence, intergovernmental agencies and consultancies have joined the field ofKenyan extrastatecraft. The country’s firstWorld Bank funding came in 1960, for an agriculturalproject, and the bank has been active there ever since, organizing and lending to developmentprojects.22TheIMFhasalsoofferedassistanceandcreditsincethe1980s.23TheglobalmanagementconsultancyMcKinsey&Company,operatinginAfricasincethe1970s,hasconsultedonanumberofKenya’sbroadbandinitiatives.24

ModeledafterotherintergovernmentalagenciesliketheUN,theOrganizationforAfricanUnity(OAU)wasformedin1963,justasmanyAfricannationswereachievingindependencefromcolonialpowers. The OAU organized pan-African agencies for telecommunications, radio, and TV andestablishedtheAfricanDevelopmentBank.WhiletheOAUcametoberegardedasineffectual,inthe1990sMuammaral-Gaddafirevivedtheidea.TheAfricanUnionreplacedtheOAUbutmaintaineditsheadquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.25 One agency of the AU established in 2001, the NewPartnershipforAfrica’sDevelopment(NEPAD),becameakeyplayerinthehistoryofKenya’sfiber-opticsubmarinecables.26

BroadbandHasShadows

In1982,nearlytenyearsafterMartinCooperofMotorolamadehisfirstfabledcellphonecall(onaphoneslightlylargerthanabrick),theITUheldoneofitsplenipotentiaryconferencesinNairobi.Ithad begun in earnest to consider those not yet served by telecommunication infrastructure, andNairobiwasthecapitalofoneofthemostpoorlyservedcountriesintheworld.Theresultingreport,The Missing Link: Report of the Independent Commission for World Wide Telecommunications

Development(1984),assessedthesignificantlackofteledensityindevelopingcountriesandidentifiedtheorganizationsandbanks thatmightmakeaconcertedeffort toupgrade thenetwork.Thereportrecommendedthat“allofmankind”haveaccesstoatelephonewithintheearlypartofthetwenty-firstcentury.27

By the 1980s, the EU was already setting aside frequencies for cell phones and the ITU hadproposedaglobal cellularnetwork,butKenyawas left outof thepicture. In1980 the countryhadonly 74,000 direct telephone lines. Despite the ITU’s attempts to increase teledensity, Kofi Annanobservedin1999that“aquarterofallcountrieshavenotyetachievedevenabasiclevelofaccesstotelecommunications(atateledensityof1),andhalftheworld’speoplehavenevermadeorreceivedatelephonecall.”28Ateledensityof1means1telephoneper100people.Thatsameyear,ITanalystEliNoamnoted “Africa comprises20percent of theworld’s landmass and contains12percent of itspopulation.Butitaccountsforonly2percentoftheworld’stelecommunications.”29

In1995,theAfricaOneprojectplannedtocircleAfricawithasinglefiber-opticcablelinkedtoEurope,theMiddleEast,andbeyond.30Butbeforeitcouldbefullynegotiated, theprivatelyfundedSAT-3-WASC-SAFE cable came on line in 2002. It served the west coast of Africa and continuedalongwell-wornroutesofglobaltradeandcolonizationwithaconnectiontoMauritius,India,andtheFarEast.31Nevertheless, on thewest coast,whether as a result of parastatemonopolies or lackofcapacity, thenewcabledidnotsignificantlyrelievebroadbandpricing.Evenbythe latesummerof2009, 1 Mbps on the west coast of Africa still cost between $4,500 and $12,000 per month.32Meanwhile,theislandcountryofMauritius,flushwithbroadbandfromtheSAFEcablelandingandwell-rehearsed in the techniques of export processing,was demonstrating thatAfrica could attractglobalbusiness.UnderthetutelageofIndianITexpertise,thecountrywasevenbuildingitsownITindustry with knowledge villages like Ebene CyberCity that are part of the history of zonedevelopment.33

Inspired to attract someof this business, in January 2003 a group at theEastAfricanBusinessSummitgathered tocraftan independentcableprojectcalledEASSy,or theEastAfricaSubmarineCableSystem,runningfromMtunziniinSouthAfricatoPortSudaninSudan.AsignificantnumberofcountriessignedtheEASSymemorandumofunderstandinginDecember2003,butdidnotdeliverallof thenecessary investmentmoney. Itwould takeover fivemoreyearsbeforeEASSycameonline.

In2010,onthe25thanniversaryof the“MissingLink”report, theITUBroadbandCommissionfor Digital Development issued a report written in the breathless tone of a declaration of digitalimperatives. The commission gathered public and private figures, government leaders,representativesofNGOs,UNaffiliates, infrastructureconsortiums(e.g.,Intelsat),andentrepreneurs(including Carlos Slim Helu, Sir Richard Branson, Mo Ibrahim, Jeffrey Sachs, and MuhammedYunnos) tomodel thekindsofpartnershipsnecessary to implementbroadbanddevelopment.34 Thegroup regarded broadband infrastructure as essential to the UN’s 2010 Millennium DevelopmentGoalsrelatedtopoverty,education,gender,health,andtheenvironment.35 Inthe“informationage”broadband was more than a communication technology; it was now characterized as a “socialasset”—“likewater,electricity,androadsintheindustrialage”.36

BroadbandIsLiberal

Kenyahasbeenhosttotheeconomicliberalismorlaissez-faireofthetelecommunicationsindustriesas well as the free market liberalization or neoliberalism espoused by the so-called Washington

Consensus—aglobalshorthandfor thestandardeconomicpoliciesof theWorldBankandtheIMF.TheITU,theWorldBank,andtheIMF,amongotherinternationalorganizations,havepressedfortheliberalization or privatization of state-run utilities like Africa’s monopoly telecoms. In the 1990s,boththeIMFandWorldBankwereconcernedovermismanagementandcorruptioninKenya.In1997the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiated a major agreement that would break up theincumbent national telecommunications monopolies, allowing foreign companies to invest in andcompetewith them,while also takinga shareof themarket.37 In1998,KP&TCwas separated intoTelkomKenya,KenyaPost,andtheCommunicationsCommissionofKenyaorCCK.38

The roleof theCCK,as the successor institution toKenya’smonopoly telecomcompany, is tomanage, license, and regulate private ICT industries in the country. It is the domestic institutionaladvocateleveragingsolutionsforsomeofthenation’sproblemsregardingruralpoverty,education,and employment. Private investment focuses on the large population centers, mostly along thecorridor between Nairobi and Mombasa. The CCK is, in theory, devoted to providing universalaccesstotheinternetwithprojectssuchasschool-basedandcommunity-basedICTcentersthatwillpenetrateruralareasinKenya.39

AsTelkomKenyaandKP&TCwereprivatized,themajorglobaltelecomplayers,someofthemwithancestorsfromtheearlydaysoftelecommunications,becameshareholders.Commercialbrandsbecame the face of the former incumbents, although public interests still maintained shares andinfluence.AmongthemobiletelephoneoperatorsthatobtainedlicenseswereSafaricom,ZainKenya(formerlyCeltel,andnowAirtel),andEconetWireless.Since2008,FranceTélécomhasacquired51percentofTelkomKenya,withthebrandnameOrange.40Launchedin1993,Safaricomistheprivatecorporation that began as KP&TC. The government of Kenya previously held a majority of theshares, but Vodafone, the British-based global telecom, now owns a controlling stake in thecompany.41

Liberalization policies operating under the ethos of market freedom and deregulation arethemselvesformsofmarketmanipulationandregulation.Ironically,asthestate-runcommunicationmonopolies liberalized and shed state bureaucracy, they found themselves at the same table asanother,nowglobal, bureaucracy.TheUNandagencies like the ITU, Intelsat, and theWorldBankhave been long-standing partners in the various attempts to deliver cable to the region, and theirregulatoryframeworksaddlayersofnon-stategovernanceintotheloanconditions.42

Masaitribesmanwithcellphone,Kenya

Infrastructure entrepreneurs also often find that the incumbent infrastructure network chargedwithopening, regulating,andstimulating themarkethas insufficientmeans todoso.Anenormousgap remains between the economies of developed nations and those of Sub-Saharan countries,prompting theWorldBank to concede that: “Themodelofmarket liberalization and regulationofaccess to the incumbent’s network—which has been successful in the European Union, NorthAmerica,andincreasinglyinAsiaandLatinAmerica—isnotdirectlyrelevantintheregionofSub-SaharanAfrica.”43

Yet another strain of liberalism is present inKenya—amixture of economic liberalism and aliberalismassociatedwiththeplatformsofexchangemadepossiblebynewtechnologies.Incountrieslike Kenya the low prices and large customer volumes of mobile telephony align with the new“trickle-up”businessandmanagementmodelsemergingfrompopulouscountriesintheglobalsouth.Theideaistosellalimitedinexpensiveserviceorproductlikethecellphonetoalargenumberofpeople.CoimbatoreKrishnaraoPrahalad,authorofTheFortuneat theBottomof thePyramid, andVijayGovindarajan, author of10Rules for Strategic Innovators, are among the new gurus in thisfield. Companies like Tata,MTN, Safaricom, andHuawei have also been bypassing theirWesterncounterpartswiththesenewapproaches.44InKenya,cellphonesarepricedsolowthateveryonehasone.Evenbeforethecountrywasfloodedwithbroadbandcapacity,thecellphoneprovidedaccesstothewiderworldandfreedomfromconstraintsofgeographyandtime.Now,inlinewiththeseliberalsentiments,accesstotextingandtheinternetisalsoassociatedwiththefreesharingofinformationinnon-market production and social networking.45 The cell phone and access to information areregardedasindividualrightsorliberties.

BroadbandIsaGame

Our first two years were really a study in project management. How do you implement a project that goes through thirteendifferentnationalwaters,twenty-threedifferentjurisdictions?—BrianHerlihy,PresidentofSeacom46

Confounding themasternarratives that tend toorganizehistoriesand theoriesofglobalism,Arjun

Appaduraiofferedthemodelof“scapes.”Storiesofglobalizationdonotnecessarilyfollowfamiliarnarrativearcs.Theyarelumpy,unfolding,variegatedfieldsofinterplay—ethnoscapes,mediascapes,technoscapes, financescapes, and ideoscapes.47 With this framework, Kenya presents thequintessential“technoscape.”“CableWars”wasatypicalnewspaperheadlinethatappearedduringtheperiodwhenthesubmarinecableswerelandinginEastAfrica,andyetthistechnologicaltheaterwasnot really like a military theater. Nor did the story reflect the default theories of freemarketliberalization and competition as espoused by many. Instead, like the reciprocal dispositions thatBateson describes, both public and private players alternated between competitive and cooperativestances in order to leverage goals that benefited all parties—a complex poker game inwhich, onoccasion,playersstrategicallyallowedotherplayerstowin.

EASSyFrom2003to2006, theEASSyprojectwasstill theonlyprospectforEastAfricancable.TheNewPartnership forAfrica’sDevelopment (NEPAD)helped togetWorldBank funding forEASSyanddevelopedaprotocoltoensurethatitwouldbeanopen-accesssystem.48UnlikethecablesituationinWest Africa, new telecoms entering the system would not be charged more than the originalmembers,andcountrieswithaccesstotheseawouldnotholdlandlockedcountrieshostage.Byfall2006,NEPADhadmanagedtosignuponlynineofthetwenty-sixcountrieswithapotentialstakeinEASSy.ItwasneverthelessabletoratifytheagreementandgainWorldBankfundingin2007whilestillaffiliatedwiththeoriginalbusinessmenwhoformedthespecial-purposevehicleoverseeingtheproject.

In addition to its World Bank financing, EASSy is 90 percent African owned, with a raft ofinvestorsincludingmanyoftheparastatetelecomsaswellasthoseinvestorsandstakeholdersdrawntoAfricaintheprocessofliberalization,includingISPs,cellularproviders,andbrokersofterrestrialfiber.49Alcatel-Lucentwasawardedthesupplycontract,and,atthetime,itwashopedthatthecablewouldbeoperationalbymid-to-late2009.

TEAMSWhile not officially withdrawn from the NEPAD protocol, by spring 2006 Kenya had raised thestrongestobjectionsaboutEASSy.50Thecabledelays, the resultof efforts to ensurea freemarketwithopenaccess,wereironicallyhavingthesameeffectashadtheverymonopoliesthatNEPADandothersweretryingtoguardagainst.Dr.BitangeNdemo,Kenya’sPermanentSecretaryintheMinistryforInformationandCommunications,positionedKenyatoremainasupporterofEASSy,buthealsopursuedalternativestoaddresstheurgencyofthesituationandcreatehealthycompetitioninthecablegame.In2006,theCCKproposedTEAMS,orTheEastAfricanMarineSystem—acablethatwouldtravel from Mombasa to Fujairah in the UAE at a cost of about $100 million (less than theapproximately$250million forEASSy).Etisalat, theUAE telecom,wouldown15percent, and65percent would be shared evenly between Telkom Kenya and Safaricom, two of the three entitiescreated through liberalization. The remaining 20 percent would be available to local broadbandprovidersandothers.ByOctober2007,Alcatel-LucentwasawardedthesupplycontractforTEAMSaswell.ThecablewasduetobethefirsttolandinMombasain2009,andwasprojectedtoreducethepriceforconnectivitybyover80percent.51

SubmarinecablesservingSub-SaharanAfrica,2009

Data:SteveSong,Drawings:SwarnabhGhoshSubmarinecablesservingAfrica,2013

SeacomAnotherprojectintroducedduringtheconfusionoverEASSywastheSeacomcable,constructionofwhichbegan in2007withprivate funding.Seacomwasdesigned to connectSouth andEastAfricadirectly to Marseilles and Mumbai. A Mauritian company, it is 75 percent African owned. Otherinvestors included the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development and Herakles Telecom, a UScompany based in NewYork City. Seacom claimed that the project would be the first to provideconnectivitywhilemeetingNEPAD’s open access requirements, and it hoped to offer oneMbps at$100–$170permonth.52

LandingsBetweenthesummerof2009andthesummerof2010,allthreesubmarinecableslandedinKenyaand

East Africa.While the negotiations for the landings were highly technical, and the advances theymade possible were quite sophisticated, in each case the cable itself was almost alarmingly smallrelativetotheassociatedaspirations:alineonlyafewinchesindiameterthatwaspulledashoreandattached toa substation.The landings forbothSeacomandEASSyweredelayedbypiracy,addingmillionstotheircost.53Eventually,NEPADitselfpulledoutoftheEASSyprojectandstarteditsownrivalcableproject.54Anumberofadditionalcablesintheregionhavenowlandedorarescheduledtolandontheheelsofthesethreelandings.55Since2003,whenEASSywasfirstdiscussed,severalmoresubmarine cable projects—over ten by some counts—are in the works for the entire continent ofAfrica.56Manyremainfluid,initiallyannouncedasindependentsonlytomergewitheachotherlater,renamingthemselvesordisappearingaltogetherasotherprojectsrender themobsolete in termsofcoverageorcapacity.

Terrestrialcable:KDNWhileall thecableoperatorswere racing toget into thewater,Kenya’smostprominent terrestrialbroadbandprovider,KenyaDataNetworksorKDN(recentlyrenamedLiquidTelecomKenya),hadbecomeanespeciallyagilepartnerofthegovernmentonlybecauseithadalsobeentheircompetitor.KDN invested in Kenya at the time of liberalization and began building a terrestrial fiber-opticnetworkyears in advanceof the submarine cable landings.The companyplanned to provide fixedbroadband access to large institutions, banks, universities, andmultinational corporations, and sellbandwidthtoISPsfortheirownresale.Theinitialrouteoftheterrestrialcablewasrelativelyeasytodetermine in relation to return on investment. It connected the major population centers, againfollowing the line of the old IBEAC railway and running alongside the roads betweenMombasa,Nairobi, andKisumu. ByDecember 2007, the French company Sagem, together with Huawei andZTN,hadcontractedtolaythecable.57

KDN(LiquidTelecomKenya)TerrestrialFiberNetwork

Drawings:SwarnabhGhosh

NationalOpticalFiberBackboneInfrastructure(NOFBI)

Originally accused of attempting to secure a terrestrial monopoly at odds with the nationalinterest,KDNhasalsonegotiatedalongsidetheKenyangovernment.Thecompanyowns10percentof theTEAMScable, and raised essential questions about theproject and its onward capacity—theprice Fujairah would charge to connect to the rest of the world.58 KDN’s occasional pushback,togetherwiththeirinvestment,gavethegovernmentextrapowerattheglobalbargainingtable.

In addition to the commercial backbone, through the CCK, the country has plans for a largerbranching network that would extend to remote villages and regions of the country to foster e-governance, health care, and distance learning.59 Illustrating again a form of cooperation betweencompetitors, thespeedwithwhichKDNwasable to implement thefirst fibercorridor in theirplanprovidedanextraincentivefortheCCKtoimplementparallelnetworks.AsCCKhasannounceditsplansfora regional fibernetwork thatwill reachruralareas (theNationalOpticalFibreBackboneInfrastructure or NOFBI), KDN has announced similar plans, raising its game as a friendlycompetitorandpotentiallyplacingacheckonbureaucraticdelays.60

BroadbandpricingOnce the threecableshad landed inKenya, the complex recalibrationofbandwidthcost and speedbegan. As speeds increased, and demand for satellite broadband fell off sharply, the prices forbroadbanddidnotmiraculouslydrop.Insteadofthepredicted50to90percentreductions,somecablecompaniesweresuggestingthatthedropwouldbecloserto20or30percent,withpricessometimesstillremaining300timeswhatwereinEurope.InAugust2009,afterSeacomhadgoneonlineandTEAMSwas still testing,KDN shrewdly dropped its price by 90 percent, calculating that the firstcompanytoofferlowerpriceshadabetterchanceatgainingalargermarketshare.61

YetISPsdownthelineencounteredotherproblems.Forinstance,SafaricominvestedmillionsinbothTEAMSandSeacom,investmentswhichitclaimeditmustfirstrecoupbeforeloweringprices.Also,until terrestrialcablecouldbelaidtohardwireremotevillages,thesatelliteservicehadtoberetained.62 Some ISPs were still paying long-term contracts at a different rate.63 Some had alsoagreedtobuycapacitybeforehavingacquiredasufficientshareofthemarkettobeabletouseit.64

Piracy,spam,corruption,andvandalismalsotriggeredextrasecuritycosts.65Therewereevenclaimsoftoomuchcompetition,aswellasinsufficientdemandduetopoverty,illiteracy,andproblemswiththeelectricalgrid.66Predictably,telecombusinessrepresentativescalledforbiggertaxincentivesandmore public funding for infrastructure to bring down their costs, citing the need formuch largerinvestmentsindevelopingcountries.67

Whileslowtothaw,priceshaveneverthelessbeendriftingdownwardasspeedsincrease,andcellphonesubscriptionscontinuetorisedramatically.Safaricominitiallyestimatedthattheymighthave3millionsubscribersby2020,buttheyalreadyhad14millionby2009,over17millionby2011,andover20millionby2013.ZainandOrangebothachievedagrowthrateofover50percentin2011.68In 2013, the total number of cell phone subscriptions in Kenya was over 31 million, or over 76percent of the population.69 While there are ephemeral barriers related to prices and speeds, themajorglobal telecoms likeHuawei,Nokia,Samsung,Google, andRIMarecompeting toget theirhandsetsortabletsintothehandsofareadymarket.70In2011,theEconomistnotedthat“Allmannerof services, from independent television stations to one of the region’s biggest call-centres, areflourishing”asaresultofincreasedbroadbandcapacity.71

BroadbandMakesanInternetofThings

Adevicethatwasayuppietoynotsolongagohasnowbecomeapotentforceforeconomicdevelopmentintheworld’spoorestcountries.—Economist,May29,2008

In theITU’s2010BroadbandCommissionforDigitalDevelopment,prescientglobalentrepreneurspredictedthattheincreasingnumbersofcellphonesincountrieslikeKenyawouldcreatean“internetofthings.”72Thephraseisusuallyusedtodescribeaworldembeddedwithdigitaldevices—notonlymobile phones but also smart vehicles, RFID tags, transit systems, sensors, or smart architecturalelements.Havingescapedtheboxofthecomputer,thisdistributedsetof“circuits”interfaceswiththeinternetbutalsocreatesitsownnetworkofintelligence.

Celltower,Kenya

Kenya’s broadband space is indeed an “internet of things”—aworldwhere the cell phone is achip, sensor, switch, circuit, or processor that has escaped the computer to become embedded inphysicalspace.Thephone,adevicethatwithoutchangingitsshapecanbecome,amongotherthings,acomputer,aflashlight,aclock,acamera,oramusicalinstrument,isseenasanessentialpieceofequipmentforboththeyoungprofessionalandthefarmer.Whetherornotphonesareabletoaccesstheinternet,textmessaginggeneratesaninformationnetworkparalleltotheinternetand,withtheaidofapps,thatnetworksometimesintersectswithanddrawsoninternetresources.Thephonecallandhandset are often secondary to the content platforms the device is able to carry. Just as with theinternet, themore cell phone users, themore robust is the network of information.The trickle-upparadigmnotonlyestablishesalargecustomerbasebutalsousesthecellphoneasamultiplierinanynumberofnewbusinessschemes.

For instance, with Safaricom’s M-PESA, a platform developed in Kenya, the mobile phonebecameaglobalbankingtool.Allaroundtheworld,M-PESAuserscansendremittanceshome,paybills,orrepayloansontheirmobilephones.73Perhapsbecause it is lessexpensive touseM-PESAthana formalor informalbank inKenya,andbecausemostKenyancitizensdonothaveaccess tobanks, Safaricom quickly reached nearly a quarter of the country’s population, capturing a largershareofthebankingbusinessthananyotherfinancialinstitutioninKenya,andmakingthecompanymillionsofdollarsinprofit.74

M-PESA is not just for the poor paying offmicrofinance loans; it is also being used in urbanareasasanalternativetotraditionalbanking.LongbeforetherestoftheworldwasusingaplatformlikeGoogleWallet,Kenyanswere paying for taxis and other serviceswith their cell phones.75 In2009, Safaricom transferred funds worth 10 percent of the country’s GDP.76 Brian Herlihy, thepresidentofSeacom, forecasts that the communicationbusinesswill begin to rely less and lessondelivering access and more and more on partnerships that combine infrastructural assets withcontent.77

M-PESA is only one ofmany new business ventures related tomobile telephony.78 Google isdevelopingadditionalmobilephoneservicesforAfricasuchasGoogleSMS,incollaborationwiththe carrierMTN inUganda and theGrameen Foundation.Google Trader and Farmer ’s Friend inUganda let farmers accessmarket information withoutmaking a long journey. Entrepreneurs cancommunicatewith suppliers and coordinate supply chainsmore efficiently.HIV andAIDSpatientscanreceivetextmessagereminderstotakemedication.Tofightcounterfeitdrugdistribution,anothermobileserviceallowsuserstocheckwhetherornotadrugisgenuinebytextingacodeprintedonthedrugpackaging.Esoko,amobilestockmarketofsortsfoundedinGhana,allowsusersfromfifteenAfricancountries tosharemarketdataofallkinds.Mobile tradingplatforms likeKenyaBUZZsellticketsforsportsandothereventsoverthephone.79Safaricom’siCowhelpsdairyfarmerstracktheircowswhileprovidingbestpracticeadviceonhowtoimprovemilkyield.80

Thetechnologyitselfprovidesjobopportunitiesforthoseentrepreneurssellingaccesstoservicesinremotevillagesorsellingphonecards.TheDabbanetworkinSouthAfricabuyswirelesscapacityfromcarriersthatcontinuetochargelargeconnectivityfees,andthenresellsittolocalnetworksatamoreaffordablerate.Dabbahasdevelopeditsbusinessmodelasonethatcanbeemulatedbyothermicro-operators.81

WiththeUshahidiplatform,imagingcapabilitytogetherwithcrowd-sourcingsoftwareturnedthemobile phone into an instrument of political oversight. Ushahidi, which means “testimony” or“witness” in Swahili, was launched in Kenya after the 2008 elections to allow observers to mapevidenceofviolenceordeliverassistanceusingGPS-enabledphones.HavingreceiveditsfirsttrialinKenya, Ushahidi is now an open-source platform run as a non-profit, and has been used to track

violence in Gaza, monitor elections in India, gather information about wildlife in Kenya, helporganizethecleanupoftheDeepwaterHorizonoilspill,andassistintheaftermathoftheearthquakeinHaiti.82

Another crowd-sourcing platform, also first tested in Kenya, uses a similar technologicalapparatus but often toward very different ends. While in Kenya teaching classes in softwaredevelopment formobile phones,NathanEagle, a data analyst and software developer,was able todevelop platforms for information gathering that compensated userswith airtime in exchange fordata. A nurse could text information about blood supplies. AMasai herdsman could help developspeech-recognition software forhisdialect.Ahomemaker could transcribeaudio into text.Eagle’splatform, launched in 2009 and originally named txteagle, was characterized as a tool ofempowermentandnewsourceof income.“What,”heasked,“couldwedowith theworld’s largestworkforce?”83

Theplatform,renamedJana(meaning“people”inSanskrit),nowhastheabilitytocommunicatewith and “incentivize” around3.5billion cell phoneusers—ormore thanhalf of thepeople in theworld.Janagainsaccesstothismassivepopulationthroughserviceprovidersseekingrevenuesfromdatacollection.ItsclientsincludetheUN,hopingtogatherinformationmoreefficientlyandcheaplythanitcouldwithface-to-facesurveys,butalsomanymultinationals(e.g.,Unilever,Ponds,Wrangler,Danone) planning tomarket a product or service to populous emergingmarkets in, for instance,China,SouthAmerica,orAfrica.Suchcompaniesneedtobuild“relationshipswiththeworld’s‘nextbillion’ consumers”—the emerging middle class that will no longer be located in developedcountries.84

The adoption of the cell phone and its social media platforms brings with it both broadopportunitiesandparticulardangers.The staggeringgrowthofmobile telephony in thebroadbandlandscapedelivers information tomany,but it also returns information to thecellphoneoperatorswhosuddenlyhavedatafrom,anddirectaccessto,ahugepopulationofconsumersandinformants.While billed as away to reverse the exploitative use of personal data byproviding compensation,Janaisneverthelessaninstantconduitformarketcontact,onethatraisesimmediatequestionsabouthowaccesswillbedeployedandcompensationcalibrated.85Janamayoffercompensationaswellascommunication,butitmayalsohaveunintendedconsequences—especiallyasbillionsofsubscribersin thedevelopingworldare increasinglyused inmarket research.Aplatformcelebrating itsbroadreach,openaccess,andfreecirculationofinformationwithinaninternetofthingsmayalsobecomeanetworkconcentratingauthorityinanorganizationwithahighlycentralizeddisposition.

BroadbandSpaceIsInformation

The “internet of things” relies on telecommunications devices to convey information, but inbroadband urbanism, information is also immanent in the disposition of the space itself with orwithout telecommunication.Space ismuchmore than justasourceoffriction indiscussionsof the“lastmile.”Broadbandnetworkspresentcompounddispositions—thelineartopologiesofterrestrialfiber-opticcableburiedintheground,theatomizedairbornetopologyofmobiletelephony,andtheswitches between the two. Each has the power to territorialize, alter settlement patterns, andredistribute resources. Broadband and ICT infrastructure are socio-technical networks. Just as thetechnology prompts many new uses and social structures, the social structures and physicalorganizationsofurbanspaceinturninfluencethedevelopmentofthetechnology.

While slower, cheaper mobile internet access in Kenya has begun to grow, the high-endbroadband onwhich the country is staking its economic viability has not yet found a comparable

growthmarket. It is cheaper for ISPs to providewireless broadband formobile rather than fixeddevices because mobile allows them to more quickly calibrate capacity and investment to marketneeds.86Yetmobilephoneentrepreneurialismsometimesraisesquestionsaboutitsrealbeneficiariesanddrawsattentionawayfromthelargerhealth,education,andemploymentissuesthatrelyonhigh-capacity fixed broadband. The proportion of people accessing the internet in Kenya in 2013 wasestimatedtobeabout47percent,andwhilethereareover11millionmobileinternetsubscriptions,onlyabout62,000subscriptionswereusinghighspeedfixedlinks.87

Despite the heavy promotion of open, universal access, the default spatial vessel for fixedpremium broadband is the enclave—a switch in the broadband network that is the equivalent of aclosedloop.ISPslayingundergroundcablefavorexistinglinearinfrastructurelikehighwayandraillines.Forresidentialservices,manylocateredundantlyinthelesspopulouswealthyareasofWesternNairobilikeKarenjustnorthofthesuperdenseKiberaslum.88Theypreferanurbanpatternofgatedcommunitiesthatprovidesecurityandsimplifythelayingofterrestriallines.89

TheKenyangovernmentanditscollaboratorsareevenpromotingthedefaultzoneformulaasadevelopmentgoal.In2008,intheaftermathoftheviolentelectionsofthepreviousyear,thecoalitiongovernmentofPresidentMwaiKibakiandPrimeMinisterRailaOdinga introducedVision2030,aplanfordevelopingKenyaintoa“middleincomeeconomy.”90Theplanremainsineffectunderthecurrent president, Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo Kenyatta. With its upbeat projections andorganizational diagrams, Vision 2030 promises to address and exceed the UN’s MillenniumDevelopmentGoalswithabroad spectrumofchanges to infrastructure, security,health, education,and employment. The program also hopes to grow business in tourism, agriculture, offshoreprocessing, and financial services. Crucial to all these plans is a fiber-optic network runningthroughout the country, serving transportation infrastructure, zone development, and “digitalvillages”inremoteareas.91

Aspartoftheplan,theAthiRiverEPZisslatedforupgrade,asistheJomoKenyattaAirportandthe Mombasa port.92 Athi River was the first export processing zone created after an ExportDevelopmentProgramwasintroducedin1990,andithasbeenstruggling.93Forinstance,mostoftheinexpensive textiles in Kenya are made in China. In one Athi River factory, Kenyan cotton isprocessedintothread,shippedtoChina,andthenreturnedasclothtoagarmentfactorynextdoortothe first. Kenyan businesses thus forfeit a large slice of the profit from the blue jeans that areeventuallymanufactured.94Thezoneisaglobalhabitthatishardtobreak,andKenya’szoneshavebeenwaitingforthebroadbandcapacitythatwillmakethemviablejobcreatorsintheglobalnetworkofexportprocessing.

KellerEasterling

AthiRiverEPZ,2007

Vision2030alsocallsfornewzone-stylecitieslikeKonzaTechnologyCity,plannedasa5,000acre incubator forKenya’s role as “silicon savannah.”Dr. Ndemo is promoting and coordinatinginvestment for Konza Technology City and its projected 200,000 new jobs. As announced at aninvestor ’sconferenceinAugustof2012,thecity“offersallthebenefitsofagreenfield,‘cleansheet’site [that] isnevertheless rightat thecentreof things:60kmfrom theheartofNairobi;50kmfromJomoKenyatta internationalairport;500kmfromMombasaand itsports; the railwaywithin4km.”ThestrainofzoneformulasthathasfinallyarrivedinKenyaandinformsKonzaTechnologyCityatleast includes not only civic and cultural functions but also some intelligent approaches tolandscaping.Theenclave’scentralparkand10kmsurroundingbufferzonearedesigned tocontroldevelopment and preservewilderness. The rest of the promotional literature is, however, familiar.TheKonzamasterplan“isbasedonsuccessful‘newtown’projectsaroundtheworld—puttogetherbyaninternationalteamofexperts.Itisamodelinlinewithbestpracticefromcountriesallovertheworld to ensure global competitiveness.” Near Konza, two more Dubai-style cities have beenproposed—MachakosNewCityandtheKenya-ChinaEconomicZone.95

Themost startling political, economic, and infrastructural proposal inVision 2030 is one thatwould create an entirely new transportation corridor—adouble of theMombasa–Nairobi corridorfromthecoastalcityofLamu, througheasternKenya, toJuba inSouthernSudan.TheLamuPort–SouthernSudan–EthiopiaTransportCorridor(LAPSSET),wouldbeginwithanewdeep-waterportinLamu.Despitedredging,theportofMombasaisstillnotdeepenoughtohandlethelargePanamaxcontainer ships. The corridor, a bundle of superhighway, oil pipeline, rail, electrical, and fiberinfrastructurewilltraveltoIsiolo,whichwillbecomeanewtouristcenter.AbranchtravelingtowardMoyaleontheKenya–EthiopiaborderwilleventuallyconnectwithAddisAbabaandDjibouti.Lamu,aWorldHeritage site that preserves an ancient and delicate Swahili settlement,would also see thedevelopmentofanoilrefinery,aninternationalairport,andatouristcity.JapanPortConsultants—afirmcapableofdeliveringtheglobalstandardintwenty-first-centuryportandzoneinfrastructure—washiredin2010tobegincarryingouttheplan.96

Despiteprogressive talk about openness, newbusiness, andpolitical brotherhood,LAPSSET is

perhaps laced with other dispositions: particularly the isomorphism of the zone enclave and thebinary political aggression between Northern and Southern Sudan. While the plan rescues SouthSudanfromitslandlockedpositionadjacenttoahostileneighbor,itnonethelessbecomesreliantonthesuccessofthenewcountryasanindependentstate.Withsignificantlysuperiorinfrastructureandpowerful global partners, the arrangement may encourage a reciprocal, cooperative dispositionbetween all of the players. But it may also be a point of contention, irritating those culturaldifferences between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya that were previously buffered by largelyundeveloped areas. Kenya risks becoming embroiled in the Sudanese conflict—another Africancountrygrippedbyethnicconflictandoilwars.

Although received urban formulas related to zones and heavy resource extraction currentlyprevail—encouragedbypoliticians,globalconsultancies,andinternationalcontractorsembeddedinthe bureaucracies of extrastatecraft—Kenya is nevertheless poised to harness communicationtechnologiesinawaythatmayshiftexpectationsabouttheneedforroads,zones,andhighways.Thecoexistenceof fixed linearbroadbandanda largepopulationofmobilephonesshould inspirenewurban experiments from spatial entrepreneurs that may be as consequential as those of the newtelecomentrepreneurs.

BroadbandIsICT4D

In the absence of more sophisticated innovations from spatial practitioners, economists andinformatics specialists are shaping the experiments in broadband development. A number of newbranchesofresearchinvolvinginformation/communicationtechnologyanddevelopmenthavebeenroughlyassembledundertherubricof“ICT4D,”orICTfordevelopment.TheWorldBankandtheITUaswellasprivateconsultanciescontinuetodevelopincreasinglysophisticatedeconometricsthatappearintheannualreportsoftheCCK.97TheWorldBankhasresearchedlinksbetweenbroadbandpenetration and GDP, as well as correlations between broadband and gender, education, andgovernance.98McKinseyhasgathereddataaboutAfricaneconomiesanddevelopedtoolssuchastheLRI or “Location Readiness Index” in an attempt to shape them as attractive eligible objects forforeigninvestment.99TheconsultancyhasalsodevelopedtheoriesandmetricsforwhatitcallsITES—“information technologyenterprise solutions”—theentrepreneurialuseof IT in so-called“morethanmobile”or“morethanvoice”uses.100

Richard Heeks, director of the Centre of Development Informatics at the University ofManchester, is an expert in development,working between economics, the social sciences, and ITtechnologies.Heisamongthosescientistswhohavesuggestedthateconometricindicatorsaloneareinsufficientinassessingpolicy.Hearguesthatitisimportanttolookateconomic,socio-cultural,andlegalramificationsaswellas“winnersandlosers”intheequationtohavearealsenseofeconomicimpact.101 When treated as a “silver bullet,” ICT sometimes does not deliver on its projectedpromises.102 Increasingly called into question are metrics that fail to sufficiently account forcomplexityorcontextintheireconomicpredictions.Inresponsetothefailureofseveraltheoriesontheground,Heekshasfounditfruitfultoconsideractor-networkmodelssuchasthosetheorizedbyBrunoLatour.103Heeksspeculatesthatthepowerfuldriversof“Development2.0”willnotbeutopianprescriptionsbutprocessesthatwillhavetobecontinuallyreevaluated,andhecatalogsanumberofqualitativemarkers of ICT performance that are already in place as potential building blocks. Heclaimsthattechnologiesaremostsuccessfulwhen,likeGoogleTrader,theymanageto“connecttheexcluded”orremovethemiddleman.ICTalsobecomesaplatformfor“digitalproduction”insites

thatcompensateinformationgatheringwithphonetime.Theimprovisationaluseofmediaisakindof“digital innovation”(e.g.,usingthebeepsorringsofcellphonesasfreecodedmessaging).Notonly crowd-sourcing but also “crowd-voicing” may provide collective power in the contexts ofgovernment or themarket.And a “social enterprise” business that links ITwith social or culturalconcernsisbeginningtoemergetocoordinateallofthesephenomena.104

JustasHeekspositions informatics inamorecomplextestbed, theeconomistsAbhijitVinayakBanerjeeandEstherDuflo,intheirstudiesofpovertyandaidincountrieslikeKenya,arefindingnewways to test the presumptions of economic theory. Observing that aid is often not effective inreducingpoverty,theydecidedto“stepoutoftheofficeandlookmorecarefullyattheworld.”Usingrandomizedtrialslikethoseemployedinmedicaltesting,theyhavedevisedanumberofmorefinelygrainedteststoidentifypivotalvariables.Aremosquitonetsmoreeffectiveifsoldorifgivenaway?What factors related todistance, timing,orcompensationmosteffectivelyencouragevaccinations?Underwhat conditions is the use of fertilizermost successful and economically sustaining?Whilesuch questions have often been answered in terms of broad economic theory or ideologicalpreference,BanerjeeandDuflowantbetterdata,andtheywanttoredefinewhatconstitutesdata.Theyfind quantification techniques more productive when their projects surround a set of small butconsequentialchoicesthattheirsubjectsmustmakeinaspecificcontext.105

Designingactiveformsforbroadbandspaceisnotamatterofdata-gatheringorarrivingat thecorrectanswer,butthespatialcounterpartstotheseexperimentsininformaticsandeconomicsmightidentifyspatialvariablesandrelationships thatenhancebothfixedandmobilebroadbandnetworks.Does it make a difference if users can access fixed broadband by foot, bicycle, car, or publictransport? Is the urban composition of assets—the topology or urbanwiring—as important as thearrangement of the technological network itself? What urban arrangements will best leverageresources from all the non-state players—from global telecoms to NGOs and IGOs—involved inKenya’s broadband technoscape?These spatial variablesmight, in turn, becomepart of innovativestructuresinfinanceandinformatics.

BroadbandSpaceIsInterplay

Designerscanoverwritethedefaultspatialsoftwarethatiscurrentlyorganizingbroadbandurbanism.Whenmaster plans and formulas like zones or highways becomemere containers for the currentcrop of spatial products they may be as bankrupt as a failed economic theory. Joining others inquestioningdisciplinaryassumptions,broadbandurbanistsmightofferanalternativeorganofdesign—not an object form like a master plan, but an active form or an interplay of spatial variables.Savannah established not a master plan but a set of counterbalancing interdependencies. Spatialvariables were linked in ratios. Public space was in a ratio with private space, and each wardgenerated a green space as well as an agricultural space. Broadband space can similarly beredesignedasakindofsoftwareoramachineofinterdependencies.

While inSavannah the intentwas to control speculation, for broadbandurbanism the object ofinterplay is to maximize access to information—the information carried in telecommunicationdevicesaswellasthatcarriedinthephysicalspacesofthecity.Anumberofmarkersoractiveformsmightbecomevariablesinthisinterplay.Aroad,village,factory,farm,market,school,orwildernessceasestobemerelyanobjectformwhenitistreatedasaninterdependentvariableinspatialsoftware.Themobilephoneisclearlyapowerfulmultiplierinshapingurbanmorphology.Importantswitcheslie at the interstices between linear and atomized topologies of the broadband and microwaveinfrastructure.Aswitchmightbean internet serviceprovider, anearth station,acell tower,orany

village,university,school,orbusinesswithafixedbroadbandconnection.Anyofthesecanfunctionasaremotecontrol.Aschool,oramarketisnownotjustasinglebuildingbutanetworkthatmighthaveglobalreach.

The simplezoneantidote thatmaps incentivesback into cities likeNairobiorMombasa isoneplace to start. Urban space is the extended medium of trickle-up economics. Messiness andmultiplicityindigitalcommunication,likecomplexityinurbanspace,makesmorerobustnetworks.Nothing about broadband technology demands enclaves, and the zone antidote replaces theisomorphicdispositionoftheexurbanenclavewithamoreresilient,heterogeneousurban“wiring.”Rather than stigmatizing the existing city, with its slums or other urban problems, a smarterentrepreneur might see in it powerful multipliers—decreased travel times for workers in denserpopulations, a crossroads of international business, and fertile ground for the innovativework ofuniversities.

AcitylikeNairobidemonstrateshowzoneincentivesinthecitycanbecomepartofaninterplaylike a switch or a governor. A simple but potentially powerful governor could link broadbandcapacityandpublictransportationasinterdependentvariables.Inlieuofinvestinginanewlymintedzoneenclave,investmentsinhigh-capacitybroadbandinNairobiinvitebusinessintothecity.Specialrevenuesfromtheuseofthatbroadband,whenlinkedtothefundingoftransportation,mightbegintohavemutuallybeneficialeffects.Nairobiissorelyinneedoftransit,andthattransitwouldalsomoreefficiently deliver labor to the new businesses that invest in it. In this new urban software, thecomponentsof the zonehavebeenproductivelyhacked—disassembled and recombined to create anewbit of codeor agenerative spatial engine.Notonly telecommunications technologiesbut alsospatialtechnologiesgenerateinformationthroughnewsoftwareofrelationships.

Outsidethecity,softwareforthe“digitalvillages”proposedinKenya’sVision2030mightofferanotherinterplaybetween,forinstance,broadbandcapacity,remoteeducationalortouristinstitutions,transportation networks, andwilderness. The urbanist’s newest challenge is to deliver world-classinfrastructure to villages with minimal disturbance to wilderness landscapes, animal habitats, andindigenouspopulations,allofwhichmaybevaluabletoremoteinstitutionsorbusinessesrelatedtoeducationortourism.Thevillage,ifservedwithfixedbroadband,coulddeliverthepremiumcapacitynecessarytosponsoraschool,aresearchstation,oratouristdestination,withremoteconnectionstouniversities and cities abroad. While access to the digital information available via broadband iscrucial, access to the information stored in the space of the village and the landscape is equallyimportant.Likeaswitchinthelargerbroadbandnetwork,spatialvariablesinthevillagecanformagovernorthatmodulatesaccesstoallkindsofinformation.

Thecounterbalancinglinkagebetweenfixedbroadbandandtransportationnetworksmayformacounterintuitivegovernor.Contrarytomanynotionsofprogress,someofwhichareespousedbytheLAPSSETproject,whendialingupbroadbandinthevillageitmaybebesttodialdownroads.Roadsare often considered essential for access to schools and other community provisions, and sincebroadbandisusuallylocatedalongtheirlength,roadsandbroadbandareoftenbundledtogether.Yetroadscanalsoreduceaccesstotheinformationstoredinurbanspace.Ifsizedtoaccommodatecarsandtrucks,theymayunnecessarilyinflatespacesandwalkingdistancesforavillagepopulationthattravels largely on foot or bicycle. A road can also reduce the information stored in wildernesslandscapes if, along its length, it attractsunplanneddevelopment that destroys forest or jungle andencroaches on animal habitats and indigenous territories. In certain contexts then, reducing roadcapacity can increase access to remote global educational resources, revenues, and personnel.Designing roads with landscape buffers discourages new roads, intersections, and potentiallydestructivedevelopments,andsincecable isusuallyburiednext to roads,buffersalsoaddanextradegree of security. Reducing roadway widths to privilege pedestrians and cyclists concentrates

development and shrinks travel distances. The information stored in urban space—the exchangeamongscholars, citizens, tourists, and theglobalassetsofvillageculturesand landscapes—is thenpotentiallyenriched.

Another kind of software for the digital village might consider interdependencies betweenagricultureormanufacturing and remoteglobalmarkets.The smartphonehas alreadychanged therelationship between farm andmarket, eliminating the need for travel until prices are sufficientlyattractive.Theinfrastructurefortheruralmarketmayalsonowbedirectedtowardsellingtoaglobalmarket, requiring access to airports or seaports rather than simply local or regional trucking.Replacingexpensivetruckingandhighwayswithairportandrailinfrastructuremayincreaseaccesstotheseportsandthemarketsbeyond.

Thecontentofthisspatialsoftware—whichcouldbelimitless—isperhapslessimportantthantheidea of interplay itself. Interplay encourages the politics of balance rather than control.Unlike thephasedmasterplanforafreezonefilledwithanynumberofdefaultorgenericamenitiesbelievedtoconformtoglobalexpectations,activeformsininterplaymightlinkevolvinglocalneedstospeciallytailored foreign investment. The econometric and informatic expertise that currently organizesinvestmentinfreezonesandhighwayprojectsmightdevelopinnovativebankingproductsaswellasmoreresilientinformationtechnologies.Thesemorefinelygrainedlevers,tiedtophysicalspaces,donot offer a single planimetric pattern but a weighted engine of development. They can modulaterather than control development in ways that can be visibly assessed. The resources—that bothforeigninvestmentandlocalplayersneed—canbebuiltintotheveryparticularpublicurbanspaceofthe cityor thevillage rather thana space cordonedoff solely forgeneric foreign investment.TheKenyan citizen’s access to information is then balanced against the world’s access to Kenya’sresources.

Kenya can be among those countries telling innovative new stories about emerging forms ofdevelopment. An interplay of spatial variables is a check on the rhetoric of liberalization andindividual liberty—one that shifts the story away from discussions of freedom to discussions ofobligation, cooperation, and interdependence. Recalling the political temperaments outlined byBateson,aspatialinterplaybrokersamorereciprocaldisposition—abackflowofinformationfrominstitutionshalfwayaroundtheworld.Ratherthantheboldnewskylineortheposter-tribesmanwithacellphone—imagesthatonlymeasurethepenetrationofmultinationalsorglobaltelecoms—Kenyamay display its own conquest of global territory in a network of commercial and educationalinstitutions.Itmaypresentimagesofitsownurbaninventionsassitesofmutuallybeneficialglobalexchange.Thelastgroupofcountriesintheworldtoreceivepremiuminternationalbroadbandcouldalsobethefirsttobenefitfromnewurbanmodelsbornintheirowncontext.

_______________1 RegionalCommunicationsInfrastructureProgram(RCIP)videos,atworldbank.org/rcip;“AddressingAfrica’s‘MissingLink,’at

http://web.worldbank.org.2 ITU,“WorldTelecommunications/ICTIndicatorsDatabase,17thEdition.”SeealsoTheLittleDataBookonInformationand

CommunicationTechnology(Washington,DC:WorldBank,2010).In2000therewere0.4cellphonesubscriptionsper100people.By2008thenumberhadrisento42.1.See“StatisticsQ12010–11,”atcck.go.ke.

3 TheWorldBankdefinesbroadbandas requiringspeedsofat least256kbps,while the ITUdefines it in termsofcapacity tocarryvoice,data,andvideo.SeeMarkD.J.Williams,“AdvancingtheDevelopmentofBackboneNetworkinSub-SaharanAfrica,”inWorld Bank, ed., Information and Communications for Development: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact (Washington, DC:WorldBank,2009).

4 Mohsen Khalil, Philippe Dongier, and Christine Zhen Wei Qiang, “Overview,” in World Bank, ed., Information andCommunicationsforDevelopment.

5 “UpwardlyMobile:Kenya’sTechnologyStart-upSceneIsAbouttoTakeOff,”Economist,August25,2012.

6 In his 1980 book, The Third Wave, Alvin Toffler was among those promoting satellites as a means by which developingcountriesmightleapfrogovertheinfrastructuralmistakesofthedevelopedcountrieswhilemaintainingtheirtiestoapastorallandscape.See Alvin Toffler, “Gandhi with Satellites,” in The Third Wave (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1980), 362. See alsoEasterling,EnduringInnocence,135–60.

7 PaulStarr,TheCreationoftheMedia:PoliticalOriginsofModernCommunications(NewYork:BasicBooks,2004)153–89.8 ArmandMattelart,TheInventionofCommunication(Minneapolis:UniversityofMinnesotaPress,1996),167.9 AntonA.Huurdeman,TheWorldwideHistoryofTelecommunications(JohnWiley&Sons,2003),91–145.10 See “Cable Timeline 1850–2012” at atlantic-cable.com; and Michael Tyler, Janice Hughes, and Helena Renfrew, “Kenya:

Facing theChallengesof anOpenEconomy,” inEliNoam, ed.,Telecommunications inAfrica (NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1999),81.Thesetwosourcesdisagreeontheyearofthecablelanding.AccordingtotheGlovertimeline,thelandingdateis1890,butaccording theauthors in theNoamvolume, the landingdate is1888.JohnPender’sEastern&SouthAfricanTelegraphCompanyhadbeenlayingcableinEastAfricasince1879.Huurdeman,TheWorldwideHistoryofTelecommunications,137.

11 Huurdeman,TheWorldwideHistoryofTelecommunications,217–21.12 By the conference of 1927, the ITU had become a parliament of eighty countries and sixty-four private companies. See

Huurdeman,TheWorldwideHistoryofTelecommunications,358–9.13 ITU,“GeneralTelephoneStatistics,1964,”atitu.int.14 SiemenswasoriginallySiemensandHalske,thenSiemensBrothers.15 WilfriedFeldenkirchen,Siemens,1918–1945(München:Piper,1995).16 Seealcatel-lucent.com.The companywas affiliatedwithWesternElectric andAT&T in theUnitedStates andLaCompagnie

Généraled’Electricité(CGE)inFrance.17 Tanzaniawas formed from themerger of Tanganyika andZanzibar in 1964.AfterKenyan independence in 1964, theBritish

CableandWirelessCompanycreatedaninterimjointventurewiththegovernmentcalledtheEastAfricanExternalTelecommunicationsCompany(EXTELCOMS).KP&TCeventuallyacquiredtheCableandWirelesssharesin1974withinacompanyrenamedKENEXTELwhichfullymergedwithKP&TCin1984.

18 Tyler, Hughes, and Renfrew, “Kenya: Facing the Challenges of an Open Economy,” 81–84; Huurdeman, The WorldwideHistoryofTelecommunications,567.

19 Tyleretal.,“Kenya:FacingtheChallengesofanOpenEconomy,”90.20 Seehuawei.comanden.zte.com.cn.21 “TheLongMarchoftheInvisibleMr.Ren,”Economist,June4,2011,80–1.22 “WorldBankHistoricalChronology:1960–1969,”athttp://web.worldbank.org.23 See“DataandStatistics:Kenya”atimf.org.24 AuthorinterviewwithDr.BitangeNdemo,August2007,Nairobi.Seealsomckinsey.com.25 Seeafrican-union.org.26 Seenepad.org.27 Sir Donald Maitland, The Missing Link: Report of the Independent Commission for World Wide Telecommunications

Development(Geneva:InternationalTelecommunicationsUnion,1984).28 Huurdeman,TheWorldwideHistoryofTelecommunications,551,529,540.29 Eli M. Noam, “Introduction,” in Noam, ed., Telecommunications in Africa, 3. In 2000 Sub-Saharan Africa did achieve a

teledensityof1,and theITUseta teledensitygoalof10for2010.SeeHuurdeman,TheWorldwideHistoryofTelecommunications,551,565,540.

30 “GreenLightforMajorUnderseaFibre-OpticCableSystemforAfrica,”UNChronicle35,no.3(1998).31 See“SAT-3-WASC-SAFE”atitu.int.TheSAT-2cablehadalreadyconnectedPortugalandSouthAfricasince1993.32 Samuel Dowuona, “Africa: Fibre Optic Capacity Could Be Underutilized Due to Poverty and Illiteracy,” Public Agenda,

September4,2009.33 Seee-cybercity.mu.34 “A2010LeadershipImperative:TheFutureBuiltonBroadband,”ITU,BroadbandCommissionforDigitalDevelopment,2010,

see “Reports and Documents” at broadbandcommission.org. The ITU had previously formed the Partnership forMeasuring ICT forDevelopment in 2004 to determine fifty indicators for ICT development. See Partnership onMeasuring ICT for Development, ITU,“CoreICTIndicators2010,”atitu.int.

35 The millennium development goals: 1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; 2) achieve universal primary education; 3)promotegenderequalityandempowerwomen;4) reducechildmortality;5) improvematernalhealth;6) combatHIV/AIDS,malaria,andotherdiseases;7)ensureenvironmentalstability;8)developaglobalpartnershipfordevelopment.

36 “A2010LeadershipImperative:TheFutureBuiltonBroadband,”55.37 RichardGerberandRobinBraun,NewConnections:TelecommunicationsinaChangingSouthAfrica(CapeTown:University

ofCapeTownPress,1998).38 TheKenyaCommunicationsAct, 1998, at cck.go.ke. See alsoHuurdeman,TheWorldwideHistory of Telecommunications,

548.39 IthasalsopartneredwiththeKenyaInstituteofEducationtosupportdigitallearninginsecondaryschools.40 Seeorange.co.ke.41 Seesafaricom.co.ke.42 Pierre Guislain, Connecting Sub-Saharan Africa: A World Bank Group Strategy for Information and Communication

TechnologySectorDevelopment,WorldBankWorkingPaper(Washington,DC:WorldBank,2005).43 Williams,“AdvancingtheDevelopmentofBackboneNetworkinSub-SaharanAfrica,”63;MarkD.J.Williams,Broadbandfor

Africa:DevelopingBackboneCommunicationsNetworks(Washington,DC:WorldBank,2010).

44 C.K.Prahalad,TheFortuneattheBottomofthePyramid(UpperSaddleRiver,NJ:WhartonSchoolPublishing,2005);VijayGovindarajanandChrisTrimble,10Rules forStrategic Innovators:From Idea toExecution (Boston,MA:HarvardBusinessSchoolPress,2005);“NewMastersofManagement:PervasiveInnovationAddsup toaNewManagementParadigm,”Economist,April15,2010.

45 Benkler, The Wealth of Networks, 7–16, 19–20, 278–85. See also The Invisible Hand podcast, episode 23, attheinvisiblehandpodcast.com;andtheCreativeCommonsorganizationathttp://creativecommons.org.

46 BrianHerlihyandWangJianzhouon“MobilityDrivingChange,”atTheGlobalForum2010,June26–28,CapeTown,SouthAfrica,availableonYouTube.

47 Arjun Appadurai,Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1996),33.

48 See africa-union.org. As the EASSy project was getting off the ground,African intergovernmental agencies also entered thegovernancepicture.Inorder tofundtheproject, the leadersofEASSyjoinedforceswith thenewlyformedNEPAD,which, likeotheragenciessuchastheAfricanDevelopmentBank,prioritizesinfrastructureprojects.

49 AuthorinterviewwithJohnSihra,July12,2007.50 “CountryHasNotPulledOutofEASSy,SaysGovernment,”AfricaNews,November1,2006.51 RebeccaWanjiku,“TeamsSubmarineCabletoLandFirstinEastAfrica,”52 Seeseacom.muandhttp://manypossibilities.net.53 TheTEAMScablelandedinMombasaonJune12,2009,butdidnotgoliveuntilthefollowingSeptember.Itwasstilltesting

whentheSeacomcablewentliveonJuly23,2009.TheEASSycablelandedonMarch22,2010,andwentliveonJuly16,2010.SeeKuiKinyanjui, “Eassy Fibre Cable Finally Set for Landing,”BusinessDaily, February 23, 2010. As the cables landed, the satellitebroadband business, despite recent large investments, would be increasingly confined to a smaller share of themarket. See RussellSouthwood,“SatellitetoFibre—Continent’sBigChangeIsReallyUnderWay,SaysNewReport,”atbalancingact-africa.com.

54 NEPADBroadbandInfrastructureNetworkorNBIN(laterUhurunet).Seehttp://mybroadband.co.za.55 TheprivatelyfundedMaINOnEservesWestAfricaandcameonlineinJulyof2010,linkingNigeriaandGhanatotheworld

viaPortugalandtheUK.GLO-1(Globalcom-1),sponsoredbytheNigeriantelecommunicationscompanyGlobalcom,alsocameonlinein2010and links sixteenWestAfricanCountrieswithPortugal,Spain,and theUK.LION,which linksMadagascarwithRéunionandMauritiusandisfundedbyFranceTélécom,OrangeMadagascar,andMauritiusTelecom,cameonlinethesameyear.ItwassoonjoinedbyLION2,linkingthesecountriestoMayotteandMombasaviaMadagascar.TheWestAfricanCableSystem(WACS),linkingtheentirewestern seaboard of Africa with London, came on line in 2012. It is funded by a large consortium of telecommunications playersincludingsomewithlonghistoriesincolonialcabling,likeCableandWirelessWorldwide,aswellassomeofthenewestmultinationalsfromthedevelopingworld, likeTataCommunications.TheAfricaCoast toEuropeCable (ACE),whichalsocameon line in2012, islargelyredundantwithWACSand is fundedbyanotherconsortiumof telecommunicationsplayers includingmanyof theWestAfricanFranceTélécomentitiessuchasOrangeMali,OrangeCameroon,andOrangeNiger.SAexcable,connectingSouthAmerica,Angola,and South Africa, is projected to be operational in the second quarter of 2014. See mainonecable.com; gloworld.com;http://lion.orange.com; eafricacommission.org; http://wacscable.com; ace-submarinecable.com; and “African Undersea Cables,” athttp://manypossibilities.net.

56 See“AfricanUnderseaCables,”athttp://manypossibilities.net.57 AuthorinterviewwithKaiWulff,August2007.Seekdn.co.ke.Seealso“KenyaDateNetworks,Africa,”atwimax-industry.com.58 See“AfricanUnderseaCables,”athttp://manypossibilities.net;ictvillage.com.SeealsoOkuttahMark,“KDNBeginsRolloutof

DigitalVillageinSlums,”BusinessDaily,July24,2008;andseealsokdn.co.ke.ASouthAfricancompany,Altech,boughta51percentstakeinKDNinMarch2008.KDNperhapsalsofindssomepublicrelationsprojectsgoodforbusinessaswellaspoliticalrelations.Incollaborationwith ictvillage.com, “a business lobby for ICT innovation,”KDNhas set up a digital village in theKorogocho slum inNairobi.Al-Taawon,ayouthorganizationinKorogocho,managesthenetwork,pursuingitsgoalofprovidinge-governance,education,accesstoemployment,andabaseforbusinessventures.Theprojectispartofalarger$2.5millionschemetocreateanumberofICTvillagesaroundthecountry.KDNhasalsosuppliedbroadbandtoKenya’sRedCrossSociety.

59 Seecck.go.ke.Theinitialplanwasfora4,300kilometernationalfiber-opticnetworkwiththeacronymFONN.60 On an even broader regional scale, theWorld Bank’s Africa Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP) will

provide“catalyticfunding”toorganizeandleverageprivatemoneyforICTdevelopmentinAfrica.ThefirstthreeEastAfricancountriestoentertheprogramwereKenya,Burundi,andMadagascar.Bytheendoftheprogram,itisexpectedthatallcapitalsandmajorcitiesinEast and Southern Africa will be linked to competitively priced high-bandwidth connectivity. RCIP has also developed a policysupportingclustersofgrowththatcrystallizearoundexistingresourcesandtalents,likeKenya’sflowerindustryintheRiftValley.See“AddressingAfrica’s‘MissingLink,’athttp://web.worldbank.org;andDouglasZhihuaZengandWorldBank,Knowledge,Technology,andCluster-BasedGrowthinAfrica(Washington,DC:WorldBank,2008).

61 KuiKinyanjui,“KDNDialupRatesSlashedasInternetPricingWarsIntensify,”BusinessDaily,August5,2009.Still,theISPswhoboughtservices fromKDN’sfiberbackbonedidnotdecreaseprices,claiming that theyneeded to recoup investmentor that theircontractswouldfirsthavetoexpirebeforetheycouldofferreductions.Theyalsoclaimedthatcablemaintenancewouldbecostly.

62 Ibid.63 Stanford’s PingER project tests transmission speeds on sites around the world. See “New E. Coast of Africa Fibre,” at

https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu; and Rachel Pollock, “Fiber Optics in Sub-Saharan Africa Improve Infrastructure,” atmediaglobal.org.

64 CatherineRiungu,“NoHopeofCheapInternetwithProvidersLockedinto25YearDeals,”TheEastAfrican,October5,2009.65 Thecableissometimesexcavatedbecauseitismistakenlyassumedtobecopperthatcanberesold.Othercasesofvandalism

aretheresultofdeliberatesabotageamongISPsfightingforfirstcontactwiththemarket.66 “OperatorsClaimTooMuchCompetitioninFibre,”MiddleEastandAfricaTelecommunicationsInsight46(2010);Dowuona,

“Africa:FibreOpticCapacityCouldBeUnderutilizedDuetoPovertyandIlliteracy.”67 Dr.Ndemohasbeenaleaderthroughout,agitatingagainstpricefixingineverypossiblepublicforum.AttheEastAfricanFiber

Summit, in December 2009, Ndemo noted that many internet service providers promised to reduce the price of one megabyte ofbandwidthfrom$4000–$6000to$600,butNdemohadwantedthepricereducedto$200.Heonceadvocatedthatdisruptingthecableshouldbepunishedwithalifesentence.SpeakingfortheEASSyproject,JohnSihraclaimedthattheshorter-termcontractswithEASSywouldbetherealstimulustocompetitionsincethetwenty-yearcontractswithTEAMSandSeacomwerehelpingtomaintainthestatusquo. See Ander Comstedt, “East African Fiber Optic Summit: Submarine Cables on the Beach, Now What?,” at aitecafrica.com;AbdirahmanO. Sheikh, “BuildingNetworks forLife,” at theEastAfricanFiber Summit,Nairobi, 2009; JonathanFildes, “BroadbandWorld: Connecting Africa,” at bbc.co.uk; and Kui Kinyanjui, “Eassy Fibre Link Brews Fresh Internet Price War,” Business Daily,December2,2009.

68 CCK,“QuarterlySectorStatisticsReport”(July2010–September2011).Safaricom,whichhasa22.5percentstakeinTEAMS,experienceda53percentgrowthinsubscribersin2009.SeeSafaricom,“AnnualReport,”2010andSafaricom,“AnnualReport”,2013.

69 ThepopulationofKenyaisapproximately40million.CCK,“QuarterlySectorStatisticsReport(July–September2013),”9–10,at cck.go.ke; Jenny C. Aker and Isaac M. Mbiti, “Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa,” Center for GlobalDevelopment,2010.Someusersmayhavemultiplesubscriptions,butsomephonesmayalsobeshared,so thenumberofpeoplewithaccesstocellphonesmaybemuchlargerthanthestudiesreflect.

70 “DigitalRevolution,”Economist,April9,2011.71 “RevvingUpthePace,”Economist,May21,2011,80–1.72 “A2010LeadershipImperative:TheFutureBuiltonBroadband,”55.73 ClaudiaMcKay andMark Pickens, “Branchless Banking PricingAnalysis,” Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)

2010.M-PESAisofferedbySafaricom(since2007)orZapontheZainnetwork.Zainoffersthecheapestoftheseservicesintheworld,andSafaricomisalsoamongtheleastexpensive.

74 Seemobilemoneyexchange.org; and“NotesonRegulationofBranchlessBanking inKenya,”CGAP,2007.Questions remainabouthowthecountryshouldregulatethisfinancialactivity.BecauseSafaricomdoesnotretaininterestfromfunds,itisnottechnicallyabanking business and cannot be regulated as such.Maximum account balances and transfers, togetherwith a fund held in trust, willhopefullyeitherpreventorcoverabusessuchasmoneylaundering.

75 NathanEagle,“TEDxBoulderColorado,November9,2010,”videoavailableonYouTube.76 AkerandMbiti,“MobilePhonesandEconomicDevelopmentinAfrica,”19,4.77 BrianHerlihy andWang Jianzhouon “MobilityDrivingChange” atTheGlobal Forum2010, available onYouTube;Author

InterviewBrianHerlihy,January16,2013.78 “NewMastersofManagement:PervasiveInnovationAddsUptoaNewManagementParadigm,”Economist,April15,2010.79 “NotJustTalk:MobileServicesinPoorCountries,”Economist,January27,2011;esoko.com.80 Seesafaricom.co.ke.81 See http://allafrica.com; shuttleworthfoundation.org and villagetelco.org. Dabba worked with the Shuttleworth Foundation to

developaprojectcalled“VillageTelco.”SteveSong,afellowoftheShuttleworthFoundation,isworkingonsimilartelecommunicationssolutionsandmaintainingablogabouttheseissuesthatfeaturesagraphicchronologyofthevariousAfricancablelandings.See“AfricanUnderseaCables,”athttp://manypossibilities.net.

82 Seeushahidi.com.83 Nathan Eagle, “Txteagle: Mobile Crowdsourcing,” at http://realitymining.com; Nathan Eagle, “TEDx Boulder Colorado,

November9,2010.”84 Seejana.com.85 Seehttp://txteagle.com; “Txteagle has 2.1BillionNumbers on SpeedDial,” at http://online.wsj.com; and “AChatwith Serial

EntrepreneurNathanEagle,”Txteagle:MobileResearchConference2011,availableonYouTube.86 Williams,“AdvancingtheDevelopmentofBackboneNetworkinSub-SaharanAfrica.”87 CCK,“QuarterlySectorStatisticsReport(July–Sept.2013),”21–2atcck.go.ke.In2012,thepercentageofthepopulationwith

accesstotheinternetstoodataround32percentwithonly43,000fixedhigh-speedsubscriptions.ITU,WorldTelecommunications/ICTIndicatorsDatabase,17thEdition,June17,2013.Convergence—whenasinglenetworkdevelopsthecapacitytocarrymultipledifferentservices that used to require separate networks—has contributed toKenya’s resourceful entrepreneurialism. Theword is also used inrelationtothecorporatemergerofdifferentICTindustries.WhenGooglebuysYouTubeorNetflix,itexpandsbeyondasearchengineenterprisetoincludenewalliedenterprisesandcontenttoestablishtheinternetasthenewmovieorTVscreen.Whiletheseconvergencestrategies can intensify monopolies, they can also lower prices, increase competition, and broaden markets. See Rajendra Singh andSiddharthaRaja,“NothingEnduresButChange:ThinkingStrategicallyAboutICTConvergence,”inWorldBank,ed.,InformationandCommunications for Development. Prices for international calls in Kenya dropped by nearly 80 percent after Voice Over InternetProtocol (VOIP)was legalizedasaservice.CCK,“SectorStatisticReport” (Q2,2009–2010).While thechiefconvergence format isinternetovertelephone,digitaltelevisionwasalsolaunchedinKenyain2009–2010.

88 Waita,Sheikh,andFildes,EastAfricanFiberSummit,Nairobi2009.89 Comstedt,“SubmarineCablesontheBeach,NowWhat?”90 “ReformstoImproveServiceDeliveryinPublicSector,”atplanning.go.ke.91 “KenyaVision2030:AGloballyCompetitiveandProsperousKenya,FirstMediumTermPlan,2008–2012,”Governmentofthe

RepublicofKenya,2008,atvision2030.go.ke.92 Ibid.93 Seeepzakenya.com.94 AuthorvisittoAthiRiverEPZ,August2007.95 Seekonzacity.co.ke.In2012,theWorldBank’sInternationalFinanceCorporationworkingwiththeKenyangovernmenthireda

designanddevelopmentteamthatincludesHR&AAdvisors,Inc.,SHoPArchitects,DalbergGlobalDevelopmentAdvisors,CenterforUrbanandRegionalPlanning,OZArchitecture,andTetraTech.See“KonzaCityStatusUpdate,”atscribd.com;DailyNation,“ChinatoPutUpSh65bn‘Dubai’inMachakos,”April5,2014,atnation.co.ke.

96 See“LAPSSET”atvision2030.go.keandJeffreyGettleman,“FutureKenyaPortCouldMarPristineLand,”NewYorkTimes,January12,2010.

97 “AnnualReport,”CCK,2007–2008atcct.goke.98 Christine Zhen-WeiQiang,Telecommunications and Economic Growth (Washington, DC:World Bank, 2009);World Bank

DevelopmentDataGroupandWorldBankGlobalInformation&CommunicationTechnologiesDept.,InformationandCommunicationsfor Development Extending Reach and Increasing Impact (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009); Khalil, Dongier, and Qiang,“Overview,”5.

99 Randeep Sudan et al., The Global Opportunity in IT-Based Services: Assessing and Enhancing Country Competitiveness(Washington,DC:WorldBank,2010).100 Ibid.; “Not Just Talk: Mobile Services in Poor Countries,” Economist, January 29, 2001. The International Federation for

InformationProcessing,asecretariatoutsideofVienna,alsoestablishedaworkinggrouptostudyICTanddevelopment.SeeWorkingGroup 9.4, “Social Implication of Computers in Developing Countries,” International Federation for Information Processing, 2001, atifip.org.101 RichardBoateng,RichardHeeksetal.,“E-CommerceandSocio-EconomicDevelopment:ConceptualizingtheLink,”Internet

Research18,no.5(2008).102 Richard Heeks, “Do Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Contribute to Development?,” Journal of

InternationalDevelopment22(2010),625–40.103 Richard Heeks and Carolyne Stanforth, “Understanding E-Government Project Trajectories from an Actor-Network

Perspective,”EuropeanJournalofInformationSystems16(2007).104 Heeks, “Do Information andCommunicationTechnologiesContribute toDevelopment?”;RichardHeeks, “Development 2.0:

TheIT-EnabledTransformationofInternationalDevelopment,”CommunicationsoftheACM53,no.4(2010).Heeksandothershavesuggestedthatsincegrassrootsentrepreneursandfair-tradepoliciesusesomeofthesameICTtoolsandtechniques,theymighttogetherbegin to shape a self-regulating mechanism by which business, global NGOs, and IGOs can track labor and trade figures in aninformation-richnetwork.SeeRichardDucombeandRichardHeeks, “An InformationSystemsPerspectiveonEthicalTradeandSelf-Regulation,”InformationTechnologyforDevelopment10(2003).105 Abhijit V. Banerjee,Making Aid Work (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007); Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, Poor

Economics:ARadicalRethinkingoftheWaytoFightGlobalPoverty(NewYork:PublicAffairs,2011),13.

CHAPTER4

Stories

Formanyhistorians, the firstmeetingof the InternationalTelegraphUnion (ITU) inParis in1865maybeworthyofnomorethananobscuretechnicalfootnote.TelegraphnetworkshadbeengrowingthroughoutEurope,prompting theneed for internationalprotocols regarding, amongother things,currency, tariffs, the Morse telegraph platform, and use of the French language. The tediousproceedingslastedfromMarch1toMay17,butthechairman,FrenchMinisterofForeignAffairsM.Drouyn de Lhuys, was nevertheless excited. He likened the convention to a “Peace Conference”intended to prevent the misunderstandings that are often the cause of war. TelecommunicationshistorianAntonHuurdemanhasnotedthatit“wasthefirstinternationalagreementconcerningmostofEuropesincethePeaceofWestphaliain1648.”1TheITU,recognizingnationalratherthanprivateentitiesasmembers,onlyconvenedrepresentativesofEuropeannations.Eventhoughthetransatlanticcablehadbeeninthewatersince1856,theUnitedStates,theninthefinalstagesofCivilWar,didnotattendtheconferencebecauseitstelegraphoperationswerecommerciallyorganized.

Thedelegatesat theconventionposed fora stiffgroupphotograph thatwasconsiderablydrierthanthehistorypaintingcommemoratingthePeaceofWestphaliaattheendoftheThirtyYears’War.TheITUhadactuallycometogethernotsomuchasdiplomatstosignapeacetreaty,butasdelegatessorting out a number of seemingly innocuous technical expediencies. Still, themembers arguablyrepresentedanewsortofpoweremergingattheendofthenineteenthcentury—aperiodofgrowthforinternationalinfrastructure,internationalorganizations,andmodernmanagementtechniquesforlargeorganizationsofcapital.

Thegroupportrait issuggestiveofseveralmasternarratives thateachclaiminfrastructureasamascot.Infrastructureisoftenportrayedasanapparatusofnation-buildingthatiscloselytiedtothestateand itsmilitary.Yet it isalsooftenadvancedasastandard-bearerofeconomic liberalism.Or,driftingtowardyetanotherideologicalvortex,itistreatedasauniversalplatformforrationalizingglobalexchange.

Thesestories,histrionicformsofthenarrativesthatalwaysattendadialoguebetweenhumansandtechnologies, are often decoupled fromwhat the infrastructure space is actually doing in itsmorecomplexcontextontheground.2Theydeliverthepredeterminedexpectationsconcerningsocialandcultural behavior about which Latour cautions. However exhausted these stories may be,Enlightenmentormodernist tautologiescontinue to revive them.Theymayevendriftandoscillatebetweencontradictorymeaningsasboththeleftandtherightdeploythemindifferentways.Still,theycan assemble political arias with fixed tableaus and ready audiences. These are the stories that,howeverimmaterial,arepowerfulenoughtobuckleconcreteorbendsteel,andtheycanmaintainaninescapablegriponthedispositionofinfrastructurespace.

However,consideredtogether,ideologicalstoriesaboutthemilitary,theliberal,andtheuniversaljostleeachother,anditbecomeseasiertostrolloutoftheirdominantideologicaltheaterstoaccessthehistoriestheyobscure—thelesssensationalorlesstotalizinghistoriesofextrastatecraft.

1865MeetingoftheInternationalTelegraphUnion

Military

IamreadseriouslybytheFrenchmilitary.—PaulVirilio3

The ITUgroup photo,with only national representatives seated asmembers, seems to support theidea that international endeavors are amatter of nation-states coming together as they did for thePeace of Westphalia. Costumed in the accoutrements of Westphalian sovereignty, the GrandStrategists of realpolitik continue to enshrine and embellish this fabled moment when statesrecognizedeachother ’srightstoself-determinationandnon-intervention.Nationsandwarsgohandinglove, theyclaim,and thenation-statemust remain theundisputedagentofhistoricalcontinuity,managingthenecessityofwarandapeacethatisthecorollaryofthatwar.FollowingthedictumofPrussiangeneralCarlvonClausewitz, “war is thecontinuationofpoliticsbyothermeans.”Withinthis view, infrastructure is cast as a primarymilitary asset ofwarring states that also provides thetechnologyanddirectionforcivilianinfrastructureandurbandevelopment.Historicalevidencethatdoesnotfitwithinthisstorycanbeignored.

The Grand Strategists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have continued to regardrealpolitik as the most durable framework. In the United States, Henry Kissinger, an advocate ofrealpolitikforagoodportionofthetwentiethcentury,hasloanedhisexpertisetothepoliticalright.ClausewitzhasinfluencedmilitarythinkingintheUnitedStatessincetheVietnamWar,andduringtheGulfWars,aso-calledcultofClausewitzwasinfluentialatthePentagon.4

Yet thepolitical left alsohas itsown“cultofClausewitz,”and regards theNapoleonicWarsasformative in infrastructure history. When Armand Mattelart, a leftist sociologist and scholar ofcommunicationmedia,writesthat“Communicationservesfirstofalltomakewar,”hereferstotheChappe graphic telegraph that Napoleon used almost exclusively for military purposes.5 LikeMattelart, the leftist urbanist Paul Virilio points to Antoine-Henri de Jomini, a contemporary ofClausewitz, tomark theadventof logistics—thedeliveryof suppliesandservices to troopsandanimportant test of the administrative and organizational skills necessary to develop infrastructure.6Virilio argues that not mercantile, but rather military urges are at the heart of urbanism andinfrastructure.ForVirilio,“TotalWar”is indistinctfromcivilsociety,replacingpoliticaleconomyandalmosteveryaspectofcultureandindustry.7ThephilosopherandtheoristSylvèreLotringer,inconversation with Virilio, has claimed great things for the latter ’s position, describing it as “aCopernicanrevolutionintherelationsofstrategytopolitics.”8

The left has also been drawn to the famous Clausewitzian dictum as if it were a riddle to becontinually unpacked, reassembled or eventually solved. Foucault inverted the phrase as well(“Politicsisthecontinuationofwarbyothermeans.”)arguingthatpowermaintainsitselfthroughitsmilitaryvictories.9Viriliotoohasjoinedthegreatmenwhohaveinvertedorrephrasedthenostrum,in one instance recasting the phrase thusly: “the Total Peace of deterrence is TotalWar by othermeans.”10

Rehearsing arguments that link infrastructure and themilitary has become routine. During theWorldWars,theITUitselfsuspendedallmeetings,andmanymultinationalinfrastructureenterprisesthathadbeenacting independentlyand in serviceofmultiplegovernmentsweredeputizedby theirstate,put in theserviceof themilitary,anddrawnintotherhythmsofwarandpeace.Infrastructureenterprises built highways, fortifications, and railroads and developed airplane flight, radar,encryption, and computing amongmany technologies used in themilitary. Ever since Eisenhoweruttered the words “military-industrial complex,” infrastructure and militarization have beenincreasinglyentangled.Sophisticatedcritique(from,e.g.,JamesDerDerianorManuelDeLanda)hasdemonstratedthewaysinwhichwarhasinfiltratedeveryaspectofsocietyfromconsumermaterialsandcommoditiestocommunicationandsecuritydevices,robotics,andevencomputergames.

Someofthemostnuancedcontemporaryargumentsaboutmilitarizationclearlydemonstratethatspaceitselfisamilitaryapparatus.ThearchitectandtheoristEyalWeizmanarguesthaturbanismisoftennotmerelyatrophyofwaroradevelopmentinitsaftermathbutisitselfdeployedinmilitarystrategies.11Hepoints to thesettlements in theWestBankandGazaas toolsofmilitaryaggressionandhumanrightsabuse.12Goingfurther,scholars likeStephenGrahamsee in thesecuritizationofeverything from suburbs to free zones to world cities a militarization that blurs the boundariesbetweenthecivilandthemilitaryaseachborrowstechniquesfromtheother.13

The insights of these scholars, analysts, theorists, and designers make clear the crucialconnectionsbetweenmilitaryandcivilian infrastructure.Nevertheless,historiansand theoristshavealsoarguedthatmilitaryintentisinsufficienttodescribemanyinfrastructuredevelopments.Mattelarthas called for a “critical history” of global infrastructure, contending that “historical research ismanifestedmainlyintheformofareturntonationalhistories,whiletheinternationalisstillleftbythewayside.”14ThomasP.Hughes,ahistorianofsocio-technicalnetworks,hasarguedthat“Historyis often popularly imaged as the story of such obvious events as wars, revolutions, and shiftingalignmentsofpoliticalpower.”15SimilarlyPaulStarr,professorofsociologyandpublicaffairs,haswritten, “The idea thatwar is themotherof the state is a stapleofcomparativehistory,”yet, ashedemonstrates,itishardlytheonlydeterminingfactorininfrastructuredecisions.16

Technologiesdonothavepredestineduses,militaryorotherwise.Theyareconstantlyreassignedtodifferenttasks,justasARPAnet,amilitarytechnology,wasrebornasasocialnetwork.Intheearlydays,whenARPAnet’stwin,USENET,reliedonthesametechnology,itoftenbecamearepositoryof“listsofpeople’sfavoritemovies,andrecipesforgoulash,andargumentsaboutmetaphysicsandsoon.”17 At CERN,when redesigned as theWorldWideWeb, the same technology generated a stillmoreopendisposition.AsBruceSterlingwrites,“ARPA’snetwork,designedtoassurecontrolofaravagedsocietyafteranuclearholocaust,hasbeensupersededbyitsmutantchildtheInternet.”18

Nevertheless, theories about the internet, emerging in the 1990s from the RANDCorporation,demonstratethedifficultyofdetachinginfrastructurespacefromeventhemostconventionalmilitarynarratives.Notsurprisingly,theDefenseResearchInstituteatRAND—thequintessentialthinktankofthe military-industrial complex—has long been busy identifying new security threats linked toinformation and communication networks. But the story of RAND researchers John Arquilla andDavidRonfeldtisstrikinginthatit(perhapsaccidentally)exposesthepersistentpowerandattraction

ofmilitaryandbinarydispositionsintherhetoricofboththeleftandtheright—evenininfrastructureanalysisthatattemptstoestablishanewordivergentparadigm.

In a number of books published in 1990s, Arquilla and Ronfeldt offered an alternative to thefamiliargrandstrategiesofpoliticalhistories.Theyarguedthatinadditionto“America’stwomainschools of grand strategy: realpolitik and liberal internationalism,” there was a third strategy:noopolitik. In the midst of an “information revolution,” “non-state actors” were acquiring newpowersand“global interconnectivity”was“generatinganew fabric forworldorder”—anentirelynewsecurityenvironmentinwhichnon-stateactors,whetherNGOsorterrorists,wereaspowerfulasstateactorsdeployingthe“softpower”ofideasandpersuasionsinresilientnetworks.19

IntheirbookNetworksandNetwars (2001)ArquillaandRonfeldtmodeledpatternsof“netwar”activitieswith networkdiagrams like those that appeared inRANDpredecessorPaulBaran’s 1964memorandum “On Distributed Communications” (1964)—seminal diagrams of centralized,decentralized, and distributed network topologies that essentially modeled the intent of ARPAnet.Usingnetworkdiagrams captioned as “chain,” “hub,” “all-channel,” or “full-matrix,”Arquilla andRonfeldt attached a new security threat to topologies similar to those originally used to modelprecursorsoftheinternet.20The“Zapatistas,”the“BattleforSeattle,”and“hacktivism”wereofferedasexamplesofthese“acephalous”or“polycephalous”networks.Theauthorsreportedthatthestealthnetworks previously proposed by theUnited States in theColdWarwere now even being used totargettheUnitedStatesinelusiveways.NetwarhadreplacedColdWar.21

Whilecongratulatingthemselvesontheoriginalityoftheirnewparadigm,ArquillaandRonfeldtunwittingly mirror a similar struggle with military stories in leftist political theory—theory withwhichtheypresumablysharefewothersentiments.JustasVirilioswaggeredabouttherelevanceofhisownrevolutionaryideas,ArquillaandRonfeldtclaimthattheirfirstspeculationsaboutcyberwarin 1993, and netwar in 1996, seem to have even influenced the likes of Manuel Castells orSubcomandanteMarcos of the Zapatista movement.22 Yet acknowledging nourishment from otherthinkers,astrayfootnoteinTheEmergenceofNoopolitikreferencesthewritingsofMichelFoucaultandJacquesDerridaconcerning“narrativeanddiscourse in theexerciseofpower.”23Arquilla andRonfeldtalsosuggestintheopeningpagesofNetworksandNetwarsthatcontemporarywarisfoughtnotlikeachessgameofnationalstrategies,butrather,astheyputit,likethe“OrientalgameofGo.”With this reference, they perhaps unwittingly share a similar argument with leftist thinkers GillesDeleuzeandFélixGuattariasexpressedintheirworkNomadology:TheWarMachine(1986).24

In“TreatiseonNomadology:TheWarMachine,”DeleuzeandGuattariuse themodelofGo todescribethedispositionsofthe“warmachine”—asourceofconflictthatis“exteriortothestate.”Theviolencedispensedbynomadicbandsofnonstateplayers,likeGenghisKhan,isnotofficiallywar,intheirargument,unlessitengagesastate.25Yetastatemaytemporarilyappropriatenon-stateactors,asinthecaseofmilitaryproxiesorprivateers.Suchabandofnon-stateactorsisawarmachinewhenitinduceswar from the state.26 ForDeleuze andGuattari, thewarmachine conquests operate in the“smooth”spaceofGo,insteadofthe“striated”spaceofchess.Likeofficialagentsofthestate,chessofferseachgamepieceestablishedhierarchical routines formovementandstrategy.The“smooth”spaceofGo,liketheextrastatewarmachine,allowsnon-hierarchicalblackorwhitestonestomovefluidly on a grid as each tries to capture ever-changing territories.27 Arguing that “commercialorganizationisalsoabandofpillage,orpiracyforpartofitscourseandinmanyofitsactivities,”DeleuzeandGuattariuseGoandthewarmachinetomodelthepowersofCapital.28

ArquillaandRonfeldt,likeDeleuzeandGuattari,alsoreachforGotomodelanewparadigm—this time, not the violence of Capital but the security threat of terrorism—and yet they quicklytransform it into a familiar binary. In the afterword toNetworksandNetwars (quickly added after

September11,2001),theywrite:“Theoryhasstruckhomewithavengeance…Thisbookissuddenlymuchmorepertinentthanweexpected.”AlQaeda—theapotheosisofnetwar—hadbeenpredictedinchapter after chapter of the book.29 In retaliation, the authors first consider a state-to-state war,suggesting(withstillmoreprescience)thatIraqmightbetargetedastheroguesponsorofAlQaeda.They also consider a Samuel Huntingtonstyle “clash of civilizations.” Both are set aside toforeground new netwar strategies, but these seem merely to diversify techniques for gatheringinformationaboutthetargetedenemy.Allthepreviousdiscussionsofcomplexityreturntoabinaryduel,asiftheColdWarface-offhadonlybeenupdatedwithanewopponentandanewmap.30TheGoversuschesstropehasevenbecomeafavoriteofHenryKissingerandothersecurityconsultantsbelongingtoClausewitziancults.31

YetDeleuzeandGuattarithemselvesalsoarguablyhavedifficultyescapingthetautologicalgripofClausewitz or the competitive disposition of binaries, even as they try to dismantle them.Theyargue that states have become the tool of a worldwide, “postfascist” war machine that “assumesincreasinglywiderpoliticalfunctions.”Asiftowinphilosophicalarguments,theydeclarethatonlynow“totalwar itself, is surpassed.”Onlynow“Clausewitz’s formula is effectively reversed; tobeentitled tosay thatpolitics is thecontinuationofwarbyothermeans, it isnotenough to invert theorder of the words as if they could be spoken in either direction.” The war machine produces a“terrifying peace.”32 Themachine is, after all, still associated with war, and there must be a newcharacterization for peace, as its opposite. The argument names an opponent—an “UnspecifiedEnemy”—facilitated by the state and Capital. It is suggested that alternative forces can assumecommand of themachine to redirect and remold the state to “blaze their way for a new earth.”33MichaelHardt andAntonioNegri’sEmpire, in dialoguewithDeleuze andGuattari, is structurallyvery similar in its Empire/ counter-Empire opposition.34 With dramatic narratives, both pairs ofauthorsdeclareanenemyinrhetoricthatassumesabinarystructure.

This storyofmirroring theoriesand inescapablehabitsofmindonlynourishesacuriosity forwhatliesbeyondit.Attheveryleast, thethoroughattentionsandenergiesexpendedonthemilitarystory,whetherdirectorresidual,perhapsallowattentiontodrifttootherquestions.Isthereevidenceininfrastructurespacethatresistsorexceedsautomaticlinksbetweeninfrastructureandthemilitary,despite its virtuosity and prominence? Moreover, is even the rhetorical identification of a singleenemy (e.g. Capital, terrorism, or an “unspecified” entity) useful when it is neither sufficientlycomplexnorvigilanttoaddressthecompounddispositionsimmanentininfrastructurespace?

Given the securityapparatusofgatesand fencesnecessary for itspoliticalquarantine, thezonehas been characterized as an example of securitized space that is virtually indistinguishable frommilitaryspace.Yetwithaggressionsthataredifferentfromthoseassociatedwiththegrandstrategiesofrealpolitikorthebinariesofmilitaryaggression,thezoneembodiesbifurcatedormultipleformsof sovereignty that leverage the state to relinquish its resources in exchange for forms of globalcompetition.35 Never bothering with war, it embodies other violent dispositions marked byisomorphism and denial. More disturbing than a binary competitive stance is its cooperativereciprocalstance.Itisnotameansbywhichnationsattackeachother,butameansbywhichbothstateandnon-stateactorscooperateatsomeoneelse’sexpense—usuallytheexpenseoflabor.

Theviolencewithinthezoneisoftenstrangerormoreinsidiousthanthatofwar.The2013RanaPlaza collapse in the Dhaka EPZ in Bangladeshwas the deadliest accidental structural collapse inhumanhistory,killingover1,127peopleandinjuringapproximately2,500more.Itwasnotanepic,chest-beating, symbol-laden storyof conflict. Itwas the registrationof the final straw,of a slowlyunfolding form of violence that only really grabbed attention when the scene—the mutilation ofbodies—resembled that of warfare. Just as glass does not have to shatter to possess a brittle

disposition,thecollapsewasnottheonlymarkerofviolence.RanaPlazawasatragicexampleoftheundeclared,evenhidden,butpotentiallyviolentdispositionsimmanentininfrastructurespace.

Thebinariesofwararealsonotespeciallyusefulinanalyzingabroadbandtechnoscapelikethatfound in Kenya. The story does not assume the dramatic arc that usually accompanies militaryconflict.There are toomanyplayers engaged in reciprocal exchangesor the complexbargainsofpoker games rather than simple face-offs or duels.Aggressions that are temporary and fluid bestsupportthesurvivalofeachplayer,andthesecompetitionsareoftenstrategicallydeployedtofurthernotonlytheself-interestbutalsothemutualbenefitofmultipleplayers.

Reachingformilitarystories in thehopeofpresentinganacuteandpenetratingportrayalor tofulfill a historical quest for relevance can lead to imprecise analyses. The aggressions withininfrastructurespaceoftenoccurwithnodefiningmomentsandnosatisfyingdeclarationofanenemy.Theconsequentialevidencemaybefoundintheinnocuousdetails—aninvisiblebuildupofneglectorasilentformofattrition.Avoidingbinarydispositions,thisfieldofactivitycallsforexperimentswithongoingformsofleverage,reciprocity,andvigilancetocountertheviolenceimmanentinthespaceofextrastatecraft.

Liberal

Itisabasicerrortosearchfortheessenceofsomethingasheterogeneousanddiscontinuousastheliberaltradition.Liberalismisnotthekindofthingthathasanessence.—JohnGray36

TheITUconventionof1865mightbelikened,nottoacommemorationofthePeaceofWestphaliaatendoftheThirtyYears’War,buttoamid-century“PeaceConference”inwhattheeconomichistorianKarl Polanyi called the “HundredYears’ Peace.” In his 1944 bookTheGreat Transformation: ThePolitical and Economic Origins of Our Time, Polanyi identified the Hundred Years’ Peace as theperiod between 1815 and 1914, an era filled with many small wars, civil wars, and colonialaggressions but no sustained general war. During this period, infrastructure was a protagonist inhistorieswhere,notwartime,buttheintervalsbetweenwarsweremarkedwiththered-letterdates.37

TheHundredYears’Peacewasalsocoincidentwiththegrowthoflargeprivateorganizations,thelargestofwhichwereoftenassociatedwith infrastructurebuilding, and the1865 ITUgroupphotobears some resemblance to countless other period photographs of sober, starched characters—notrepresentativesofmembernations,butmembersofthecorporateboard.ThosewhomostfascinatedPolanyi were the representatives of haute finance—another species of civilian administration andemergent transnational agency at the end of the nineteenth century, and one that often came toprominence thanks to infrastructure projects. Polanyi described finance as an “undisclosed socialinstrumentalityatwork in thenewsetting,whichcouldplay the roleofdynasties andepiscopaciesundertheold.”38

Infrastructure building when not characterized as a military project is often treated as aneconomicinstrument—thespearheadofCapital’sunstoppablemarch.Thesuccessesofbusinessinthelatenineteenthcenturyemboldenedabeliefinhomoeconomicus,laissez-faire,andtheutopianliberalstate.Polanyireturnedtothisperiodtotrackthedevelopmentofa“marketsociety”andthemythofthemarketasfree,natural,self-balancing,andnecessarilyindependentofstateregulation.Fromthelate nineteenth century to today, these platforms of economic liberalism—even thoughmultiplied,inverted,andadoptedbydiametricallyopposedpoliticalpartiesontheleftandtheright—havebeenconsistentlyusedtopromoteinfrastructure.

ForPolanyi, theHundredYears’Peace that “resteduponeconomicorganization”wasdifferentfrom the peace that is a corollary ofwar.39 Prior to this period, he argued, peacewas something

obtained throughwar or through the threat ofwar.40 But from 1815 to 1914, not only the “heavyindustries”butalsotrade“wasnowdependentuponaninternationalmonetarysystemwhichcouldnotfunctioninageneralwar.Itdemandedpeace.”41Indeedmanyofthefinanciers,liketheRothschilds,gambledwithwar,buttheyuseditlikeavalvethatcouldbeturnedonandofftocreateprofitsfromcurrencydifferentials.AsPolanyiwrote,“Everywar,almost,wasorganizedbyfinanciers;butpeacealsowasorganizedbythem.”42

The “heavy industries”—arguably a war machine, alter-ego, and occasional partner of themilitary—wereoftenorganizationssovastthattheyworkedformanydifferentnationsandclaimedparity with their host state.43 Some of the most common infrastructure of transportation andcommunication were initially developed not as public works but as huge private internationalenterprises. Still they were largely engaged in constructing the terms of civilian life—laying thecable,providingtherollingstock,buildingthecanalorthedam.Theyamassedsignificantcapitalanddeveloped a management apparatus designed to administer large numbers of people. They oftenshaped legislation and determined the values that were worth defending militarily. Infrastructurebuildingoften required titanicphysicalandpoliticalmovement. In its scaleandpower,andwith itsfrequentuseofexplosivesandarmiesofconstructionworkersmovingaroundtheworld,itperhapsoftensatisfiedacountry’sepicenergies.

Railwas theWal-Mart of the late nineteenth century.The historianMarcLinderwrites that the“developmentof theworld railwaynetworkapproximatelymirrored thegeographicpenetrationofcapital.”Between1840and1870,a“handfulofbankersandcontractorscontrollednearlyallrailwaybuildingintheworld,outsidetheUSA.”44Nineteenth-centuryBritishconstructionfirmslikeBrassyandPeto&BettsbuiltasignificantportionofBritishrailathomeandabroad.Brassy,withitsarmyof100,000laborers,wasconsideredtobea“Europeanpower.”

By the end of the nineteenth century, theUnitedStates had laid over 200,000miles of railroadacross the continent. Business historian Alfred D. Chandler noted that “for several decades theconsolidatedUSrailroadsystemsremainedthelargestbusinessenterpriseintheworld.”45Itwas“themostpowerful institution in theAmericaneconomyand itsmanagers themost influentialgroupofeconomic decision makers.” It even “provided a basic impetus to the rise of the large-scaleconstruction firm and the modern investment banking house.”46 Chandler argued that, for suchAmericanorganizations,the“visiblehandofmanagementreplacedwhatAdamSmithreferredtoastheinvisiblehandofmarketforces.”47

Chandler famously used the example of theUS railroad tomake a case for the supremacy ofprivate over public enterprises, including the military, in providing administrative training anddevelopingmanagerialparadigmsfortheemergingmultinationalenterprises.Whilethemid-centuryrail companies initially deployedmilitarymodels ofmanagement, by the end of the century theirscaleofoperationrequiredanotherdegreeofinnovationthatnowexceededthatofthemilitary.48AsChandlerwrites,inapassageworthquotinginfull:

Nopublic enterprise, either, came close to the railroad in size and complexity of operation. In the 1890s a single railroad systemmanaged more men and handled more funds and transactions and used more capital than the most complex of Americangovernmentalormilitaryorganizations. In1891 thePennsylvaniaRailroademployedover110,000workers. In the sameyear thetotalnumberofsoldiers,sailors,andmarinesintheUnitedStatesarmedserviceswas39,492.Thepermanentmanagerialstaff…[ofthe Post Office] … was smaller than that of the major railroad system. Two years later when the expenditures of the federalgovernment were 387.5 million and its receipts 385.8 million, those of the Pennsylvania Railroad were 96.5 million and 135.1million.Thatyear the totalgrossnationaldebtof997millionwasonly155millionmore than thePennsylvania’scapitalizationof842 million. In the United States, the railroad, not the government or the military, provided training in modern large-scaleadministration.49

Even though the hierarchical administration of business developed its own governance—or its

ownvisiblehand—thisstructuredauthorityparadoxicallyalsomythologizedtheinvisiblehandofthemarket as a powerful political persuasion. In this perennial conundrum of economic liberalism,business fought againstgovernment regulation evenas it created its ownheavyadministration andmanipulated government toward its own ends. Infrastructure was one pawn in this supposedlyunmanipulatedfreemarketthathadtobemanipulatedtooptimizeitsfreedom.

TheoriesofliberalismgeneratedstillmoreparadoxesastheliberallabelbecameaffiliatedwithverydifferentpoliticalsentimentsinBritishandUScontexts.Intheearlynineteenth-centuryBritishParliament,theWhigshadadoptedtheterm“liberal”andtheToriesthelabel“conservative.”Liberalideology evolved in England over the course of the century, from “classical” liberalism to newliberalism.MigratingfromJeremyBenthamtowardJohnStuartMill,newliberalismadvocatedforfreedomfromthetyranniesofbigbusinessthatshapedthemarkettoitsownadvantageandpromotedcurbsonthefreedomofhomoeconomicus inordertosecuremorefreedomsformorepeople.50 In1908, Churchill defended the new liberalism against claims of socialism by saying, among otherthings, “Socialism exalts the rule; Liberalism exalts theman. Socialism attacks capital; Liberalismattacksmonopoly.”51Bythe1920sand’30s,JohnMaynardKeyneswasoneofmanywhoregardedliberalismasameanstomoderateeconomicsystems.52

On the American scene, during the 1930s the liberal label underwent similar transformations,eveninversions,inmeaning.ItdidnotbecomeanimportantterminAmericanpoliticsuntiltheNewDeal.HerbertHooverhadusedthelabeltosignaleconomicliberalismorlaissez-faire.53AsagambittoattractRepublicanPartysupportforhisDemocraticpolicies,FranklinDelanoRooseveltadoptedthe label to indicate something closer to social liberalism or progressive capitalism that wasneverthelessnotsocialism.54RexfordGuyTugwell,whoadvisedFDRonpolicyand servedas thedirectoroftheResettlementAdministration,recalledoncetalkingtoRooseveltabouttheoriginofhisuseof“liberal.”Roosevelt,wellawareofthepoliticalpowerofthediscrepancy,didnotanswerhim,butrather“laughedandaskedifitmattered.”55

WritingTheGreatTransformation in theUnited States asWorldWar IIwas ending, Polanyi, aViennese émigré, argued that themanagement, cooperation, and voluntary regulation necessary toadminister largeprojects like infrastructuredemonstrated the impossibilityof themarket’smagicalfreedom. How, he wondered, do both “giant trusts and princely monopolies” at one end of thespectrum and trade unions at the other fight to increase their freedom?56 While he rejected theauthoritarianismofCommunism,hehighlightedtherolethatregulationhadplayedincreatingtheso-called freemarket: “Laissez-fairewasplanned;planningwasnot.”57 Polanyi continued to questionwho exactly was liberated in a liberal utopian world. Economic liberalism seemed to mean “thefullness of freedom for thosewhose income, leisure, and security need no enhancing and amerepittanceoflibertyforthepeople,whomayinvainattempttomakeuseoftheirdemocraticrightstogain shelter from the power of the owners of property.”58 Finally, Polanyi claimed that liberalphilosophy“leavesnoalternativebuttoeitherremainfaithfultoanillusionaryideaoffreedomanddeny the reality of society, or to accept that reality and reject the idea of freedom.The first is theliberal’sconclusion;thelatterthefascist’s.”59

A contrasting strain of thought from two other Austrian émigrés, Ludwig von Mises andFrederickA.Hayek,attempted toestablishaproper lineageof thoughtabout liberalisminorder toopposefascism.Theywishedtoresetthemeaningofliberalismsince,inthepost–NewDealUnitedStates, the liberal labelhadbecomeassociatedwith the leftand linkedby itsopponents toa longertradition of “big government” and support for social programs.60 Inspired by von Mises, HayekpublishedThe Road to Serfdom in 1944. He traced a lineage of Anglo-Saxon thought from John

Locke to Adam Smith to fashion a defense of liberalism against central government and stateintervention.61 Years later, Hayek served as a touchstone for bothMargaret Thatcher and RonaldReaganintheireffortstoeffectaglobalseachangeineconomicpolicy.

TheMarxist geographer David Harvey returns to Hayek in order to trace the outlines of thecontemporary neoliberal state—one with widening class separation, increasing deregulation,concentrationsofwealth,susceptibilitytofinancialcrisis,unevenglobaldevelopmentasdirectedbythe “Washington Consensus,” and a new association between private global actors and nationalistsentiment.62 While liberalism, in most of its incarnations, has traditionally been proposed as abulwarkagainsteithersocialismorfascism,Harveyfindsincontemporaryneoliberalpoliciesanewkindofauthoritarianism.63

Yet it is not only those on the left who see in the liberal tradition the same dangers ofauthoritarianism.Indeed,themostformidablecriticofthephilosophicaltraditionofliberalism,CarlSchmitt,theorizedfascismasitsinevitableoutcome.PoliticalscientistandCarlSchmitt–scholarJohnP. McCormick traces relationships between Schmitt and the major components of contemporaryAmerican conservatism, especially those strains associated with Hayek.64 McCormick discussesfascism as a “radicalization of liberalism,” claiming that there is even “a certain fluidity betweenliberalism,with its apparently insurmountable categorical contradictions, on the one hand, and thephenomenon of fascism, on the other, which may not be an altogether distinct alternative toliberalism, but which itself appears to be a product of, and solution to, liberalism’s theoretical-practicalimpasses.”65

Surveying a number of incarnations of liberal thought—from classical liberalism to newliberalism, New Deal liberalism, and neoliberalism—is perhaps sufficient to expose the volatilityinherent in the term.Arguing that instability and paradox are built into the tradition, the historianJerroldSeigelsuggeststhat“Liberalpoliticsthusvacillatesbetweenexaltingthestateanddefendingagainst it,whilesimultaneouslyalternatingbetweenidealizedanddemonizedvisionsofsocietyandhumannature.”66

For Aihwa Ong, the liberal label in itself offers little information. She challenges thecharacterization of “neoliberalism as a tidal wave of market-driven phenomena that sweeps fromdominantcountries tosmallerones”andwants to trackmorepreciselyhow“Homoeconomicus…becomes translated, technologizedandoperationalized indiverse, contemporary situations.”67 Ongaimstoaddress“adynamicprocessofsovereigntyoftenignoredinstudiesthatassesssovereigntyintermsofbroad‘liberal,’‘democratic,’or‘authoritarian’labels.”68

Despite the long-standingvagariesof the liberal labelaswellas itsrefractions throughvariousdisciplines, it continues to attract hopeful attention and utopian energies. Exploiting its multipleassociations,somemayshrewdlydeploythetermpreciselybecauseitsponsorscontroversialdebateabout political freedom. Or it may be—like Clausewitz for defense strategists—a mountain thateconomicthinkersreturntoagainandagaininthehopeofanultimateconquest.

Yochai Benkler, a scholar and analyst of information technology, theorizes a use of liberalthoughtinwhathecalls“commons-basedpeerproduction.”InTheWealthofNetworks:HowSocialProductionTransformsMarketsandFreedom,Benklerconsidersformsoffreedominthenon-marketeconomieswhereinformationisfreelysharedoutsideoftheconventionallicensesandcopyrightsforintellectual property—wikis, social media networks, and other means of exchanging goods orserviceslikethosedevelopedinKenya’sbroadbandnetworks.Goingbeyondthenotionsofpropertyormarket thatoftenfeature in liberal thought,Benkler ’s liberalismconsidersothervaluesof tradeand production—parallel markets that, perhaps ironically, produce freedom through cooperationratherthanself-interest.69

BrunoLatourandAntoninLépinayreachfortheliberallabelwhenconsideringtheworkofthenineteenth-century sociologist Gabriel Tarde. Tarde questions the terms of economics itself, theexistence of homo economicus, the visible or invisible hand, and the assumed “providence” thataccompaniesthesebeliefs.Hechoosesinsteadtoobservethevaluesandpassionsgeneratedinsocialnetworks, marked by irrational exchanges and contagions that spread through a culture.70 In TheScienceofPassionate Interests:An Introduction toGabriel Tarde’sEconomicAnthropology, LatourandLépinayshowhowTarde’sworkprefigurestheories,likethoseofBenkler,abouttheviralsocialnetworks that currentlymodel neweconomies inmarket andweb exchanges. Imagining thatTarderather thanKarlMarx had left themost influential legacy, the authors speculate aboutmultiple oralternativeconceptionsofthemarketoperatingoutsidethedominantlogicsofCapital.TheyfindinTarde’srefreshinglackofaneconomicbeliefsystema“politicsofliberty.”“Liberalismthen?”theyasktentatively,quicklyaddingthatthelabelmustbedissociatedfromanypredestinedorprovidentialutopia.Intheirartfulspinontheterm,liberalismisfreedomfromideologyitself.71

In the infrastructure space of zone urbanism, economic liberalism in its various incarnationsagitates for the freedomof selected actors.By insisting that unions or laws protective ofworkersshouldnotcurtailthefreedomsofthemarket,thezonehasvirtuallyenslavedthelaborthatsupportsit.Thezonedefendsthefreedomofmoneytoescapetotaxhavens,butdoesnotdefendthefreedomoftaxpayerswhoseincreasedburdensresultfromalossoftaxrevenues.Inzonelogic,theworkerorthe taxpayer are free to accept whatever jobs or benefits eventually result from the liberty ofmultinationalcorporations.Ironically,however,thezonewillacceptsomeself-imposedbureaucracyand barriers to profit in order to conform to global management styles or purchase expensivesymboliccapitalintheformofashinyskyline.

The broadband landscape in Kenya has cultivated multiple, often contradictory ideologies ofeconomic liberalism—from the laissez-faire liberalism of the nineteenth-century telegraph cablecontractors, to the liberalizing freemarket of the “Washington Consensus,” to the new liberalismsometimesassociatedwithshareddigitalproduction.Inthecaseofthecablelandings,theagentsof“WashingtonConsensus”liberalizationironicallycreatedthemoststubbornbureaucraticobstacles.Inthecaseofmarketdata-gathering,acrowd-sourcingprogramlikeJanapurportstoprovideaccesstocommunication,whilepositioninghalftheworld’spopulationasconsumers.

Despite theconundrums that accompany the liberal label.Remarkably thewordcontinues tobeused as casual jargon or even revived in attempts to change the game and herald a radical newparadigm shift. Is freedom the pivotal value in “free market” economic exchange?What kind ofinfrastructurespacemightinitiatearealparadigmshift,campaigningnotonpromisesoffreedombuton promises of interdependence, balances of freedom, or even obligation? The experiments ofextrastatecraft might simply continue to assess, with every decision made in infrastructure space,whosefreedomitisthatisbeingprotected.

Universal

An“international third space” (as in ThirdEstate)…might find a place between intermarket logics and interstate logics thatmediate respectively thepragmatismof themerchantand theRealpolitikof theprince fetteredby the reasonof state.—ArmandMattelart72

TheITUgroupportraitof1865capturedoneofthefirstappearancesofaninternationalorganization—a significant event in the cultural story of infrastructure technologies as rationalized universalplatformsofexchange.AswasreflectedinchairmandeLhuys’senthusiasmatthatfirstITUmeeting,broadly adopted infrastructure technologies—from telegraphy and electricity to contemporary

telematicnetworksandstandards—havesometimesbeentreatedasemergent,redemptive,orutopiantools. The international organizations designed to coordinate this infrastructure have also beenregarded as the first growth of a burgeoning sphere of global governance able to maintainindependentcontinuitiesdespitetheactionsofeitherstatesormarkets.

From1865up toWorldWar I, the ITUoperatedasa thirdpartynegotiatingbetweenstatesandmultinationalenterprises—enterprisesledbygiantorganizationsaswellasentrepreneurialinventorslike Thomas Alva Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, or Alexander Graham Bell.73 The ITU hoped topreemptdisagreementsbetweennationswhilepreventingdangersanddeathsthatoftenhadnothingtodo with national aggressions. Early conferences worked on international telephone, radio, andwirelessprotocolsandestablishedaglobalSOSsignaltoaddressincidentsonthehighseaslikethesinkingoftheTitanicin1912.AttheInternationalRadioConferencein1927inWashington,DC,theITU, by then a parliament of eighty countries and sixty-four private companies, began allocatingradio frequencies.An international organization of nations and commercial interests had begun toformatanairbornemedium,anatmosphericconditionthatdidnotconformtothetypicalboundariesofsovereigntyorproperty.74

Thedestructionofinfrastructuresuchasphonelinesandsubmarinecablesduringtheworldwarsonly strengthened the ITU’s administrative presence as it orchestrated reconstruction, technicalcoordination, and international agreements. In 1932, the ITU, renamed the InternationalTelecommunicationsUnion,officiallymergedtelegraph,telephone,andradiocommunicationsunderoneauthority,andin1947,theorganizationbecamepartoftheUN.75

Momentsof planetary integration through infrastructuredevelopment inspireuniversal dreams.FortheSaint-Simoniansoftheearlynineteenthcentury,scienceandindustryformedanewreligion.Railwaysandcanalswerecontributing toanewplanetaryorder.76 In1869 the transcontinental railroadjoinedbothcoastsoftheUnitedStates,andtheSuezCanalwascompleted,thusshrinkingglobaltravel times. In 1945Arthur C. Clarke predicted that satellite fleets and televisionmight govern aglobal village, and by 1963, from its global capital in Geneva, the ITU had begun allocatingfrequencies for satellite communication.77 Japan broadcast the 1964Olympics via Intelsat satellite,andthatsameyear launchedthehigh-speedShinkansenrail line. InJuly1969,ayearbeforeKenyagotitsfirstearthstation,satellitesbroadcasttheApolloIImoonwalk.

Universal stories have also accompanied aspirations for shared, rationalized infrastructureplatforms. By the late nineteenth century, the electric light was being promoted in internationalexpositions and anointed as a panacea formany urban ills. US regionalist planners fromGiffordPinchot in the 1920s to New Deal advocates in 1930s argued that hydroelectricity would help torationalize settlement patterns. The concurrent technocracy movement proposed that a globalparliamentofengineersshouldreplacemonetaryvalueswithenergyvalueswhichwouldbeusedtotabulate and redistribute the world’s resources. Modernist architects and urban planners like LeCorbusier and others in the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM 1928–1959)proposed internationalprinciples fordesigningurbanspace.78Today,mobile telephonyanddigitalmediaarethelatest technologybelievedtoengenderglobaldemocracyandacreativecommonsofsharedinformationthattranscendsconventionalmarketmotives.

Yet these one-world aspirations for infrastructure have often also sponsored some of themostprofound inversions or irrationalities. Each spawned their own new science or professionwith itsown self-reflexive theories—traffic engineering, information science,marketing science, social ormanagerial scienceamong them.Theglobal satellitevillage thatClarkeprojectedbecamemultipleglobalvillages—satellitesystemsthatservedmoreBalkanizedpoliticalregions.Thefalselogicsoftraffic engineering—based largely on statistical traffic volumes—generated congestion rather than

speed.Political scientistandanthropologist JamesC.Scottargues thatmodernistplanningschemesaround the world failed in part because the engineering of a universal system often rejected oromitted the practical flexible systems of knowledge and practice—themētis—on which urbanismthrives.79 Similarly EvgenyMorozov argues that “cyber-utopianism” and “internet-centrism”—thesensethattheinternetistheanswertoeverything—isdelusional.Aslongasitcanbecontrolledbyauthoritarianpowerwithakillswitch,countingon thewebtodeliverfreedomandsalvation is toorisky.80

International organizations themselves, like the ITU,were initially linked to utopian or activistattemptstoestablishuniversalnetworksfortheexchangeofinformation.PaulOtlet,dubbedthefatherof information science and inventorof theUniversalDecimalClassificationSystem, andHenriLaFontaine,aBelgianbibliographerandlawyer,establishedtheUnionofInternationalAssociationsin1910. TheUIA hoped to create an information database and retrieval system for a global society.Otlet’sprescientproposalsincludedamechanical/electricaldeskthatwouldflipthroughindexcards,and, connected by telephone and/or “electric telescope,” project “links” and images onto a screen.TheUIAwasalsopartofvariousworldcongressesandhelpedtobringabouttheLeagueofNationsofwhichLaFontainewasamember;andintheaftermathofwar,theUIA’sYearbookofInternationalOrganizations began tochronicle thephenomenonof internationalorganizationsofwhich itwasapart.81

GlobalorganizationsofalltypeshavebeengrowingexplosivelysinceWorldWarII.82JustafewyearsbeforetheITUjoinedtheUN,asignificantgroupofintergovernmentalorganizations(IGOs)emerged:theWorldBank,theIMF,andGATT(laterWTO)atthe1944BrettonWoodsConference;theOEEC (precursor to theOECD) in1948aspart of theMarshallPlan; andNATO in1949.Thenumber of internationalNGOs, hovering around 1,000 in themiddle of the twentieth century, hadrisento6,000byitsend—addressingeverythingfromenvironment,labor,animals,andpeacekeepingtoprofessionalassociation,amongmanyother things.83As the sociologist JohnW.Meyerandhiscolleagueshavepointedout, “organization” is, for some, ausefulword todescribe the increasingnumberofformalizedassociationsintheworldthatsidestepthestate,thecustomarycorporation,thefamily,orotherhighlystructuredforms.84

The universal stories accompanying international organizations also harbor their owncontradictions and paradoxes.85 In 1977,Meyer and fellow sociologist Brian Rowan argued, in apivotal article titled “Institutional Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony,” thatorganizationsdeployceremonyandritual todemonstrate that theyarerationalizingandoptimizingtheir stated goals. Yet they often protect those very goals by “decoupling” from themwhen closescrutinymight uncover evidence of failure or contradiction. “Hospitals try to ignore unfavorableinformationoncure rates,public servicesavoiddataabouteffectiveness,andschoolsdeemphasizemeasuresofachievement.”Oftenanorganization“cannotformallycoordinateactivitiesbecause itsformalrules,ifapplied,wouldgenerateinconsistencies.”Inthesecases,theabilityofindividualsto“coordinate things in violation of the rules—that is, to get along with other people—is highlyvalued.”This decoupling or looking the otherwaybecomes part of the professional repertoire of“organizationalelites”astheydevelopmoreelaboratewaystomanage“publicimageandstatus.”86

Demonstratingsomeparadoxesoftheuniversal,thezone—regardedbyUNIDOasaninstrumentto rationalize economic exchange and organize member nations in a “federation of free tradezones”—waspromoteddespiteearlyrecognitionthat itdeliveredsuboptimalresults.87Anycountryhosting this formmaysupporta raftof lawsandcompactsaboutprotectionof theenvironmentortreatmentoflabor,yettheywillhaveagreedtocreateanareainwhichtheseveryprincipleswillbesetaside.PerhapsmorelikethecontagionsdescribedbyGabrielTarde,decisionstocreateazoneare

not always based on rational economic calculations. Decoupled from unfavorable economicassessments and the ruleof law, the zoneproliferates inorder to conform to a currencyof socialhabits—toprovidewhatisbelievedtobethenecessaryentréeintoglobalculture.

Mobile telephony may be the latest technology to inspire the dream of a universal sharedplatform,andyetdespitetheworkofmultipleinternationalagenciessincethemid-twentiethcentury,onlyrecentlyhasoneofthemostpopulousplacesonearthbeguntoreceiveinternationalsubmarinecable. Broadband space is a social, political, and economic instrument of intergovernmental andinternational organizations like the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, and the ITU. Yet as well asproviding leadership, these agents of global governance also tend to multiply contradictoryauthoritiesandbureaucracies.ThemessyandmultivalentstoryonthegroundinKenya’stechnoscapeisacaseinpoint.Evenasaccesstoinformationbecomesubiquitous,therearenewconcentrationsofpowerinafieldthatneverresolvesitself.

If internationalorganizationshaveauniversal language, it isarguablya languageofstandards.The ITU joined forces with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) when it wasestablished in 1906 as the world’s first international standard-making organization to coordinateelectrical equipment.88 The ITU is now also linked to ISO, the subject of the next chapter. As anattemptatuniversalconsensusISOisaninternationalorganizationparexcellence,devotedsolelytosetting standards for almost every conceivable exchange (shipping, electronics, photography,computing,etc.).Yettheorganizationnowalsopresidesoveracatechismofmanagementmottoslikethoseofother inspirationalgurus,and theywhisperadvice to the leadersofbothcorporationsandcountries. As will become clear, ISO demonstrates that some of the most rationalized corners ofinfrastructurespacemayharborthemostelaborateirrationalities.

Finally, it seems that, as Meyer and his colleagues observe, “Global society is a rationalizedworld,butnotexactlywhatonecouldcallarationalone.”Someoftheverybehaviorsthatencourageconformityandcomplianceinanemergentworldculturealsoleadtoelaboratesystemsofbeliefaswellasponderousbureaucracies.89

Histories of infrastructure space are often drawn into the thrall of ideological stories aboutmilitarism, liberalism, or universal rationalization. These stories have the power to influencedispositions—political allegiances as well as physical arrangements—in infrastructure space. Thestories themselves assume dispositions—competitive binaries or exclusive closed loops—that areoftensymptomsofastrategiceliminationofinformation.Anechochamberhelpstomaintainfaithinthe stories; and to the degree that they support authoritarian power, the stories themselves aredangerous.Moreover,while theyoftendemandof their followerspledgesofvigilant adherence toprinciples,tothedegreethatthoseprinciplestargetasingleincarnationofviolenceorauthoritarianpower(e.g.,Capital),theyarenotvigilantenough.

Consequently, just like dispositions, the stories that are attached to infrastructure space areimportant diagnostics in the politics of extrastatecraft. Even as these stories create ideologicalcollisionsandconfusions,organizationsofeveryscaleinstitutionalizetechniquesforoverlookingoroverriding the disconnect between what they are saying and what they are doing. While thisdecouplinghelpstomakethestoriesmoredurable,italsorevealsaworldthatismorereceptivetoinfluential fictions and beliefs—creating a political opportunity for the shrewd operator inextrastatecraft.

_______________1 Huurdeman,TheWorldwideHistoryofTelecommunications,219.

2 SeealsoDavidE.Nye’sdiscussionofnarratives thatattendspacesandinfrastructurenetworks inhisNarrativesandSpaces:TechnologyandtheConstructionofAmericanCulture(NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityPress,1997).

3 PaulVirilioandSylvèreLotringer,PureWar(NewYork:Semiotext(e),1983and1997),14.4 Joel Achenbach, “War and the Cult of Clausewitz: How a Long-Dead Prussian Shaped US Thinking on the Persian Gulf,”

WashingtonPost,December 6, 1990. For instance, the grand strategies of realpolitik undergirded the Project for theNewAmericanCentury,aneoconservativethinktankthatsupportedPresidentBush.YaleUniversityevenoffersapopularcoursetitled“StudiesinGrandStrategy” that claims tomaintain intact the principles of realpolitik for the next generation of leaders facing new security challenges.CharlesHill,asignatoryof theProjectfor theNewAmericanCenturyandsomethingofacult figureatYale, teaches thecoursewithPaul Kennedy and John Gaddis. SeeMollyWorthen,TheMan onWhom NothingWas Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005); Mark Binks, “A Yale Class Seeks to Change the World … Before Graduation” (2004), atjrn.columbia.edu;andBruceFellman,“TrainingtheNextLeaders,”YaleAlumniMagazine,March2003.

5 Armand Mattelart,Mapping World Communication: War, Progress, Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1994),xiii.Theonlycivilianusewastobroadcasttheresultofthelottery.

6 ArmandMattelart,TheInventionofCommunication (Minneapolis:UniversityofMinnesotaPress,1996),200;andJohnShy,“Jomini,”inPeterParet,ed.,MakersofModernStrategy:FromMachiavellitotheNuclearAge(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1986),184–5.

7 Virilio and Lotringer, PureWar, 12, 14, 17. Virilio was also referencing the total war espoused by German general ErichFriedrichWilhelmLudendorff.

8 Ibid.,17.9 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003). Lenin’s analysts and contemporaries

claimedthathispoliciesinvertedthedictumthatpoliticsisthecontinuationofwarbyothermeans.SeeWilliamE.Odom,TheCollapseofthe Soviet Military (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 11. Odom quotes Lenin’s contemporary Viktor Chernov writing inForeignAffairs in 1924 afterLenin’s death: “It has been said thatwar is a continuationof politics byothermeans.Leninwouldhaveundoubtedlyreversedthisdictum,andsaidthatpoliticsisthecontinuationofwarbyanotherguise.”ViktorChernov,“Lenin,”inJamesF.Hodge,Jr.andFareedZakaria,eds.,TheAmericanEncounter:TheUnitedStatesandtheMakingoftheModernWorld (NewYork:BasicBooks,1997),50.

10 Virilio andLotringer,PureWar, 31.He also proffered, “itwill no longer bewar that is the continuation of politics by othermeans,itwillbewhatIhavedubbed‘theintegralaccident’thatisthecontinuationofpoliticsbyothermeans.”CTheoryinterviewwithPaulVirilio,“TheKosovoWarTookPlaceInOrbitalSpace:PaulVirilioinConversationwithJohnArmitage,”atctheory.net.

11 The conception of urbanism as a target or a military adversary joins other theories of “urbicide” (the coinage of MarshallBerman).ConsiderGeneralCurtisLeMay’snapalmbombingofVietnamesecities,thegradualdestructionofSarajevo,orterroristattackson thecivilian spacesof cities.Theorists includingMikeDavis,StephenGraham,RyanBishop,GregoryClancey, andDanielBertrandMonkhavedoneexceptionalresearchonthisphenomenon.AremarkablecollectionthatincludescontributionsbymanyoftheseauthorsisStephenGraham,ed.,Cities,War,andTerrorism:TowardsanUrbanGeopolitics(London:Wiley-Blackwell,2004).

12 EyalWeizman,HollowLand:Israel’sArchitectureofOccupation(NewYork:Verso,2007).13 StephenGraham,CitiesUnderSiege:TheNewMilitaryUrbanism(NewYork:Verso,2009).14 Mattelart,MappingWorldCommunication,243.15 Hughes,NetworksofPower,407.16 Starr, The Creation of the Media, 164. Infrastructure historians, among them Hughes, Starr, David E. Nye, Wolfgang

Schivelbusch,andothers,havedevelopednarrativeformsthatsimplyfollowatechnology(e.g.,rail,electricity,communications)asonethreadaroundwhichmany stories crystallize.SeeWolfgangSchivelbusch,DisenchantedNight:The IndustrializationofLight in theNineteenthCentury(Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1995reprint),79–114;andNye,NarrativesandSpaces.

17 See“ChapterThree:HistoryofElectronicMail,”let.leidenuniv.nl.18 BruceSterling,“ShortHistoryoftheInternet,”MagazineofFantasyandScienceFiction,February1993.19 The French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s conception of the noosphere remained unacknowledged as the authors

hastenedtostakeoutanewglobalparadigm.JohnArquillaandDavidRonfeldt,TheEmergenceofNoopolitik:TowardanAmericanInformation Strategy (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1999), 28. See also John Arquilla, David F. Ronfeldt, and Rand Corporation,Cyberwar Is Coming! (SantaMonica, CA: RAND, 1992); John Arquilla et al., The Advent of Netwar (Santa Monica, CA: RAND1996);JohnArquillaandDavidF.Ronfeldt,eds.,InAthena’sCamp:PreparingforConflictintheInformationAge(SantaMonica,CA:RAND,1997).

20 JohnArquilla andDavidF.Ronfeldt, “TheAdvent ofNetwar (Revisited)” inNetworks andNetwars: TheFuture of Terror,Crime,andMilitancy(SantaMonica,CA:RAND,2001),8.

21 Ibid.,2–3,7.22 Ibid., 3, 192. The authors write, “For its part, the high command of theMexican military also espoused admiration for the

conceptduring2000.”23 ArquillaandRonfeldt,TheEmergenceofNoopolitik:TowardanAmericanInformationStrategy53,note27.24 Arquilla and Ronfeldt, “The Advent of Netwar (Revisited),” 2. “Treatise on Nomadology”was published as a segment of

Deleuze and Guattari’sMille Plateaux in 1980 (translated into English in 1987), but it was first published separately in English asNomadology: The War Machine (New York: Semiotext(e), 1986). The texts of Arquilla and Ronfeldt join those of other securityspecialistswhouse complexity theory as a fresh tool for theorizing aboutdefense.For just twoexamples fromdifferentquarters, seeJoshuaCooperRamo,The Age of theUnthinkable:Why theNewWorldDisorderConstantly SurprisesUs andWhatWeCanDoAboutIt (NewYork:Little,BrownandCo.,2009) (RamowasmanagingdirectorofKissingerAssociates);andabookreferencedbyEyal Weizman in several of his articles: Shimon Naveh, In Pursuit of Military Excellence: The Evolution of Operational Theory(London:FrankCass,1997).

25 DeleuzeandGuattari,“TreatiseonNomadology,”inAThousandPlateaus,351,354.26 Ibid.,417.27 Ibid.,352–3,356.28 Ibid.,360.29 NetworksandNetwars,363–4.30 ThatnewmapperhapsresemblestheoneinThomasP.M.Barnett’sThePentagon’sNewMap:WarandPeaceintheTwenty-

FirstCentury(NewYork:Putnam,2004).31 “NoGo,”Economist,May19,2011.32 DeleuzeandGuattari,“TreatiseonNomadology,”421,note110.33 Ibid.,422–3.34 MichaelHardtandAntonioNegri,Empire(Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,2000),42–66.35 Palan,TheOffshoreWorld;Krasner,Sovereignty:OrganizedHypocrisy,3–25.36 In political philosophy, liberal thought—as it interrogates the individual’s relationship to governance—percolates through

traditionsofdifferentcultures(e.g.,FrenchandAnglo-Saxon)withmanyantecedentsandmanyongoingbranchesofinquiry.Whiletheseinquiries share “family resemblances,” as JohnGray has suggested, the very spirit of the tradition is at oddswith a prescription aboutpolity or “a partisan claim for the universal authority of a particularmorality.”Rather, it pursues “the search for terms of coexistencebetweendifferentmoralities.”JohnGray,TheTwoFacesofLiberalism(Cambridge:Polity,2000),27,138.

37 Karl Polanyi,TheGreat Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 1944,1957,2001),5.

38 Ibid.,15–16.39 Ibid.,10,18.PolanyievenadoptsOttovonBismarck,a favoritemascotof realpolitikGrandStrategists, asacharacter inhis

historical scan, arguing thatBismarck traded inhis state-on-state aggressions for a shrewdcalculation thatGermany’s interestswouldincreasinglyrelyonapowerfulnon-stateentity—theinternationalmonetarysystem.

40 Ibid.,18.41 Ibid.,15–16.42 Ibid., 16.Polanyiwrites: “business and financewere responsible formany colonialwars, but also for the fact that a general

conflagrationwasavoided…Foreveryoneinterestthatwasfurtheredbywar,therewereadozenthatwouldbeadverselyaffected.”43 Ibid.,16.44 MarcLinder,ProjectingCapitalism:AHistoryoftheInternationalizationoftheConstructionIndustry (London:Greenwood

Press,1994),75,15,37.45 Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, MA: Harvard

UniversityPress,1977),88.46 Ibid.,1,94.47 Ibid.,1.48 Chandler,The VisibleHand, 95. A small historical feud—one of interest in this context—has developed aroundChandler’s

rejection of sustainedmilitary influences on railway administration in theUnitedStates.Chandler contends thatwhile themilitarymayhavehadan“indirect impactonthebeginningofmodernbusinessmanagement,”“there is littleevidencethatrailroadmanagerscopiedmilitaryprocedures.”IncontrasttoChandler,RobertAngevineandCharlesO’ConnellhavearguedthattheUSmilitary,notunliketheFrench, provided not only the engineering expertise for railroad infrastructure but also the organizational models for “modernmanagement.”O’Connellarguesthatthearmy’s“managementmodelprovidedaconceptualandproceduralframeworkthattheofficersadvancedwhentherewerenototherequallysuitablemodelsavailableinthebusinesscommunity.”CharlesF.O’Connell,Jr.,“TheCorpsofEngineers and theRiseofModernManagement1827–1856,” inM.R.Smith, ed.,MilitaryEnterpriseandTechnologicalChange(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985), 90, 116. The dispute itself is interesting since, working backward, as Angevine does, from aconceptualframeworkthatbeginswith“themilitary-industrialestablishment,”itissomehowmoredifficulttoarguethatthemilitarycouldberejectedasaninfluenceorthatbusinesshistorianscouldbecorrectintheirassessmentthatmilitaryproceduresprovedinadequateinarapidlyevolvingindustry.Moreinterestingstillisthewayinwhichthevariousargumentslargelyconcur.Allthreelocatethemomentofmilitary influence in the incipient phases of US railroad development. They praise some of the same early railroad directors fordevelopingproceduresthatlearnedfromthemilitary,butacknowledgethatbusinessmanagementdevelopednewtechniquestomeettheconsiderabledemandsoflarge-scaleinfrastructureliketheUSrailwaynetwork.SeeRobertG.Angevine,TheRailroadandtheState:War,PoliticsandTechnologyinNineteenth-CenturyAmerica(Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress,2004),xvii.

49 Chandler,TheVisibleHand,204–5.50 RonaldD.Rotunda,ThePoliticsofLanguage:LiberalismasWordandSymbol(IowaCity:UniversityofIowaPress,1986).51 Ibid., 27–30. “Old classical liberalismwas poured out of the bottle andwelfare liberalismwas poured in; but although the

contentswerenew,thelabel‘liberalism’wasnotchanged.Sincewelfareliberalismgrewoutofbasicelementsofclassicalliberalism,itseemedreasonabletomanythatthesamelabelwouldbeusedtodescribebothphilosophies.”

52 Ibid.,30.53 Ibid.,52–3.HooverwouldcharacterizetheNewDealastheoppositeofwhatheregardedasauthenticliberalism,asalossof

individualfreedomthatwascloserto“fascismorcommunism.”54 Ibid.,18–31,32,52–63.55 Ibid.,59.56 Polanyi,TheGreatTransformation,265.57 Ibid.,147.58 Ibid.,265.59 Ibid.

60 For vonMises, liberalismmeant simply “private ownership of themeans of production.”Ludwig vonMises,Liberalism: theClassicalTradition (Indianapolis: TheLiberty Fund, 2006), xiii, 158.When translated into English in 1962, vonMises’s 1927 book,Liberalism,was titledFreeandProsperousCommonwealth:AnExpositionof the Ideas ofClassicalLiberalism, to avoid confusionovertheideologicalmigrationoftheterminthepost-warperiod.Theanti-statist liberal traditionofnineteenthcenturyAmericawasandcontinues to be variously associated with both conservatives and libertarians. See Alan Brinkley, Liberalism and its Discontents(Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1998),282–4.

61 The book argued against central government control but nevertheless outlined a role for government in economic planning.KeynesreadthebookonthewaytotheBrettonWoodsConferenceandwrotetoHayektocomplimenthimon“agrandbook,”althoughitwasnotclear tohimpreciselyhowgovernmentplanning,asHayekdescribedit,wouldbeadvocatedorassessed.SeeF.A.Hayek,TheRoadtoSerfdom:TextandDocuments,TheDefinitiveEdition,ed.BruceCaldwell(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,2007),xxxvi.

62 David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). Looking for the origins ofneoliberalism inacontemporarycontext,Harvey returns to the1947meetingof theMountPelerinSociety,agroup that includedvonMises,Hayek,and theeconomistMiltonFriedman.Dealingselectivelywith the largerphilosophical traditionaswellas thehistoryofpartypolitics,theyattemptedtoreconstructapropertraditionof“classical”liberalism.Harveyarguesthatwhileanalystsquestionedtherigor of Hayek’s argument, it garnered political support among private wealth, think tanks, and corporate organizations. It gainedacademiclegitimacywhenHayekandFriedmanwereawardedtheNobelPrizein1974and1976respectively.

63 Gray,TheTwoFacesofLiberalism;Harvey,ABriefHistoryofNeoliberalism.64 JohnP.McCormick,CarlSchmitt’sCritiqueofLiberalism:AgainstPoliticsasTechnology(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity

Press,1997).65 Ibid.,14,13.NeoliberalismintheUnitedStatesissynonymouswithneoconservativepositionsandareactionagainstthepolitical

liberalism of the “nanny state” that impinges on the freedom of the individual. The Tea Party movement, emerging during the 2008electionseasonandflourishingduringthefirstyearsoftheObamapresidency,hasrediscoveredHayek.ConservativebroadcasterslikeGlenn Beck cite Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom andConstitution of Liberty as foundational theory, cautioning against the potentialdespotism that can result from big government. Additional strains of contemporary liberal thought, such as those associated withlibertarianismor anarchism, swing between left and right and between radical and conservative camps. See http://hayekcenter.org and“TheGlennBeckEffect:HayekHasaHit,”athttp://blogs.wsj.com.

66 JerroldE.Seigel in theforewordtoPierreManent,AnIntellectualHistoryofLiberalism (Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,1994).

67 Ong,NeoliberalismasException,12,13.68 Ibid.,102.69 Benkler,TheWealthofNetworks,20,7–16,19–20,278–85.70 BrunoLatourandVincentAntoninLépinay,TheScienceofPassionateInterests:AnIntroductiontoGabrielTarde’sEconomic

Anthropology (Chicago: Prickly ParadigmPress, 2009). Concerning the notion of liberalismTardewrote, “I amwell aware that theliberalschoolofeconomistsadvocatesthenon-interventionofthestate,butadvisingthestatetowithdrawwhenitspresenceisindiscreetand harmful to its own ends is nonetheless speaking as a statesman and positing rules for an intelligent policy.” Gabriel Tarde,OnCommunicationandSocialInfluence,SelectedPapers(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1969),4–5,67.

71 LatourandLépinay,TheScienceofPassionateInterests,5.72 Mattelart,MappingWorldCommunication,233–4,note26,282.73 There would be a million telephones installed around the world by 1896. See Huurdeman, The Worldwide History of

Telecommunications,603.74 Ibid.,358–9.Atthe1903conferencemajorglobalpowerssignedaprotocolagreeingthat“coaststationsshouldbeboundto

receiveandtransmittelegramsoriginatingfromordestinedforshipsatseawithoutdistinctionastothesystemofradiousedbythelatter.”The1906conferenceofficiallyincorporatedradioandwirelesswithinthepurviewoftheorganizationandestablishedSOSasadistresssignal.

75 Ibid.,597.76 AlbertLeonGuerard,FrenchProphetsofYesterday:AStudyofReligiousThoughtUndertheSecondEmpire (London:T.F.

Unwin,1913),167–8.77 ArthurC.Clarke,“Extra-TerrestrialRelays—CanRocketStationsGiveWorldwideRadioCoverage?”WirelessWorld,October

1945.78 EricMumford,TheCIAMDiscourseonUrbanism,1928–1960(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,2002).79 JamesC.Scott,SeeingLikeaState:HowCertainSchemestoImprovetheHumanConditionHaveFailed(NewHaven:Yale

UniversityPress,1998),6–7,340.80 EvgenyMorozov,TheNetDelusion:TheDarkSideofInternetFreedom (NewYork:Perseus,2011),Introduction.Seealso

EvgenyMorozov,ClickHeretoSaveEverything:TheFollyofTechnologicalSolutionism(NewYork:PublicAffairs,2013).81 Seeuia.be.TheUIAnowpartnerswithUNESCO.82 Manywhoprojectedthatthissphereofassociationwouldprovideameanstorationalizeeconomiesandsubdueconflictswanted

a means of tracking its growth. In 1947, the same year that ISO was founded, Harvey H. Bundy, President of the World PeaceFoundation, introduced InternationalOrganization, a journal established for just that purpose. SeeHarveyH. Bundy, “Introduction,”InternationalOrganization1,no.1(1947).

83 GunnarFolkeSchuppert,ed.,GlobalGovernanceand theRoleofNon-StateActors (Berlin:WissenschaftszentrumBerlin fürSozialforschung, 2006), 235–7; and Kenneth W. Abbott and Duncan Snidal, “The Governance Triangle: Regulatory StandardsInstitutions and the Shadow of the State,” in Walter Mattli and Ngaire Woods, eds., The Politics of Global Regulation (Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 2009), 44–88.There is even an InternationalUnion ofArchitects, founded inLausanne in 1948. See uia-

architectes.org.84 Meyer, Drori, and Hwang, “Introduction,” in Globalization and Organization, 2, 1. Meyer and his colleagues consider

organizations as entities that are “distinct from, and in partial opposition to such traditional structures as bureaucracy, professionalassociation, family or family firm, and perhaps other structures.” See also Alfred Dupont Chandler and BruceMazlish, Leviathans:MultinationalCorporationsandtheNewGlobalHistory(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2005).

85 Thenarrativesofuniversalrationalizationcollidewiththoseconcerningmilitarismandnationalisminthattheyattempttocreatean authority above that of the nation. Arquilla and Ronfeldt might have associated these ideas with the grand strategy of “liberalinternationalism.”The same narratives of universal rationalization associatewith yetmore strains of social liberalism that collidewithideasofeconomicliberalism.Meyerandhiscolleaguesmustrepeatedlymakethedistinctionbetweentheliberaltraditiontheyclaimandthenotionof“‘neo-liberal’withitsraweconomisticmeanings.”Eventhoughthedistinctionbetweeneconomicandsocialliberalismdoesnotproduceadurableclarificationorseparation, theseparation isneverthelessattemptedagain thusly:“Inmanyanalyses (particularlythosefocusedontheextremesofarevanchistneo-liberalism), theliberalsystemisaboutmarkets,marketsareaboutexploitation,andthesubjectivefreedomofmarketparticipantsisreactivefalseconsciousness.Intheviewputforwardhere,globalliberalismhasspreadasapolitical,cultural,legalandquasi-religiousmodelofcollectiveactionandorganization.”JohnW.Meyer,“WorldSociety,theWelfareState, and the Life Course: An Institutionalist Perspective,” in World Society: The Writings of John W. Meyer (London: OxfordUniversityPress,2010),292.

86 John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan, “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth And Ceremony,” AmericanJournal of Sociology 83, no. 2 (1977), reprinted in Walter W. Powell and Paul DiMaggio, eds., The New Institutionalism inOrganizationalAnalysis (Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1991),57–58,61.Meyer’sworkpromptedKrasnertotheorizeaboutwhathecalls“problematicsovereignty”or“hypocriticalsovereignty.”

87 Takeo, “Introduction,”AMPO: Japan-AsiaQuarterly Review (1977). Today theWorld Federation of Economic Free Zones(FEMOZA)—anon-profitNGOestablishedin1999andheadquarteredinGeneva—convenesprivateentitiesandconsultswithUNIDO.Theorganizationactsasaparastateparliament,collectingandsharingdataaboutfreezonesinconventionsandpublications.

88 Seeitu.int.89 Meyer,Drori,andHwang,GlobalizationandOrganization,269,273–4.

CHAPTER5

Quality

The phone-voice promises, “Your call will be monitored for quality assurance purposes.” Creditcards,all0.76mmthin,slideintoslotsandreadersallaroundtheworld.Screwthreadsconformtoagiven pitch. Every make of car shares the same dashboard pictograms. Batteries with consistentdurationsare sized to fit anydevice.Books,magazines,music, andaudiovisualworksare indexedwith ISBN numbers. Paper sizes and the machines that handle them are standardized. RFID tags,transshipmentcontainers, trucks,carseats, filmspeeds,protectiveclothing,bookbindings,unitsofmeasure, personal identification numbers (PINs), and fasteners of all kinds conform to globalstandards.1

AllofthesesharedstandardsemanatefromtheInternationalOrganizationforStandardization,orISO—a quintessential parliament of extrastatecraft. Founded in 1947, ISO is a privatenongovernmental organization (NGO), but also a global meta-organization—an organization oforganizations.ItconvenesaUN-styleassemblyofmembernationsaswellasprivateentities,andisacrossroadsfornearlyeverytypeoforganizationintheworld(e.g.,NATO,WTO,ILO,OECD,etc.),mostofwhichmaintainacurrencyinstandardmaking.2 ISO,likeitsstrategicpartnerstheITU,theIEC,andtheWTO,hasitsheadquartersinGeneva—aVaticanofsortsforinternationalorganizations.Regardedbysomeasnolessthanthebeginningsofa“worldstate,”ISOformatstheperformanceandcalibrationofmanycomponentsofinfrastructurespaceateveryscale,fromthemicroscopic to thegigantic.Theorganizationhasbeen“steadilyandenergeticallyatworkpromotingtheconstructionofa uniform built environment.”3 ISO presides over amultitude of technical standards that establishcriteria for everything from rollerbearings and refrigerants to lubricants and footwear.There aretechnicalstandardsfortheparametersofaJPEG(ISO/IEC:15444)oranMPEG(ISO/IEC21000),forcookingpasta(ISO7304-2:2008),andevenastandardglassforwinetastings(ISO3591:1977).4

Inadditiontotechnicalstandards,ISOalsodevelopsmanagementstandards,andpinsitshopesofuniversalengagementonamanagementstandardaddressingthemysteriousterm“quality.”TheISO9000 family of standards establishes principles of qualitymanagement—procedures formanagingany industry to better satisfy customers and improve both production and market status. Qualitystandardsdonotdictatetechnicalspecificationsforaproductbutratheroffermanagementguidelinesforaprocessorqualitysystem.Usingsystemicprocessesofinformationgathering,qualitypromisestodeliverawell-runcompany,withstrongsupplierrelationsandenhancedcustomersatisfaction.5

ISO’s institutional disposition is at once evangelical and almost secretive. In zones all over theworld, most companies sport ISO 9000 certification as a shibboleth or seal of approval. For anyglobalproject,likeKenya’sLAPSSEThighway,qualitycertificationisregardedasanecessarysignaltointernationalcontractorsandgovernanceagencies.In1992,theEuropeanUnionrequiredISO9000complianceasaconditionwithinitstradepolicies.6Yet,whileISOmaysometimesstriketheprofileof a public information source or an intergovernmental body, it is a private, voluntary,nongovernmentalorganization—abusinessthatsellsitsstandards,protectsitsclients,andmaintainsnopublicarchive.Itshistoryanditsmulti-scalareffectsontheenvironmentaredifficulttotrack.

Broadening its reach, ISO has recently also developed new management standards for theenvironment, education, health, social responsibility, urban data, and even government itself. Thisprivateformofgovernancethuscontinuestoenterandassertitsauthorityinapublicarenawithoutapublicpoliticaldialogue.LikeitsmanagementconsultingcousinsatMcKinsey&Co.orBoozAllen,

ISOcoachescompaniesaswellascountries,influencinggovernmentpolicy,regionalplanning,andmacro-urbanism.

Qualitymanagementhasactuallybecomesomethinglikeapeculiarglobalcustom—theunofficialpatoisofinfrastructurespace.Armiesofbusinessmenspeakitsmanagementeseinconferencecenters,breakout rooms, webinars, blogs, and books. Every utterance is worthy of an acronym, a bullet-pointed list, a mandala, or a pyramidal diagram. Any idea must be expressed in an unctuous,motivational aphorism. At its most extreme, quality management is exemplary of a supposedlyrationalizedsetofpracticesservingasanidealvesselofirrationality.

As important as it is to understand what quality management does, it is equally important tounderstandwhatitdoesnotdo—indeedwhatitobstructs.Despitebeingtreatedasasealofapproval,itdoesnotsettechnicalperformancestandardsforsomeoftheworld’smostpressingissuesrelatedtolabor and the environment. Only its non-specific, non-bindingmanagement standards inch towardthese issues. They may stimulate and leverage productive change, but they may also inoculateorganizationsagainstregulationwhiledevelopingmoreexpensiveandopaquebureaucracies.

WithitsmultitudeofstandardsISOspeaksmanytechnical languages,but ithasnomanagementstandardsthatdirectlydeployspatialvariableseventhoughspaceitselfisatechnologyandamediumof information. The matrix of repeatable spatial products like malls, resorts, golf courses, andsuburbs,aswelltheurbanformulasforzonesorbroadbandnetworks,contributestoaglobalspatialoperating system.Altering infrastructure space is often amatter of global concern, exceeding thereach of nations and businesses and requiring the scale and leverage of extrastate-craft, but it isordinarilymanipulatedwithnon-spatialtools.Theglobalzoneandbroadbandnetworks,forinstance,shapehugeswathsofterritoryaccordingtourbandefaultsdictatedbyeconometricsorinformatics.Inenvironmental landscapes like rain forests, the technical language of the carbonmarket is used togalvanizethecooperationofgroupsofstates.Theglobalfinancialmarketrecentlycollapsedovertheproliferationof spatialproducts in thesuburbanhousingmarket,butonly legaland financial toolswereavailabletoaddressthecrisis.

ISO’s management standards provide an index of experiments attempted as well as questionsunexplored in the design of global infrastructure space. Learning from both the successes and theabsurditiesof ISO,whatkindsof spatial protocols—craftednot as standardsbut as an interplayofspatialvariables—couldbeinstrumentalintheglobalparliamentsofextrastatecraft?

LogosofstrategicpartnersISO,IEC,andITU

QualityHasNoContent

ISO evolved from a number of different gatherings before and after World War II—sometimesincludingNATO—thatwereneededtoaddressregulations inmanufacturinganddefense.7Standardmakinghaslongbeenanendeavorofindustry,andISOassemblesnationalprivatestandard-making

bodies—parastateinstitutionsdeputizedbygovernmentsbutrepresentingtheinterestsofthousandsof“businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, governmentagencies, and consumer and labor organizations.”8 The British Standards Institute (BSI), theAmericanNational Standards Institute (ANSI), and theDeutsches Institute fürNormung (DIN), forinstance, represent their respective countries, and as full members of ISO have one vote in theassembly. In the 1950s and ’60s more and more developing countries became ISO members.Correspondingandsubscribermembershavelesspowerandpaysmallerduesthandofullmembers,althoughmost, especially those fromdeveloping countries,may have increasinglymore at stake.9Thevotingmemberssendlargenumbersofexpertstoworkonthetechnicalcommitteesthatdevelopthecontentofthestandards.

In the 1970s, ISO began publishing its reports as “International Standards” rather thanrecommendations. At the beginning of 2014, ISO had published over 19,500 standards and hadmembers representing 161 countries.10 Caught between information withheld and shared, thestandardsarenotinthepublicdomain;theyarestrictlyprotectedbycopyrightandonlyavailableataprice.11

Firstreleasedin1987,ISO’smostpopularstandard,ISO9000,perhapsderivesitsbroadappealand extensive voluntary compliance from a lack of content. Over a million organizations in 170countrieshavebeenISO9000certified,andyetnoonecansaywhatISO9000actuallyis.12Sinceitisnotatechnicalperformancestandardthatdirectlyaddresses,forinstance,emissions,fuelefficiency,durability,ordimensionalprecision,thestandardonlyacquirescontentasit isappliedtoaspecificindustry.13 As published, the standard is several pages long and written as a circular set ofinstructions. It sets out principles that are designed to apply to any organization from industrialproductiontofoodservice.

Successfulengagementwiththestandardismeasuredbyevaluatingwhetheranorganizationhasaddressed the objectives it set for itself. Quality, in this context, does not measure the value orperformance of a product or service, but instead outlines a process for achieving internal goalsrelatedtotheproduct.Soacheapproductthatmightbeconsideredbysometobeofpoorvaluecanstillmeetallofthequalityassurancecriteriaandsatisfycustomerexpectationsasestablishedbythebusinessorganizationinquestion.

ThetoneoftheISOpublicrelationsliteratureisearnest,evenslightlyjuvenile,asiftoovercometechnical obscuritywith overwhelming accessibility. The hyperlinkedwebsite offers an apparentlyendless branching network of information. The openness and accessibility seem designed toovercompensate for the central policy of the organization—namely, that its most instrumentalinformationisonlyavailabletothosewillingtopurchaseastandard.

Afterfollowingmultiplehelpfullinksleadingtoadditionalhelpfullinks,eachpromisingtoboiltheinformationdowntoincreasinglyessentialpoints,onecanarriveata linkthatreveals theeightprinciples behind the standard: Customer focus; Leadership; Involvement of people; Processapproach; System approach tomanagement;Continual improvement; Factual approach to decisionmaking;andMutuallybeneficialsupplierrelationships.Anotherlinkgoesdeepertoaccesslistsofthekeybenefitsandpotentialoutcomesforeachoftheseeightintertwinedandself-referentialprinciples.ThesimplestandmostdurablemottoandacronymattendingISO9000reflectsitslongerhistoryandusuallyappearswithinamandaladiagramasPDCA,or“PlanDoCheckAct.”14

EventhoughthecontentofISO9000isdeterminedbyeachindividualindustry,qualityspecialistsmustalsobehiredtohandlefulfillmentoftheprocess.Justasaneducationalormedicalinstitutionisaccredited, so too in industry a third party—a so-called quality engineer—performs auditing andcertifyingservicesthatareoftenpurchasedalongwithaccesstothestandard.Anauditoftenconsists

of interviews, with a set questionnaire, so the size of the firm usually determines the cost of theprocess.Small companiesmay spend tensof thousandsofdollars and largecompaniesmayspendhundreds of thousands and several months on completing the initial accreditation. The resultingcertification is highly prized, and since losing it can damage a company’s reputation, it must becontinuallyrenewed.Sincemanagementstandardsapplytocontractualrelationships,largecompaniesalsoencouragetheirsupplierstobecertified.15

Qualityisthusaproduct,butitisalsoasignificantserviceindustryandquasi-profession.TheBSIisnow“agroup”ofcompaniesthathasacquiredstandard-makinginstitutionsintheUnitedStatesandSingapore.ThegroupalsoacquiredKPMG,anISO-registrationbusinesswithitsheadquartersintheNetherlands. Now called a “superbrand,” in 2009 the BSI Group earned $222million dollars andoperatedin147countries.BSI’sEntropySoftwaresolutionisoneproductitmarketstobusinessestohelpthemsucceedandmanagerisk.16Likewise,theAmericanSocietyforQualityhascraftedqualityintoadisciplineoraprofessionalactivity.Theirwebsiteisstuddedwithphrasessuchas“WeareyoursourceforQuality,”“AreyounewtoQuality?”or“HotTopicsinQuality.”17

Quality is also a habit. As management researcher Staffan Furusten points out, managementdecisions are not usually responsible for the success or failure of anorganization.Nor are they agauge of an organization’s efficiency or productivity. Feedback from customers is also not theprimary reason why organizations change and develop.18 Moreover, management consulting is asignificant and ongoing expense for business. As Furusten suggests, “Order and clarity are notalways typicalofwhat reallygoeson inorganizations.”As it hasdevelopedover the last hundredyears, “global popular management culture” has, at best, simply provided a common set ofpractices.19Atitscoreitmayevenprovideacohesivefellowship—thecamaraderieofteamsandanattitude-shiftingcongregationofactors—believingintheorganizationandtheapotheosisofquality.

QualityIsExtraHistory

The history of “quality”—this common but nevertheless mysterious practice—is found in theliteratureofseveralstrainsofmanagementthinking,eachofwhichenthusiasticallypresentreinventedwheels.Managementcultureflourishesin,perhapsevenrequires,thisamnesicclimate.Anyscholarlyattempttochroniclethishistorymusteventuallyencountertheephemeral,repetitivepopculturethatisitsnourishingandrejuvenatingmedium.

Histories of management often start by examining the administration of large-scalecommunicationandtransportationorganizationsinthelatenineteenthcentury.Forinstance,railroadandinternationalconstructioncompaniesdevelopedtechnicalexpertisethatexceededthatofthestate,as well as management structures that were often independent of state jurisdictions. Managerialcapitalism developed its own forms of governance to orchestrate and plan for future trade,production,distribution,andfunding.Increasednumbersofmultinationalcorporationsappearingattheendofnineteenthcenturybeganexpanding their foreign investmentnetworks.20When theFordMotor Company adopted F. W. Taylor ’s 1911 principles of “scientific management” to increaseassembly-lineefficiencies,theyhelpedtodisseminatepracticesthatwerenotonlyafascinationofUSindustriesandtheUSgovernment,butalsopartofagrowingglobalmanagementphenomenon.21

Two other mottos of scientific management prefigured the PDCA acronym. Henri Fayol’s“Administration Industrielle etGénérale” of 1916maybe oneof the origins of the compulsion tocreatenumberedlistsandstepsincontemporarymanagementese.Fayolofferedthemantra“Planning,Organization, Command, Coordination, Control,” or “POCCC,” as well as fourteen synthetic

principlesformanagementthataddressedfairremuneration,equity,andespritdecorps.In1937,inapublication entitled Papers on the Science of Administration, Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwickmixed social science with organization science. Building on Fayol’s work they offered anothermantra: “POSDCORB (Planning, Organizing Staffing, Directing, Co-ordinating, Reporting, andBudgeting).”22

Thepracticeofqualitycontrolthroughinspectionofassembly-linegoodsbegantoevolveintoaninformationscience.23 In the 1920s,Walter Shewhart, a statistician forBellLabs, shifted the focusawayfrominspectionofthefinalproducttowardananalysisofdatageneratedduringtheprocessofproduction. Since not every item could be inspected, the new technique evaluated batches or lots.Shewhart’sEconomic Control of Quality ofManufactured Product, published in 1931, described atechnicalmeansofaccounting—whatwouldlaterbetermedStatisticalProcessControlandStatisticalQualityControl(SQC).24

Management theoryaroundtheworld,althoughdifferingfromcountry tocountry, increasinglybegan to incorporate the thinking of social scientists (e.g., Elton Mayo, Kurt Lewin, DouglasMcGregor)andtoconsiderworkermotivationandotherissuesofhumanrelationsaswellaslargerstructuralfactorsrelatedtotheorganization.Thesetheoriesgaverisetobothnewindustrypracticesas well as new academic modes of analysis, such as organization studies—the study of howorganizationsandsocialrelationsinfluenceeachother.Organizationstudiestookindustryasoneofitssubjects,evenasindustrywasbeginningtopursueitsowninternalorganizationstudies.Eventuallywhatwascalledqualityassurance—anorganization-wideassessmentofcompanypracticesinrelationtocustomersatisfaction—subsumedpreviouspracticesofqualitycontrol.25

Parallel strains of management thinking focused distinctly on knowledge economies—“restructuring theboardroom,not the shop floor.”26By1930,whenBusinessWeek declared theexistenceofaprofessioncalledmanagementconsulting,anumberofdifferentplayerssuchascostaccountants, advertisers, and engineers had already started to offer consultancy services tobusinesses.27ThefirmthatwouldbecomeBooz,Allen&Hamiltonhaditsfirstincarnationin1919.McKinsey&Companyappearedin1926offeringaccountingexpertise.28Anumberofprofessionalorganizationsandbusiness schools reflected serious interest inmanagementpractices.29 In1944, aFortunearticle,“TheDoctorsofManagement,”reportedthatbusinessadvisinghaditselfbecomebigbusiness.Thenumberoffirmshadgrownfrom100in1930to400by1940.30Businessessubscribedto newsletters and hired advisors for banking, international politics, andmarket research.Fortuneclaimed that “the consulting field is now sopromising that executivesmaywell give up industrialjobsforwhatwillpossiblybemorelucrativeandalmostcertainlywillbemoreexhilaratingcareersactingasadvisorstootherexecutives.”31

Consistentwith theself-erasinghistoryofmanagement,PeterF.Drucker, theeminencegrise ofthecontemporarymanagementworld,claimedinhis1946book,ConceptoftheCorporation,that,atthetime,“‘management’asadisciplineandasanobjectofstudydidnotexistatall.”32Druckerhadobserved the corporation during an extraordinary moment of wartime collaboration with the USgovernment.UsingAlfredP.Sloan’smanagementofGeneralMotors as paradigm,heprofiled thecorporation as an agile, intelligent, and transnational player—an emergent social institutionwithinwhich laborwas an asset.33 Over the course of his career,Druckerwould introduce a number ofdurable terms such as “privatization” or “knowledge worker.”34 Drucker argued that “a conflictbetweendifferentconceptsofbig-businessindustrialsociety”wereattheheartofglobalideologicalconflictsbetweenFascism,Communism,andWesternDemocracy.35

Druckerdisagreedwithhis friendKarlPolanyi, a fellowémigré fromViennaandcolleagueat

Bennington,thatbigbusinesssustaineditselfthroughsomeformofcollectiveplanning,cooperation,or communitarianism. Though he found Polanyi’s economic analysis to be “brilliant” and“profound,”Druckerclaimedthathisownsubject,GeneralMotors,wasan“essayinfederalism.”36Thecorporationwasnotarivalpowerbutapatrioticpartnerofgovernment.

While Drucker ennobled the corporation, he simultaneously generated a new authority forhimself:thatoftheguru.Hisvoicewasnotexactlythatofascholarlytheorist,butnorwasitthatofapracticalengineerofscientificmanagement.Asscholarship,heclaimed,reviewersdidnotknowhowto assess his book. “It dealt with a business yet it wasn’t ‘economics.’ It dealt with structure,organization, policy, constitutional principles, power relationships—and yet it wasn’t‘government.’”37ConceptoftheCorporationwasusedtoreorganizemanycorporationsaroundtheworld,launchingthe“organizationboom”oftheensuingtwentyyears.38

By 1950, an estimated 1,000management firms portrayed themselves as viable partners to thenation,a“contractorstate”askedtoconsultongovernance,defense,ColdWartactics,andtheSpaceRace. They joined the OECD, the IMF, theWorld Bank, and other IGOs—the new institutions ofglobalcoordinationandcooperation.ManyrelocatedtoWashington,DC,andmovedfluidlythroughranksofauthorityadvisingbothbusinessesandgovernmentsdomesticallyandabroad.Inthe1960s,attiredinconservativedress,theseconsultantswerealsolegendarycharactershauntingtheYaleClubandtheUniversityClubinManhattan.TheMarshallPlanensuredthattheirinfluencewasnowglobalas they were awarded more and more overseas contracts. Even the Bank of England was“McKinseyed,” and in the 1970s, andRobertMcNamara also hiredMcKinsey to advise theWorldBank.39

Quality management practices were significantly transformed as they circulated through othercountries,especiallypost-warJapanwhereConceptoftheCorporationwasabestseller.SinceJapan’smanufacturingindustrieshadareputationforpoorlymadegoods,thecountrywasveryreceptivetonotions of quality control as they began to rebuild their industry. To help in this effort, GeneralMacArthurenlistedUSquality-controlexpertsandmanagementconsultants,amongthemW.EdwardsDeming,JosephJuran,ArmandFeigenbaum,andMalcolmBaldrige.Indialoguewiththesetheorists,Japanesemanagement culture developedwhatwould come to be calledTotalQualityManagement(TQM)—a family of techniques that includes Quality Circles (QC), kanban or just-in-timeproduction, zero defects, and suggestion systems, among other things.40 Management consultantMasaakiImaihasarguedthattheethosofkaizen(continualimprovement)distinguishedtheJapanesefrom theWestern models of innovation and maintenance.41 In the 1960s, Toyota became a high-profile workshop for many of these techniques, although they were also tried out at Nissan,Mitsubishi,andKomatsu,amongothers.42

As Japanese production techniquesmarkedly improved in the 1970s, and as theirmanagementstylesbecamemorepopulararoundtheworld,theybegantochallengethesupposedlydominantUSparadigm.AtfirstassumingthattheJapaneseweresimplyundercuttingtheminprice,USbusinessesfinallyawoke to thecompetitionandbegan toemulateJapanese techniques. In the1970s,DIN,BSI,andtheCanadianStandardsAssociation(CSA)developedastrainofqualitystandardsandurgedISOto do the same.43 By the 1980s, ISO formed TC 176 (Technical Committee 176) to research anddevelopstandardsfor“qualitymanagementandqualityassurance.”44ThefirstISO9000standardwaspublishedin1987.45

The approach to quality management that ISO finally adopted reflects quality’s antecedents inscientificmanagement, statistics, structural, and human relations thinking, and globalmanagementcultures.ISOwasnowinvolvedinallthemyriadtheoriesassociatedwiththeprocessofproduction,theproceduresandpracticesofacompany,and thesocialarchitectureofproduction, services,and

corporate governance. Given its history, it is not surprising that even though ISO 9000 is not atechnical standard, there is obsessivedatagathering andmetrics areused toquantifyorprove thatdeliberateobjectiveshavebeenmet.

Accompanying thishistory there isnoepicportraitofwar,nodepictionofamonstrousmulti-cephalousLeviathan,notevenaheroicengineerorscientistwhointervenestorationalizetheworld’seconomies. Rather, there is a seemingly innocuous set of incrementally developed conventions,perhapsaccompaniedonlybyapromotionalphotographofaqualityengineerholdingupaframedcopy of the ISO 9000 certification. Quality lends to infrastructure space part of its inherentdisposition—adrivetohabituatewithoutspecificcontent.Perhapsnothingcouldbemorepowerful.

QualityMultipliesinInfrastructureSpace

Just as ISO was beginning to discover the ways in which quality management might enhance itsglobal influence, the zone formula was being applied to a new crop of urban installations. ISOtechnical standards related to container shipping—for container sizes, construction specifications,and locking mechanisms—helped to accelerate zone growth. By 1970, ISO had concludednegotiationsovertechnicalspecificationstostandardizeKeithW.Tantlinger ’sfamous1958inventionof the corner locking mechanism (currently ISO 1161:1984) for Malcolm McLean’s shippingcontainer (currently ISO 6346).46 The snap and lock of those boxes echoed across containerpopulationsthatwerenowgrowingexponentially.Tomanagetheavalancheofdatatrackingrequiredfor global trade, new generations of computing and broadband telecommunications were alsodeliveredtonewgenerationsofzonesandurbanenclavesinmoreandmoredevelopingcountries.

ISObecameaglobalclubforthisnewcropofurbanism,andthezonefunctionedasamultiplierofqualitymanagementpractices.The“informationalcity”describedbyManuelCastellsin1989wasaworld inwhich technical standards aswell as newmanagement practices like ISO 9000 directlyarranged not only the just-in-time factory and the zone but also the larger industrial andtelecommunications landscape.47 With just-in-time manufacturing and transshipment logistics,managementmadenotthings,butpopulationsofthings—thingsthatflowedevenmoreseamlesslyasinformationratherthanassembly-lineobjects.

Modern architects of the early twentieth century conceived of architecture and urbanism as ashared global platform, yet their titanic, utopian dreams were no match for the ploddingbureaucracies of standard making. Modular proportional systems, flexible joints, minimumrequirementsfordwelling,orprefabricationtechnologieswereamongtheproposals thatarchitectsoffered in projects, books, exhibitions, or conferences like the meetings of the InternationalCongressesofModernArchitecture(CIAM).Spatialvariables,itwashoped,wouldshapeauniversallanguage.48Nevertheless,whileinfrastructurespacemaybetheoperatingsystemforzonesaswellasotherthegenericspatialproducts—golfcourses,resorts,retail,andsuburbsamongthem—architectshave usually not devised the rules.Corporate budgets andpractices arguably shape this space, andwithin these practices, the language of standards is common and global.49Moreover most globalconstruction firms, and some large design firms, necessarily implement quality-managementprogramsandspeaktheISOdialects.

Havingusedqualityasagambit tobringmoreandmorecorporations into thefold,ISObeganauthoring additional specialized quality-management standards. One of these was ISO 14000—amanagement standard addressing environmental issues. The ISO 14000 Technical Committee, TC206,wasestablishedin1993.Thestandarddoesnotsetexplicittargetsforemissionsorwaste.Rather,it isdesigned tochangeattitudes toward theenvironment.50 Ithasbeenadoptedbyoverhalfof the

ISOmembers,andwhilecertificationisnotmandatory,over150,000certificateshavebeenissuedin148 countries.51 ISO 14000 is part of what has been called a move “Beyond Total Quality”—management standards increasinglyconcernedwithpublic issues like theenvironment,healthcare,education,corporatesocialresponsibility,andevengovernance.52ISOstandardshavecreatedahabitthathasspreadtoalmosteverykindofendeavor,suchthatitwouldseemthatmanagementstandardsare the answer to any problem in any field. All the familiar practices—information gathering,feedback questionnaires, quantified progress reports, and other metrics—now attend each newincarnationofquality.

ISO’sinfluencehasbeensopervasivethatthemanagementhabithasbeenmimickedinnon-ISOstandardsandcertificationprograms.Thesameyear that ISOestablishedISO14000, theUSGreenBuildingCouncil (USGBC) inauguratedacertificationprocesscalledLEED(Leadership inEnergyand Environmental Design) that replicated ISO’s jargon and metrics. LEED assumes a similarbureaucraticstructuretothatofISOwithitsmemberorganizations,technicalcommittees,andaudits.Buildings are rated according to their fulfillment of criteria on the LEED checklist forenvironmentally sensitive design (Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum). The USGBC hosts aninternationalroundtablefor thegreencouncilsof thirtynationsanddevelopswhat itcalls“GlobalAlternative Compliance Paths” for international work.53 LEED certification is a badge that isprominentlydisplayedamongprofessionalsinthedesignandconstructionindustries.54

LEED in turn has its own imitators. The US Public Interest Design Institute offers training inSEED (Social Economic Environmental Design) certification—a set of standards for evaluatingcommunity design, established in 2005. Promising to move beyond LEED, SEED measures thesuccessofprojectswith the“SEEDmetric.” It alsoaccounts for the “triplebottom line” (TBL)—atermused in relation tocorporate social responsibility to indicate sensitivity topeople,planet, andprofit.The“SEEDEvaluator3.0”isanothertoolforgatheringinformationandassessing“proofofconcept”oradherencetoSEED’sfivebasicprinciples.Meetingsinthenetworkusequestionnairestogatherparticipantresponses,whileaccesstothenetworkandtrainingisonlyavailableaftertakingapledgetoabidebytheorganization’sfiveprinciples.55

Recently, ISOhasbegun toconsiderbuilding technologiesandcities.Theorganization rendersbuildings not as enclosures but as assemblages of technical systems, components, and inhabitants.“IntelligentandSustainableBuildings”was the themeof the ISO2008GeneralAssembly inDubai.The assembly recognized that buildings represent “a large share of the economic assets ofindividuals,organizationsandnations,”andthattheyaremajorsourcesofemployment,consumersofenergy,andproducersofwasteandemissions.56Sprawl,smartcities,zerocarbonemissioncities,andearthquakesweresomeofthetopicsdiscussed.NearbyMasdarCitywasheldupasamodelforfuturecities.Theassembly’sprogramconsistentlyadvancedglobalstandardsasthekeytoachievingthisurbanfuture.AndISO’s37120,anewstandardforurbandatacollection,evenidentifiesforty-six“performanceindicators”forconsistentlycomparingglobalcities.57

There is, however, no ISO technical committee specifically tasked with addressing thetechnologiesofinfrastructurespace.Architectureandurbanplanning,ascurrentlyconfigured,mayalsobebetteratconformingtoratherthanconfrontingorrenovatingdevelopmentpracticesaroundtheworldwhereISO-stylebureaucraciesareoftenpullingthestrings.

QualitySpeaksManagementese

Thisnewwayofthinkinginvolvesnotonlyfreeenterprisebutalsoaveritablecultofenterprise,borderingonthereligious,tothepointwheremanyfirmshavetakentheirdesiresforreality,theirprojectofcorporatedevelopmentforinternaldemocracy,their

discourse about new internal communications, for the advent of employee participation andmobilizations, and new forms ofcorporateself-organizationfornewmeansofpersonalrealization.—ArmandMattelart58

In1965,oneineveryhundredemployeeswasamanagementconsultant;by1995theratiowasoneineverythirteen.59Consistentwiththeideathatmanagementstandardsaretheanswertoeverything,thelast fewdecadeshaveseenanew“frenzyofmanagement fads.”60Mostof these fads share severalcommonattributes.Theguru,asasubjectofmodernmythologizing,isoftenpresenttolendhumanscale and promote discipleship. Charts and aphorisms are default requirements, reflecting theengineering,accounting,andmotivationalingredientsinmanagement’slongerhistory.

Inmotivationalteamworkenvironments,JapanesemodelsofTotalQualityManagementhavecasttheirspellwithincantatoryslogansandmantrasaboutstrivingforbetterresultsandeliminatingerror(e.g., “You are surrounded bymountains of treasures.”Meaning: There aremany problems fromwhichtolearn).61AnumberofJapanesemanagementleadersofferedsignaturetechniques.62Amongthem the 3MU checklist, the 5 S movement, the 4M checklist, the Seven Statistical Tools, the 9Wastes,orthe5Wsandthe1H(meaning:Oneneedstoask“Why”atleastfivetimestodeterminethecause of a problem and then decide “how” to fix it.) From each of these gnomic postulates flowadditionalsteps,diagrams,charts,andchecklists.63

In the United States, managementese often assumes the tone of self-help literature. EstablishedfirmslikeMcKinseyoffertheirownformulasandincubatenewpopulargurus(e.g.,KenichiOhmae,TomPeters,orRobertWaterman).64McKinsey&Co.hastheMcKinsey7-S(SharedValue,Strategy,Structure, System, Staff, Style, Skill). Booz&Co. (a spinoff of BoozAllen) offers amandala ofinterpenetrating circular arrows inwhich thephrases “way to play,” “product and service fit,” and“capabilitiessystem”surroundacentralcorewiththephrase“righttowin.”TomPeters,inthelineofsuccession fromPeterDrucker, is theauthorofnearly twentybooks,andhe furtherbroadcastshismessageinseminars,papers,awebsite,andtweets.Amongthe“freestuff”onthetompeters!websiteonefinds“TheTop50HaveYous,”the“100WaystoSucceed/MakeMoney,”the“209Irreducibles,”among many others. Peters sometimes directly addresses quality systems. His “Quality andExcellence:TheQuality136”offers136“randomthoughts”onquality.“Qualityissayingthankyou”appearstwiceasnumbers6and8inthelist.“Qualityisstrategy”and“Strategyisquality”appearasnumbers 43 and 44. In a constant fount of jargon, sometimes created from other jargon, Petersencourageshisdevotees tobe“blackbelt listeners,”arguingthat“quality is lettinggoof thosewhosufferfromSED—SevereEnthusiasmDeficit.”65

A sister to the quality industry, as sponsored by ISO and others, and one that shares manypersonnelinthequalityworld,isSixSigma.SixSigma,atermusedinstatisticalanalysis,referstoasetofqualitytechniquesthatMotoroladevelopedandsharedin1988.Nowbroadlyappliedtomanydifferent kinds of organizations, it relies heavily on statistics to reduce defects in production andmanagement. One can be certified as a quality auditor, a quality engineer, and even as somethingcalledaCSSBB,aCertifiedSixSigmaBlackBelt.Numerousgroups,liketheInternationalSixSigmaInstituteandSecretSocietyforImperiousProfessionalsofProcessImprovement(ISSISSIPPI),makeupasecondaryindustryofferingtraininginSixSigmapracticesandcertificationprocesses.66

Some of the most powerful individuals and organizations in the world have partnered withmanagementgurusoradoptedmanagementscripts.Duringthewinterof1994,PresidentBillClintonwentonaself-imposedretreatwithStephenCovey(TheSevenHabitsofHighlyEffectivePeople)andAnthony“Tony”Robbins(UnlimitedPower:TheNewScienceOfPersonalAchievement).Duringhisattempttorecapturepowerfortheconservativerightinthe1990s,NewtGingrichmadeDruckerpartof the reading list for his adherents and made the “Contract for America” a management theory

document.67Global strategists likeMcKinseyorBoozAllenpartnerwithgovernments toworkonpoliticalcampaigns,defensecontracts,nationalinfrastructureplanning,andregionalormacro-urbandevelopmentstrategies,amongmanyother things.Developingcountrieshire theseconsultancies toprovide advice about governance, organization, new technologies and industries, etc. It is then notsurprisingthat,inthemid-1990s,examining,critiquing,orchroniclingthepracticesofmanagementandconsultingfirmsbecameanewmicro-industry.68

Since management consulting is in the business of “retailing” ideas, its principles mustparadoxicallymaintainthefluidityandnoveltyofmerchandiseinrapidcyclesofobsolescence.Likethe promises of spiritual cults or recipes for celebrity, the message is continually refreshed withcontent, maintaining a forward movement that is satisfying perhaps precisely because it cyclesthrough familiar territorywithonly slight variations.All of this contentmust be constantly boileddown to essential steps that can be instantly absorbed. The result is a welter of books, seminars,lectures,heroes,bibles,acronyms,upbeat jargon,steps, take-aways,executivesummaries,and“go-to” concepts. In this industryworthover$300billion, speaking feesof $60,000are routine.69 Theteasers for guru seminars resemble the infomercial that seems to provide everything but the oneessential ingredient that must finally be purchased—or, as one seminar promised: “The MostImportantSentenceintheEnglishLanguage.”70

Self-help management speak can be found throughout the literature on quality. Personalachievementisarecurringtheme.Swoopingarrowsembellishthemandalasandpyramidsthatareastapleofthegenre.Joiningthesemightbe,forinstance,aclassicaledifice,asoft-focusphotographof an oyster shell opening to reveal its pearl, individuals in silhouette reaching the summit of amountain,orothersjumpingupenthusiasticallywitharmsoutstretched.

QualityIsExtrastatecraft

However innocuous ISOmayappear tobe, theorganizationhasuniversalambitions. ISOhopes tocertifymoreandmorecompaniesanddrawaneverlargersectionoftheglobalcommunityintothemanagement habit. Once this population of players is listening and committed to continuallyrenewingitscertification,themanagementprotocolbecomesameansofreconditioninganynumberoforganizationswithanewmessageoraninflectionoftheoldone.

Before2000,EuropeannationswerethepredominantsubscriberstoISOmanagementstandards,butISO9000certificationdoubledinthefirstdecadeofthetwenty-firstcentury,andwhenin2009thenumberof ISO9000certificates toppedonemillion,one-quarterof thosewere fromChina.71 Thenumber of certified organizations in the United States and the UK has held steady. Regarding theadoptionofISOstandardstobeoverlybureaucraticorconstraining,UScompanieswereinitiallylessinclinedtoadoptthem.CharacterizingUSmanagementsystemsasmuchmoresusceptibletomarketsand management fads, the European management systems perhaps respond more positively tohierarchical coordination from international organizations like ISO.72 To consider the needs ofdevelopingcountries,ISOsetupDEVCO—sometimesseenasa“missionary”organizationbringingthesecretsignalsofacapitalmarkettothenot-yet-initiated.Yetnow,thelatesttrendsinmanagementculturearebeginning tocomefromdenselypopulateddevelopingcountries like India,Africa,andChina.CoimbatoreKrishnaraoPrahaladorVijayGovindarajanareperhapsedgingoutTomPetersorthegurusofTotalQualityManagement.

With ISO 14000 and other Beyond Total Quality standards, ISO has begun to engage otherinternational organizations involved in global governance. ISO 14000 was developed with the

cooperationofanumberofNGOsandIGOsincludingtheWorldHealthOrganization,theWTO,theGlobalEcolabellingNetwork,andtheSierraClub. ISO’snewGuidelinesforSocialResponsibility,ISO26000,recognizethatmanagementstandardshavepotentialresponsibilitiesbeyondthoserelatedtocustomer satisfaction.Addressingcorporateaswell aspublic institutions, ISO26000 refers toanumber of existing voluntary guidelines from the ILO, theOECD, and theUnitedNationsGlobalCompactOffice (UNGCO). Implementation of these guidelines is encouraged but neither certifiednorenforced.

Like LEED and SEED, the global activist group SocialAccountability International (SAI) alsomirrors the form of ISO 9000 protocols, this time precisely to piggyback on systems and habitsalreadyinplaceinanenormousnumberoforganizations.In1998,SAI—anNGOthatclaimsalargeglobal “citizenship”—launchedSA8000.WhileSA8000confronts issuesof labor, theenvironment,and human rightsmore directly than any ISO standard, ISO provides it with the camouflage of arelativelyconservativeorganization.SA8000incorporatesbasictenetsoftheILO,theICFTU,andtheUN Global Compact of 2000—“ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights,labour,environmentandanti-corruption.”73However,theSA8000codeshavethebenefitofoperatingindependentlyfromtheregulationofanyonecountry;sowhiletheUnitedStates,forinstance,maynothaveformallyratifiedprinciplesconcerninglaborprotection,SocialAccountabilityInternationalcanapproachUScompaniesindividuallyandattempttoextractapledge.74

Even though SA8000 has acclimated to corporate practices, multinational corporations wouldnevertheless prefer to propose their own standards, regulations, and certification processes inresponse topressure andcriticism from labor andenvironmental activists, andnational regulatoryagencies.Corporationsnotonlyreport theirethicalcodeofconduct inpromotional literature, theyorganizeandsubmittotheirownsecond-andthird-partycertificationprocesses.Launchedin1998,the Fair Labor Association has a similar certification process. The FLA’s audit of Foxconn wascontroversial largely because the organization is funded by some of the same companies, such asApple,thatitischargedwithinvestigating.TheOECDreportstheexistenceofhundredsofsuchself-certifyingcodesofconductincirculation.75

A so-called NGO-Industrial Complex has evolved in which NGOs may operate either as alegitimatemeansof influencing corporate policy, or as a smoke screen for inoculating a businessagainst any reckoning. A company like Apple, Nike, or Starbucks may undergo a number ofcertification processes, and display next to their logo a collection of badges and certificatesrepresenting ‘universal principles’—all in lieu of adhering to the laws of a state. Compliance isvoluntary,andthesealofapprovalmaybeself-constructedorinternaltothecorporation.76

QualityInoculates

Perhapsbecauseenvironmental standardsprovoke sharedquestionsaboutperformance, ISO14000haspromptedresearchconcerningboth itsefficacyand the intentionsbehind it. Invokingwhat theycall “club theory,” researchers have argued that industries requiring ISO 14000 certification fromtheirsuppliersactlikemultipliersspreadinginfluenceandencouragingcomplianceonthepartoftheother players in the club.77 They have collected evidence suggesting that “ISO 14001-certifiedfacilities have better environmental performance (lower pollution emissions, adjusted for theirtoxicity)thantheywouldhavehadif theyhadnotjoinedtheclub.”78Someanalystsproject that thestandardmightbecomeacarrierofadditionalguidelines,habits,orsymboliccapital.79

Samplingoflogosfororganizationsofferingcertificationprogramsintheso-calledNGO-IndustrialComplex

As part of various governance collectives, ISO may be a standard-bearer and facilitator ofchanging attitudes, or just another proxy or disguise. Nils Brunsson, a researcher of businessorganization and administration, argues that standards “may not only promote but also inhibitcompetition and innovation.”80 Similarly, noting that standards can be used as both “sword” and“shield,” the international law scholar David A.Wirth observes that as they become part of tradenegotiations,theymaybeusedbyonecountrytochallengeandexcludetheproductsofanother,ortoshieldtheirownfromcritique.Theymayalsobeusedtoinoculateorganizationsagainstbindingandmore consequential regulations, especially when minimum guidelines are treated as maximumstandards. Wirth also raises questions about a regulatory consensus among private organizationswhen those regulations create a significant financial liability. Moreover, how does one evaluateprivateagreementsaboutenvironmentalissueswithoutpublicinput?81

For the environmental lawyer Judith Kimerling, ISO 14000 and the various programs ofCorporate Social Responsibility are hardly innocuous, and they may only provide larger moreestablished organizations or nations with techniques for protecting themselves against bindingstandards.HavingwitnessedsomeofthedangerousconsequencesofdrillingintheoilfieldsoftheEcuadorianAmazon, she argues that oil companies in the region used “the cloak of internationalstandards and corporate responsibility to wrap [their] operations in a veneer of environmentalexcellence and social responsibility.” ForKimerling, “corporate responsibility” and “internationalstandards”canbeusedtounderminethedevelopmentofnationalenvironmentallawandcapacitybyarbitrarily “legitimizing norms that have been defined by special interests, and reassuringgovernment officials and other stakeholders that practices are improving, based on enigmaticstandards that lie beyond the reach—or responsibility—of national authorities.”82 With her bookAmazonCrude (1991), Kimerling, who has worked in the region for decades, inspired a lawsuitagainstTexacothathasstillnotbeensettled.83

AsKimerling points out, for all the activity in this burgeoning sphere of extrastate consensus,there are many signal absences, primarily related to environment and labor. She writes that the“imbalanceininternationalgovernanceisillustratedbythefactthatundertherulesgoverningtradetoday,thereisameaningfullegalmechanismtoholdacompanyaccountableforpiratingaMadonnavideo,butnotforcontaminatingtheenvironmentorusingforcedorchildlabor.”84ISOdevelopedatechnicalstandardso thatdifferentcountriesandagenciescoulduniformlymeasureemissionsofatonofcarbon,andtheyhavealsodevelopedtechniquesformonitoringthequalityofair,water,and

soil.Still,theymakenorecommendationsregardingemissions.85Similarly,thereareISOstandardsforcoldworkplaces,protectiveclothing,andothersafetyissues,butnostandardregardinghoursandwages,orconditionsintropicalclimes.Qualitymanagementpracticesmaybringlaborintodialoguewithmanagement (e.g., quality circles), but customer satisfaction surveysmay shieldmanagementwhen they only address the services delivered by employees. Moreover, companies like ClassicFashionApparelintheJordanianQIZareabletosportISOcertificationsaswellasotherawardsandcongratulations on their website, even while being under investigation over allegations of sexualabuseandpredation.

ISO is devoted to the sharing and coordination of information, yet because it must treat itsstandardsasaproduct,itcannotbeaclearinghouseforinformation.Ifitwasatrulypublicinstitutionwithopenarchives,itcouldprovideanamazingindexoftheperformanceandcomplianceofeveryspeciesoforganization in theworld.While ISO isnot in the auditingandcertificationbusiness, itdoeshiretheresearchcompanyNielsentokeeptrackofthenumberofcertificationsthathavebeenissued.Thecompanyproduces a summaryof thisdata andpublishes it on theweb,but it doesnotinclude the names of the organizations that are ISO certified—a list that is almost impossible tocompile.ISOkeepstheserecordsconfidentialsoasnottorevealitsclientstocompetingcompaniesinthecertificationbusiness.Theaspirationsofengineersinthequalityindustrytakeprecedenceoverthepublicaspirationsthatthequalitystandardsaddress.

IntheoilfieldsoftheAmazonforestorinthefactoriesofeveryISO9000-certifiedmanufacturer,asincountlessothersituationsaroundtheworld,itseemsthat,forallthestrenuouseffortstodevelopstandards, forallof theweightofmind-numbingorganizationalhabit,or forallof theattempts tocontrol the world from Geneva, in many places where it matters most, there are few tools forinitiatingchange.Thereasonablemenandwomeninquality-managementculture—allinattendance,all simultaneously translating, all balancing loyalties—seem to work on safer, less controversialissues.Qualitypracticesof informationgatheringhave taught themtorepeatedlyaskquestions thatwillyieldpositiveresponses.“HaveIansweredallofyourquestionstoday?”;“IsthereanythingelseIcanhelpyouwith?”;“HaveIrespondedtoallofyourneedswithexcellence?”

Technical and management standards are instructive if only because they have, in a matter ofdecades,changedthewaypeopleacrosstheworldtalktoeachotherwhilealsostrengtheningalayerof influential intermediate authority operating in between the market and the state. The strategicindeterminacy of these standards, offering fluid goals to a global audience, is politically shrewd,demonstratingthepowerofdispositionorpureactivitydivorcedfromcontent.Qualityisapracticethatisdoingsomethingasithabituates,andsayingalmostnothingasitavoidscontroversialpoliticalstances.Yet its absurdly self-reflexive formsof consensuscanmask thegravestpoliticalproblemsfacing its adherents—cultivating what philosopher Jacques Rancière calls the “diseases ofconsensus.”86

QualityMeetsInterplay

ISOisapowerfulmultiplieramongcorporatenetworksandurbanincubatorslikethezone.Assuchitmaybeapossible, ifunlikely, sourceof inspiration foralternativeurbandesignprojectsusing theISOnetwork as an undisclosed carrier.Rather than focusing on the design of a building as objectform, the designer might work on a component detail for anything from a skyscraper to anautomobile—a detail strategically placed as a multiplier or germ of change in a population ofbuildings,disguisedasinoffensivelybanal,butamplifiedbyISO’sglobalreach.

Yet, despite the widespread faith in management standards, infrastructure space offers the

possibilityofanewglobalhabit that ispotentiallymorepowerful—notstandardsbut softwareandprotocolsforsimpleinterdependenciesorlinkagesbetweenspatialvariables.Aswasdiscussedintheprecedingaccountsofzoneandbroadbandurbanism,spatialsoftwareisdifferentfromamasterplanthatoftenactsasacontainerforspatialproducts,but it isalsodifferentfromstandardsthatmerelymanage andoften inoculate.Softwareoffers neither plannor solution, but rather an expressionofrelationships—ameanstoleveragechangeininfrastructurespacewithinterdependentconstraintsandoffsets. Floating and adaptable protocols, establishing not fixed content but rather an interplay ofactiveforms,mightbecomecustomarybargainsinglobalexchanges.

Incraftingglobalagreements,organsof interdependenceandreciprocityaredifferentfromtheorgansofconsensusthatsurroundsquality.Spatialsoftwarecanmixremoteabstractvaluestogetherwith the values of a complex local context, without requiring that all parties conform to a singleuniversalprinciple.Afterall,institutionsthatdosooftendevelopelaborateritualstodemonstratethattheyareadheringtosuchprincipleswheninfacttheyaredepartingordecouplingfromthem.Asapoliticalapparatus,theinterplayofspatialsoftware,bycontrast,potentiallybenefitsfromthebalanceandexchangeofdistinct,remote,ordivergentvalues.

Variousbargaininginstrumentsarealreadyinplayinglobaldevelopment.TheEmirateslargelyaccepted the zone as a prepackaged formula to be deployed in exchange for trade, education, ortechnology.YettheUAEalsomadeexploitationofitsresourcescontingentonanoffsetinvestmentinotherindustriesthatitneeded,fromdesalinationandfishfarmingtotourism.Thecountrywasthenable to curate the broader composition of its offerings to the world while becoming more self-reliant.87Across theworld,anynumberofbankingproductsalsoorganize investments to leveragenewassets.CanacitylikeNairobisimilarlylinkzoneincentivestopublictransitinvestment?OrinKenya’s digital villages, can roadways and broadband capacities be linked in away that preserveswildernessandattractsremoteeducationalortouristassets?Alloftheselinkagesmightengenderasustaining give-and-take, and a spatial software for simple interdependencies has the potential tobecomeascontagiousasastandard.

Considerglobal landscapesasdifferentassuburbansprawland therainforest.Both landscapesinvolvenationalandinternationalplayers,theirproblemsarepoliticallyintractable,andtheycannotbeadequatelyaddressedwiththeprevailingtoolsofstandardsormasterplans.Bothlandscapesarealsoabstractlyvalued:Insuburbansprawl,theglobalfinancialindustrygeneratescomplexmortgageproducts and derivatives to represent the house,while in the rain forest the global carbonmarketassigns carbon credits to represent the forest.REDD (ReducingEmissions fromDeforestation andDegradation)isaprotocolforcalculatingthecarbonvalueofresourcesliketherainforest,sothatforest owners who choose not to deforest can be compensated for preserving a global asset.88Additional environmental assets may be commoditized as a Payment for Environmental Services(PES),wherecorporationspayforaresourcelikecleanwater.89

Inbothsuburbandforest,ratherthanmerelybeingmonetized,howmightadiverseportfolioofspatial assets and values associated with any property (the land, home, agriculture, soil, climate,resources, culture, symbolic capital) becomevariables in in a parallelmarket?Trading in abstractvalues can lead to volatility, with lasting physical effects on the ground and there is a need toinstrumentalize alternative values.Global deals crafted as an interplay of spatial variables operatewithrisksandrewardsthataremoretangibleandtransparent.

A spatial software of active formsmaybe able to deliverwhat aworld ofweak standards andweakurbandesigncannot.Forinstance,oftenwhatisneededintheselandscapesisnotawaytodrivethe development machine forward but a way to put it in reverse. The standards, incentives, andregulations of environmental management are often there to facilitate development. Similarly, the

object form that most architects and urbanists are trained to work with often only results in theaddition ofmore buildings. Could an active form be instrumental in the removal of buildings orroads? Is it possible to develop a spatial protocol, like a governor, that can not only add todevelopmentbutalsoshrink,concentrate,orreverseit?Asubtractionprotocolmightbepopularinmany parts of the world where, for instance, overdevelopment has produced distended or failedmarkets,wheredevelopmentconfrontsenvironmentalissues,whereitwouldbewisetoretreatfromexhaustedlandorfloodplains,orwherespeciallandpreservesarevalued.

Inanelementaryecologyofproperties—whetherMcMansionsinthesuburbansprawlorranchesintheAmazon—asubtractionprotocolwouldbesomethingliketheSavannahsoftwareinreverse.Itmight play out through an accumulation of simple moves within which densifying suburbanproperties or preserved areas of forest are linked to propertieswhere developmentmight best bedeleted. Sites of densification provide revenues for the sites of subtraction. The latter can alsogeneraterevenue,if,forinstance,thecontractionofdevelopmentintheforestsponsorsthegrowthofalternative industries like tourism. The same contraction in the suburb may provide room foralternativeenergyortransitindustriesonlandthatwouldotherwisebedifficultforacitytoacquire.The counterbalancing relationship between properties can create a ratchet effect capable ofreconditioningurbanspace.

Perhapsmoreimportantthanthecontentoftheinterplayinallthesescenariosisthedispositionofinterplay as distinct from that of standard making in global negotiations and compacts. Spatialsoftwarerecognizesandbuilds intelligencewith the information that resides inurbanspace. Italsorecognizes thepossibilityofparallelmarketsofexchange.Offeringno redemptiveprescriptionoreasy stampof approval, an interplayof active formsexistsonly tobeadjusted. It isunfoldingandindeterminate.Likethesignalsthataidinthenavigationofariver,itprovidesonlymarkersortoolswithwhichaglobalnetworkofplayerscanengage.

QualityIsIrrational

Howcan itbe that theconfusedandcontentiousbumblerswhopopulate thepagesoforganizationalcasestudiesand theoriescombine to construct the elaborate and well-proportioned social edifice that macrotheorists describe?—Paul J. Dimaggio andWalterW.Powell90

ISO is often regarded as amodel of rational activity. The sociologists John Boli andGeorgeM.ThomasassignloftyaspirationsandprojectionstotheincreasingnumberoforganizationslikeISO,whichtheyregardasindicatorsofa“worldpolity”or“world-culturalauthority.”91Theyhavelookedat ISO from the perspectives of neo-realist, state-competition, world-system, and neoliberalinstitutionalisttheoriesofglobalization,andclaimtohavediscoveredsomethingthatisnotreducibletoanyof them:Globalstandard-makingorganizationsare“areaconstitutivepartofworldsociety.Ananalysisthattreatsthemassuchcanteachusmuchaboutatranscendentlevelofsocialreality.”92

Demonstratingthepowerofsocialstoriesasactiveformsininfrastructurespace,organizationslike ISOalsobegetmoreglobalorganizationsallofwhich thriveonshared languagesandrituals.Sociologist Peter Mendel argues that “international standards bodies constitute an extensive yetmundaneand,tonow,rathersilentforceofsocialrationalizationacrosstheglobe.”ISOisevidenceofan“expandingglobalsociety.”93Suggestingthat theorganizationisa“peculiarlymodernsocialactor,”Mendelcontinues:

Thus, the spread of modern managerial ideologies contains not only specific organizational models, but the underlying culturalblueprintandrationaleforcreatingorganizationsandimbuingthemwiththecapacityforindependentagency.Wherethisassumptionoforganizationalactorhoodlandsandtakeshold,theoutcomeisaconstanthungerforalltypesofdiscourseandreformstorationalize

andimprovetheorganizationasasocialactor,especiallyuniversalparadigmsandprogramslegitimatedatthegloballevel.94

JohnW.Meyer suggests that the organization is regarded as a special actor, one not servingtraditionalfamilies,bureaucracies,orregimes,andoperatingwithinacontextthatexceedsWeberianexplanations.Ithasbecomea“modernmyth”toreplacethatofthe“nationalstateandsociety.”95ForMeyer,theverynotionofglobalizationseemstoinspireadesireforcommonplatformscelebratedwith “highly elaborated and scripted forms.” In fact, “organizations wear the protective armor ofrationalization and formalization” as part of the procedural regalia of quasi-sovereignty.96 People“play the rolesof smallgodsas theycarryuniversalvisionsof rationality andempoweredhumanactor-hood in a very lawful, increasingly global world.” Meyer identifies many of these“organization-as-religion” phenomena as he assesses the foibles, failures, successes, heroes, andgurus of the “modern binge of organization.”97 He and his colleagues write: “Like traditionalreligiousmovements,itisnotthepracticalpeople,butthemodern-dayincarnationsofpriesthoods—professors, scientists, consulting gurus, and theorists—and their scientized homilies that carry themovement on.”98 It is worth repeating the observation of Meyer and his colleagues that “Globalsocietyisarationalizedworld,butnotexactlywhatonecouldcallarationalone.”99

ISOharborsorencountersmanyparadoxes.Itisanonstateactorthatadvisesstategovernments.Itstrivesforuniversalimpact,butmustoperateasasomewhatsecretiveinstitutionwithnotrulypublicdimension—noappealtoacitizenwhoisnotalsoaconsumer.Itisanoverachieverthatbelievesinthesuperiorfitnessofitsplans,butportraysitselfasinoffensiveandsubservient.Itsratherobscureprocesses are largely unknown to the general public but nevertheless attract a broad consensus—aconsensusforaplatformthatdoesnotoriginateinapoliticaldialogue.Itistreatedasaninstitutionmoreagilethanstatebureaucracy,andyetitperpetuateslayersofproceduralritualandregulation.Itspracticeofstandardmakingdemonstrates that themosteasilyshareddialogue is theone that is themostmeaningless,while itscapacity to leveragechange inconsequentialareas related to laborandtheenvironmentremainselusive.

Nevertheless, ironically, ISO’smost instrumentaland inspiringattributemaybe its irrationality.Quality standards demonstrate the power that non-state organizations can have in the world—anauthority that doesnot precisely correspond to the familiarmodesof legal, historical, or politicalanalysis.Qualitydemonstratesthepowerofcontagionandconformityoverthepresumedimperativesofeconomicscienceortechnocracy.ISO9000,themostuniversalstandard,isbasednotontechnicalcompliancebutemotional,motivationalbeliefsystems.Promisesofacomprehensive,rationalizing,universalizing intelligence accompany the idea of global governance. Such ideologies have beenpowerfully shaping the thickening bureaucracies that currently preside over global development.Institutions like ISO provide firm technical and economic foundations for both the public and theprivate players in development. Yet with its quality-management programs, ISO demonstrates thecurrencyof immaterialhabitsandstories. In the reflected lightof this relativelyelaborate formofirrationality,manyofthesound,reasoneddecisionsofglobaldevelopmenttakeonasimilarcolor.

ISO,inshort,modelsnotapracticetobeemulatedbutaterritorytobeoccupiedbyextrastatecraft.Asthewordsuggests,extrastatecraftplotstobypassbureaucracieswithaneffectivespatialpracticeattheglobalscale.Globalinfluenceneednotwaitfortheconstructionofacomprehensive,singular,ortotalizing formof governance.On the contrary, such consensus often threatens to deaden politicalpositions. No one is waiting for the Kyoto Protocols of urbanism as crafted by a Union ofInternational Architects meeting somewhere in Switzerland. Designing an interplay of spatialvariables that values and maximizes the countervailing and counterbalancing desires of differentpartiesisthebusinessofartful,entrepreneurialspatialpractitionerswhocanexploitthecurrencyofnewhabitsininfrastructurespace.

_______________1 Seeiso.organdThomasA.LoyaandJohnBoli,“StandardizationintheWorldPolity:TechnicalRationalityoverPower,”inJohn

BoliandGeorgeM.Thomas,eds.,ConstructingWorldCulture:InternationalNongovernmentalOrganizationssince1875(Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress,1999),169–97.

2 GoranAhrneandNilsBrunsson,Meta-organizations(Cheltenham:EdwardElgar,2008).3 LoyaandBoli,“StandardizationinWorldPolity,”169.4 Seeiso.org.JPEGisanacronymforJointPhotographicExpertGroup;MPEGforMovingPictureExpertsGroup.5 Staff an Furusten, “The Knowledge Base of Standards,” in Nils Brunsson, Bengt Jacobsson, eds., A World of Standards

(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,2000),71–8.6 Mendel,“TheMakingandExpansionofInternationalManagementStandards,”137–66.7 Seeiso.org.SinceISOwasfoundedonFebruary23,1947,andhelditsfirstgeneralassemblyinParisin1949,ithasevolveda

specialpositionamongorganizationsdevotedtocreatingstandards.In1946,delegatesfromtwenty-fivecountriesmetinLondonattheInstitute for Civil Engineers to discuss cooperation among standard-making institutions that had been developing inmany countries toregulatebothmanufacturinganddefense.DuringWorldWarII,theUSDepartmentofDefensealsoestablishedstandards.

8 See“FAQs”atansi.org;AseemPrakashandMatthewPotoski,TheVoluntaryEnvironmentalists:GreenClubs,ISO14001,andVoluntaryEnvironmentalRegulations(CambridgeUniversityPress,2006),83–84;andiso.org.

9 Inresponsetoincreasinginterestfromdevelopingcountries,from1968on,correspondingmembers,whilenotabletovoteintheassembly,weremadeprivytoinformationaboutitsdecisions.Since1992,subscribermembershavepaidonlynominalmembershipfees,have no voting rights, and usually represent developing nationswith less stake in the internationalmarket. Prakash and Potoski,TheVoluntaryEnvironmentalists,83.

10 “TheISOStory,”atiso.org;LoyaandBoli,“StandardizationintheWorldPolity,”176.11 Revenues from these proprietary products and frommember dues nevertheless give the organization a potentially productive

independencefromstateinfluence.12 See“Standards:ISO9000”atiso.org;andMendel,“TheMakingandExpansionofInternationalManagementStandards,”137.

Mendelquotesthenumberofcertificatesin2003at560,000.13 TheISO9000serieshasbeenadaptedforspecificindustries.Forinstance,otherinternationalstandardsincludeAS-9100forthe

aerospace industry. In the Automotive industry QS-9000 is a set of techniques developed by Daimler-Chrysler, Ford, and GM tocoordinatesuppliers.TheISO/TS-16949wasdevelopedfortheglobalautomotiveindustry.TheANSIandtheASQhavecollaboratedon standards for statistics. TL-9000 is a body of quality standards based on the ISO 9000 but adopted for the telecommunicationsindustry.

14 Seeiso.org.15 Mendel,“TheMakingandExpansionofInternationalManagementStandards,”140.16 Seebsigroup.org.17 TheASQcertifiesqualityoperatorsandqualitymanagementsystems.ASQmembersmayaspiretobeauditorsforISOorforthe

MalcolmBaldrigeNationalQualityAward(MBNQA),mandatedbyCongressin1987(thesameyearthattheISO9000appeared).Thetrademagazineandwebsite,QualityDigest, convenes adherents from a number of quarters of the quality culture. Themagazine airsissues related to technicalsubjectssuchas foodsafety, leaks,green technologies,ornewindustrialpractices like3Dprinting. Itholdswebinars and discussions sporting all of the quality jargon about, for instance, “zero defects” and “root cause analysis.” Qualityconsultants finda forum there.Qualitymanagement specialistW.EdwardsDemingstillhasa following,andamong thespeakerswhoattractqualityprofessionalsisaDemingimpersonator,MikeMicklewright,whoadoptsasignaturecadenceandtoneaswellafamiliarcritique of business management in the United States—a country he characterizes as “underdeveloped.” See asq.org andqualitydigest.com.

18 Furusten,“TheKnowledgeBaseofStandards,”78–80.19 Ibid.,84,80–3.20 Siemens and Halske, United Fruit, Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, Lever Brothers, J. & P. Coats, and Bayer are among these

multinational enterprises. International banks also contributed managerial techniques and traditions that reinforced their authority andreputation.FordMotorCompany,establishedin1903,wasoperatinginCanadabyitssecondyearandby1930hadplants ineighteenother countries. Business historian Mira Wilkins points out that by 1929–1930, after recovering fromWorld War I, “American andEuropean MNEs were ubiquitous, with many operating on six continents.” See Mira Wilkins, “Multinational Enterprise to 1930,” inChandlerandMazlish,eds.,Leviathans,79.

21 Organizations similar to New York’s Taylor Society were established in Germany and France. While the British adoptedtechniquesofscientificmanagementmuchlater,inthe1940sand1950s,theBritishStandardsInstitute(BSI)wasfoundedveryearly,in1901, to coordinate technical standards for, among other things, structural steel and railway gauges, and it provided an essentialantecedent forqualitymanagement.The famousBSI logoorkitemarkof1903becamea sealofapproval forconsolidating technicalstandardsintheBritishCommonwealth.See“OurHistory”atbsigroup.com.InGermany,theideasofscientificmanagementbecamepartofanindustrialandengineeringdiscourse,buttheywerealsoatopicofdiscussionamongthegroupofartists,architects,andengineerswhohadformedtheGermanWerkbundin1907.PeterBehrens,HermannMuthesius,WalterGropius,andLudwigHilberseimercirculatedbetweenseveraldiscussionsaboutstandardizationinGermany.GropiuswasassociatedwiththeReichkuratoriumfürWirtschaftlichkeit,orRKW, the German equivalent of the Taylor Society. A board member of AEG, for whom Behrens worked, was a member of thegoverningbodyofGermany’sstandardmakingorganizationDeutschesInstitutfürNormung(DIN),whichwasestablishedin1917.Thesecond incarnation, then called Deutscher Normenausschufs or DNA (The German Normalization Committee), collaborated witharchitects and Werkbund members Behrens and Muthesius. The avant-garde artists who traveled in some of the same circles tookpositionsabout“Qualitat”inWerkbunddiscussionsandeveninanavant-gardejournalbythesamename.Quality,however,wasusually

used to challenge technical standards and processes with attributes related to beauty, taste, style, andworkmanship that engineeringtechniquescouldnotmeasure.AsWerkbundhistorianFredericJ.Schwartzhaswritten,quality“istheresultoftheconsumer’sawarenessof or involvement in themakingof things, her or his physical closeness to production.”Frederic J.Schwartz,TheWerkbund:DesignTheory andMassCultureBefore theFirstWorldWar (NewHaven:YaleUniversity Press, 1996), 96;DetlefMertins andMichaelWilliam Jennings, G: An Avant-Garde Journal of Art, Architecture, Design, and Film, 1923–1926 (Los Angeles: Getty ResearchInstitute,2010).

22 Furusten,“TheKnowledgeBaseofStandards,”81.23 Duringtheworldwars,toensureconsistencyandsafetyofmunitions,theBSI,theAmericanNationalStandardsInstitute(ANSI,

foundedin1918),and theAmericanSocietyforQuality(ASQ,established in1946), togetherwith theUSDepartmentofDefense,alldeveloped wartime standards for quality control through inspection. Indeed, the BSI claims that the Commonwealth StandardsConference in London in 1946 was essentially the foundingmeeting of ISO. The ANSI also brought standard-making organizationstogether in1926tocreatetheInternationalStandardsAssociation,whichtheytooclaimwastheprecursortoISO.See“AboutBSI”atbsigroup.com;“AboutASQ”athttp://asq.org;and“AboutANSI”atansi.org.

24 See“AboutASQ”athttp://asq.org.25 ManagementhistorianMauroF.Guillénconsidersthreemajororganizationalparadigmsrelatedtoscientificmanagement,human

relations, and structural analysis.Mauro F. Guillén,Models of Management: Work, Authority, and Organization in a ComparativePerspective(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1994).

26 Christopher D.McKenna, The World’s Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2006),62.

27 Forinstance,advertisingconsultancyJ.WalterThompsonwasestablishedin1864.EfficiencyengineeringfirmsArthurD.LittleandStoneandWebsterwerefoundedin1886and1889respectively.Seeibid.,49–50,34.

28 Ibid.,47.29 In1925 theAmericanManagementAssociationwasestablished,a fewyearsafter the journalManagementReview was first

published (1919).BusinessSchools in themajorAmericanuniversitiesbeganbuildingcurriculaaroundnewmanagementpractices.TheAmericanAssociationofConsultingManagementEngineers (ACME)was established in1929.Thenewmanagerwasvaluable in the1930sasbanksandbusinessesencounteredfederalregulation.Ingeneral,thenewmanagerfocusedonalargerstructuralanalysisoftheorganization in relation to not only goods but also new technologies, services, and regulation. See John Micklethwait and AdrianWoodridge,TheWitchDoctors:MakingSenseoftheManagementGurus(NewYork:RandomHouse1996),70;andMcKenna,TheWorld’sNewestProfession,47,18.

30 McKenna,TheWorld’sNewestProfession,62.31 “DoctorsofManagement,”Fortune,July1944.32 PeterF.Drucker,ConceptoftheCorporation(NewBrunswick,NJ:TransactionPublishers,2008),xiii.33 Ibid.,25.34 John Micklethwait and Adrian Woodridge, in their analysis of contemporary management culture, suggest that Drucker

incorporatednotonlystructuralandhumanrelationsthinkingbutalsonotionsofscientificmanagement,withthesensethatthesuccessfulexecutive was one who set deliberate objectives and met them. In other words, there was still something to chart—still a kind ofobsessivemanagementaccountingthatcouldquantifybenchmarksandgoals.SeeMicklethwaitandWoodridge,TheWitchDoctors,77,74,67–83.

35 ByWorldWar II, themanager had been characterized as a floor inspector, technical engineer, statistician, social engineer, atechnocrat,andamascotofclassiceconomicliberalism.ThetechnocracytheoriesofThorsteinVeblen,WalterRautenstrauch,andotherscasttheengineerasacharacterabletomanageglobalresourcesbasedoncomprehensivedatabasesorenergyunitsthatwouldreplacecurrency.JamesBurnham’sTheManagerialRevolution:WhatisHappeningintheWorld(NewYork:TheJohnDayCompany,1941),projected that an elite strataofmanagerswouldbecome thenew ruling class and that a “managerial state”would replace capitalism.Havingswungfromtheradicallefttoanextremelyconservativeposition,hesuggestedthatindicatorsofthistrendincludedLeninismandStalinism aswell as “NewDealism” and technocracy.Drucker dismissedBurnham’s arguments asmyopicmisinterpretation.Drucker,ConceptoftheCorporation,xi,9.

36 Drucker,Concept of theCorporation, 204, 214, 237, 256, 46.ForDrucker, “collectivism—whether state socialismor statecapitalism—isnottheanswertothebasicpoliticalproblemsofindustrialsociety”(204).Quotedinfull:“theessayinfederalism—onthewhole,wasanexceedinglysuccessfulone.Itattemptedtocombinethegreatestcorporateunitywiththegreatestdivisionalautonomyandresponsibility;andlikeeverytruefederation,itaimedatrealizingunitythroughlocalself-governmentandviceversa”(46).

37 Ibid.,xiii.ThequoteisfromtheDrucker’sprefacetothe1983edition,includedinthe2008edition.38 Ibid.,291.39 McKenna,TheWorld’sNewestProfession,62,181–6.LikeDrucker,McKinseyadoptedtheauthorityoftheacademicwithits

ownjournaltheMcKinseyQuarterly.SeeMicklethwaitandWoodridge,TheWitchDoctors,54.40 Japan’s own standard-making organization, the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), started a magazine,

StatisticalQualityControl, and in1950 invitedW.E.Deming to teacha seminar.He introducedhis “DemingCycle” (also called theDemingWheeland theShewhartCycle),which is sometimes representedas“Design,Production,Sales,Research,”andsometimesas“plan,do, study, act” (PDSA). Itwould inspire the Japaneseversion“plan,do, check, act” (PDCA). In theUnitedStates,ArmandV.Feigenbaumusedthephrase“TotalQuality”inpapersandinhis1951book,QualityControl:Principles,Practice,andAdministration,whichwhen republished in 1961was titledTotalQualityControl: Engineering andManagement.While the introduction of the termTotalQualityControlisvariouslyattributed,thereisgeneralagreementthatwhenJUSEinvitedJuranwastospeakin1954,hislectureshelpedtomovetheideaofqualitycontrolpastitstechnicalapplicationinheavyindustriestoastructuralapplicationinabroaderrangeofindustries. TQMmay also be known as Total QualityManagement, Total Quality Control, or Company-Wide Quality Control. SeeMasaakiImai,Kaizen(Ky’zen):TheKeytoJapaneseCompetitiveSuccess(NewYork:RandomHouseBusinessDivision,1986);A.V.

Feigenbaum,QualityControl:Principles,PracticeandAdministration:AnIndustrialManagementToolforImprovingProductQualityandDesign and forReducingOperatingCosts andLosses (NewYork:McGraw-Hill, 1951); andA.V. Feigenbaum,TotalQualityControl:EngineeringandManagement:TheTechnicalandManagerialFieldforImprovingProductQuality,IncludingItsReliability,andforReducingOperatingCostsandLosses(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1961).

41 Imai,Kaizen(Ky’zen),4,23,43.42 KonosukeMatsushita,aTCMguru,haswritten,“Wewillwinandyouwilllose.Youcannotdoanythingbecauseyourfailureis

an internal disease. Your companies are based on Taylor’s principles.Worse your heads are Taylorized too.You firmly believe thatsoundmanagementmeansexecutivesononesideandworkersontheother,ononesidemenwhothinkandontheotherside,menwhoonly work.” Quoted in J. Seddon, “ChangingManagement Thinking: The Key to Success with TQM,” in Gopal K. Kanji, ed., TotalQualityManagement:ProceedingsoftheFirstWorldCongress(London:ChapmanandHall,1995),341.

43 KristinaTammHallström, “Organizing theProcessofStandardization,” inAWorldofStandards, 86;bsigroup.com. In 1977,DINsubmittedaproposaltoISOforatechnicalcommitteethatwouldevaluatequalitystandards.TheCanadianStandardsAssociationissued quality guidelines CSA-Z299 in the mid-1970s. In December 1979, the United States issued ANSI/ASQC Z-1.15, GenericGuidelinesforQualitySystems.In1979,theBSIpublishedBS5750,whichtheyclaimasthefirstquality-managementstandardandthetemplateforISO9000.

44 Ibid.; Mendel, “TheMaking and Expansion of InternationalManagement Standards,” 141. ISO would later address TQM,definingitas“amanagementapproachforanorganization,centeredonquality,basedontheparticipationofallitsmembersandaimingatlong-termsuccessthroughcustomersatisfaction,andbenefitstoallmembersoftheorganizationandtosociety”(ISO8402:1994).

45 “A Brief History of BSI,” at bsieducation.org; Joseph M. Juran and Donald W. Marquardt, The ISO 9000 Family ofInternationalStandards(NewYork:McGraw-HillProfessional,2001).

46 Marc Levinson, The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the Economy Bigger (Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,2006),137–49,148.

47 ManuelCastells,TheInformationalCity:InformationTechnology,EconomicRestructuring,andtheUrbanRegionalProcess(Oxford:Blackwell,1989).

48 EricMumford,TheCIAMDiscourseonUrbanism,1928–1960(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,2002).49 Architectshavelongdevelopedtheirowntechnicalstandards,andsomeoftheseeffortshavecontributedtotheworkofISO.

For ahistoryof theArchitecturalGraphicStandards, the common referencebook for architectural standards, seeNaderVossoughian,“StandardizationReconsidered:NormierunginandafterErnstNeufert’sBauentwurfslehre(1936),”GreyRoom,Winter2014,34–55.

50 Seebsigroup.comandiso14000-iso14001-environmental-management.com/iso14000.htm.51 “EnvironmentalManagement:TheISO14000FamilyofInternationalStandards,”Geneva:ISO,2009.52 In 1991, ISO established aStrategicAdvisoryGroupon theEnvironment (SAGE).TheBSI published the first environmental

managementstandardsin1992(BS7750).The1992RioSummitontheEnvironmentwasalsoagalvanizingevent.53 Seeusgbc.org.54 See“ExecutiveLeadership”atm.gensler.com.55 Seepublicinterestdesign.comandseed-network.org.SEED’sfiveprinciplesare:1)Advocateforthosewhohavealimitedvoice

in public life. 2)Build structures for inclusion that engage stakeholders and allow communities tomake decisions. 3) Promote socialequality throughdiscourse that reflectsa rangeofvaluesandsocial identities.4)Generate ideas thatgrowfromplaceandbuild localcapacity.5)Designtohelpconserveresourcesandminimizewaste.

56 See “Buildings for aSustainableFuture,Dubai, 15October 2008,” and “SummaryofOpenSessionHeld on 15October onBuildingsforaSustainableFuture,”bothatiso.org.

57 LouiseCox,Presidentof theInternationalUnionofArchitects,advisedthatdesigners“shouldnotbeaimingtoreplicateNewYorkorLondonthroughouttheemergingeconomiesofAfricaandSouthAmerica.”SeeLouiseCox,“SustainableBuildingfortheGlobalVillage:TheVisionandStandardsNeeds forArchitectsandDesigners,” ISOGeneralAssembly,2008,at iso.org;and“Finally,ClearPerformanceDataforComparingtheWorld’sCities”atcitylab.com.

58 Mattelart,MappingWorldCommunication,208–9.59 McKenna,TheWorld’sNewestProfession,8.60 MicklethwaitandWoodridge,TheWitchDoctors,62.61 Ibid.,79;Guillén,ModelsofManagement.62 Includingtheprofessors/consultantsKaoruIshikawa,MasaoKogure,andYojiAkao.63 See“QualityManagement,”atbusinessballs.com;Guillén,ModelsofManagement;andImai,Kaizen(Ky’zen).64 MicklethwaitandWoodridge,TheWitchDoctors,55–6.65 Seetompeters.com.66 Seeississippi.org.67 MicklethwaitandWoodridge,TheWitchDoctors,291,301–2.68 In1996,JohnMicklethwaitandAdrianWoodridgepublishedTheWitchDoctors:MakingSenseof theManagementGurus,

claimingthatitwasthefirstsuchexposé.In1997,JamesO’SheaandCharlesMadiganpublishedDangerousCompany:ManagementConsultantsandtheBusinessesTheySaveandRuin.Bothwerelargelyexposingmanagementculturetoitspotentialcustomersinlargebusinesses. Subsequent treatments, among themWalterKiechel’sThe Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the NewCorporateWorld(2010),attempttoclarifyhistoricaldevelopmentsinmanagementorexposeitsfalselogics.ChristopherD.McKenna’sThe World’s Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century argues that management should officially beconsidered a professional activity. Lewis Pinault’s Consulting Demons: Inside the Unscrupulous World of Global CorporateConsulting (2000) andMartinKihn’sHouse of Lies:HowManagementConsultants Steal YourWatch and Then Tell You the Time(2005)areentertaining,absurdistexposésofmanagementculture.

69 “RememberingDrucker,”Economist,November19,2009.

70 Micklethwait andWoodridge,TheWitchDoctors, 87, 84. The TranscendentalMeditation Organization, led, until his recentdeath, by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, operates in precisely the same way, making very clear the similarity between religion andmanagementculture.SoclosearethetwothatoneofTM’senterprisesistorunschoolsofmanagement,whichtheyhaveestablishedallovertheworld.SeeEasterling,EnduringInnocence,73–98.

71 “TheISOSurveyofCertifications2008,”ISO,2009.72 Mendel, “TheMaking and Expansion of InternationalManagement Standards,” 142–4.Mendel attempts to applyWeberian

distinctionsbetweenmaterialandformalactionsandpractices,assigningeasewiththeformaltotheEuropeanandSouthAmericannotionsofcivilsociety.SeealsoWalterMattliandTimBu,“SettingInternationalStandards:TechnologicalRationalityorPrimacyofPower?,”WorldPolitics56,no.1(2003),23,41–2.

73 Seeunglobalcompact.org.74 See“CertifiedFacilitiesList,”atsaasaccreditation.org.75 GaryGereffi,RonieGarcia-Johnson,andErikaSasser,“TheNGOIndustrialComplex,”ForeignPolicy,no.125(2001).76 See“CertifiedFacilitiesList,”atsaasaccreditation.org.77 See Aseem Prakash and Matthew Potoski, “Racing to the Bottom? Trade, Environmental Governance, and ISO 14001,”

AmericanJournalofPoliticalScience50,no.2(2006);PrakashandPotoski,TheVoluntaryEnvironmentalists,90;andYasuhumiMoriandEricW.Welch,“TheISO14001EnvironmentalManagementStandardinJapan:ResultsfromaNationalSurveyofFacilitiesinFourIndustries,”JournalofEnvironmentPlanningandManagement51,no.3(2008).

78 PrakashandPotoski,TheVoluntaryEnvironmentalists,186.79 F.OrecchiniandD.Sabatini,“CarsandtheEnvironment:ANewApproachtoAssessmentthroughISO14001Certificationofthe

CarProcess,”ProceedingsoftheInstitutionofMechanicalEngineers–PartD–JournalofAutomobileEngineering217,no.1(2003).80 NilsBrunsson,“Organizations,Markets,andStandardization,”inBrunssonandJacobsson,eds.,AWorldofStandards,31.81 DavidA.Wirth,“TheInternationalOrganizationofStandardization:PrivateVoluntaryStandardsasSwordsandShields,”Boston

CollegeEnvironmentAffairsLawReview36,no.1(2009).82 JudithKimerling,“InternationalStandardsinEcuador’sAmazonOilFields:ThePrivatizationofEnvironmentalLaw,”Columbia

JournalofEnvironmentalLaw26(2001),394.83 JoeKane,Savages(NewYork:Vintage,1996);JudithKimerling,AmazonCrude(NationalResourcesDefenseCouncil,1991).84 Kimerling,“InternationalStandardsinEcuador’sAmazonOilFields,”290.85 “ReformstoImproveServiceDeliveryinthePublicSector,”atplanning.go.ke.86 JacquesRancière,OntheShoresofPolitics(London:Verso,1995),106.87 Seetec.tawazun.ae.SeealsoEasterling,“Extrastatecraft,”Perspecta39,Re_Urbanism:TransformingCapitals (2007),2–16.

The author is also indebted to Yale Global Fellow Raheela Khan for sharing knowledge of Islamic banking instruments. Interview,December4,2013.

88 SeeTheLittleReddBook,atamazonconservation.org.89 R. Arriagada et al., “Do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Forest Cover? A Farm-Level Evaluation from Costa

Rica,”LandEconomics88.2(2012),382–99;J.FarleyandR.Constanza,“PaymentsforEcosystemServices:FromLocaltoGlobal,”Ecological Economics 69 (2010), 20, 60–8; J. Hauck et al., “Benefits and Limitations of the Ecosystem Services Concept inEnvironmentalPolicyandDecisionMaking:SomeStakeholderPerspectives,”EnvironmentalScience&Policy 25 (2013),13–21;K.Jax, “EcosystemServices andEthics,”Ecological Economics 93 (2013), 260–8. The author is indebted toGina LaCerva, graduatestudentatYale’sSchoolofForestry,forsharingresearchaboutPaymentforEnvironmentalServices.

90 Paul J. Dimaggio andWalterW. Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality inOrganizationalFields,”AmericanSociologicalReview48,April(1983),156–7.ReprintedinWalterW.PowellandPaulJ.Dimaggio,TheNewInstitutionalisminOrgainzationalAnalysis(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1991),63–82.

91 JohnBoliandGeorgeM.Thomas,“INGOsand theOrganizationofWorldCulture,” inBoliandThomas,eds.,ConstructingWorldCulture,13–49,13,48,45.

92 Boli and Thomas, “Standardization in the World Polity: Technical Rationality over Power,” in Boli and Thomas, eds.,ConstructingWorldCulture,169–97,170.

93 Mendel,“TheMakingandExpansionofInternationalManagementStandards,”162–3,164.94 Ibid.,161.95 Meyer,Drori,andHwang,“WorldSocietyand theProliferationofFormalOrganization”and“Introduction” inGlobalization

andOrganization,41,15–16.96 Meyer,Drori,andHwang,“Introduction,”inGlobalizationandOrganization,49,16.97 Meyer,Drori,andHwang,“Conclusion,”inGlobalizationandOrganization,262,273.98 Ibid.,262.99 John W. Meyer, Gili Drori, and Hokyu Hwang, “Conclusion,” in John W. Meyer, Gili Drori and Hokyu Hwang, eds.

GlobalizationandOrganization:WorldSocietyandOrganizationalChange,269.

CHAPTER6

Extrastatecraft

The1999BattleofSeattle launchedanongoingprotestagainst theWTOandglobalization,yet thezone continues as the engine room of globalization, immune from any protest or significantregulation.1The“NoBloodforOil”marchesof2003broughtmillionsofpeopleallovertheworldintothestreetstoprotestthewarinIraq.Yet,largelyunaffected,theBushAdministrationproceededwith thewar, swayingsentimentwithclaimsofweaponsofmassdestruction thatdidnotexist.Thedemonstrations of the Arab Spring spread across North Africa and the Middle East demandingdemocratic reforms in government. Yet governments could shut down the protests simply byswitchingofftheinternetthathadbeenusedtoorganizethem.In2011,theOccupymovementstooduptorepresent the99percentagainst the1percent in theUnitedStateswhoenjoyexcessivepowerand wealth. Even as their resistance mobilizes global unrest around similar issues, the 1 percentmaintainsitscontroloverelectionsandlegislation.

Incounteringauthoritarianforces,familiarformsofactivismareoftengalvanizedaroundatleastaprovisionaldeclaration.Assemblingandstandingfirmtogether,theactivistsrejectabusivepoliciesandprotectthosewhoarethetargetofabuse.Dissent,asresistanceandrefusal,mustoftenassumeanoppositional stance. Activists may fight and die for their principles, employing tactics that oftenrequireenormouscourage toenact.Themost laudedactivist takesastand, fights forwhat is right,choosessides,anddecideswhoisandisnotsympathetictothecause.Stronglyheld,forthrightbeliefssupportthevigilantmaintenanceofsolidarity,decency,andjustice.DavidmustkillGoliath.

Yetmanypowerfulplayersthattheseactivistsopposemaintainfluidorundeclared intentionsbysayingsomethingdifferentfromwhattheyaredoing.Itiseasytotoywithortrickactivistresistanceifdeclarationisallthatqualifiesasinformation.Whentargeted,thepowerfulwanderawayfromthebull’s-eye,arrangingforshelteror immunityelsewhere.Theymaysuccessfullypropagatearumor(e.g.,thatthereisevidenceofWMD,thatclimatechangeishoax,thatObamaisnotaUScitizen)tocapturetheworld’sattention.Switchingthecharactersinthestory,theymayevencomecostumedasresisters.GoliathfindsawaytoposeasDavid.

Dissentisthenoftenleftshakingitsfistataneffigy.Activistswhoshowupatthebarricade,thebordercrossing,orthebattlegroundwithfamiliarpoliticalscriptssometimesfindthattherealfightorthestealthierformsofviolencearehappeningsomewhereelse.Attemptingtocureitsfailureswith“purification,” the left consolidates, and expels thosewho seem to compromise its values.2 And itmustmakeofitsopponentanevenmoredangerousur-force—an“UnspecifiedEnemy”likeCapital,Empire,orNeoliberalism.

In thisway,assumptionsregarding theproper techniquesand territories forpoliticalworkmayironicallygeneratesomeofactivism’smostsignificantinternalconstraints,foreclosingontheveryinsurgencythatitwishestoinstigate.Righteousultimatumsorbinariesofenemiesandinnocentsthatoffer only collusion or refusalmight present a structural obstacle greater than any quasi-mythicalopponent.Inthesetragicendgames,theideathatthereisaproperrealmofpoliticalnegotiationmayevenactastheperfectcamouflageforundeclaredpoliticalpower.

Still,anydeviationfromtheacceptedtechniques,eveninanattempttoaidandbroadenactivism,maybeinterpretedasabetrayalofprinciples.Enteringthemarketasanentrepreneur,evenifonlytomanipulate that market, is mistaken for collusion. Giving positive attention to agents of systemicchange rather than negative opposition to a series of enemies ismistaken for an uncritical stance.

Relinquishingovertresistanceismistakenforcapitulationorethicalrelativism.Answeringduplicitywith duplicity ismistaken for equivocation or lack of conviction rather than a technique to avoiddisclosing a deliberate strategy.3 In the end, righteous and combative narratives may exhaustthemselvesandescalatetensions.Dissent,intheseinstances,isinconsolable.

AnExpandedActivistRepertoireinInfrastructureSpace

Thebinarydivisionbetweenresistanceandnon-resistanceisanunrealone.—ColinGordon4

There are times to stand up, name an opponent, or assume a binary stance of resistance againstauthoritarianpower,butsupplementingtheseformsofdissentareactiviststancesthatarebothhardertotargetandlessinterestedinbeingright.Justasmanyofthemostpowerfulregimesintheworldfinditexpedienttooperatewithproxiesanddoublesininfrastructurespace,themostfamiliarformsofactivismmightsimilarlybenefitfromusingundisclosedpartnersorunorthodoxauxiliaries,ifonlytosoftenupthegroundandofferabetterchanceofsuccess.

An unorthodox auxiliary entertains techniques that are less heroic, less automaticallyoppositional,moreeffective,andsneakier—techniques likegossip, rumor,gift-giving,compliance,mimicry, comedy, remote control, meaninglessness, misdirection, distraction, hacking, orentrepreneurialism.Workingtogetherindifferentconstellations,thesetechniquescannotbeisolatedorpedanticallydefined.Whiletheyarelong-standingpractices,fordesignersaccustomedtomakingobject forms or for activists accustomed to making declarations, this alternative aesthetic andpoliticalrepertoireisperhapsunfamiliar.

Suchtechniquesarepoliticallyinflectedincarnationsoftheactiveformsdiscussedthroughoutthisbook.Ininfrastructurespace, thecrucial informationaboutapoliticalbearingisoftenfoundnotindeclaration but in disposition—in an immanent activity and organization.All the active forms thatshape spatial products, free zones, broadband technoscapes, and other networks—the multipliers,remotes, interdependencies, or topological adjustments—areboth themarkersof a disposition andthemeanstotuneoralterit.Tohacktheoperatingsystemby,forinstance,breakingupmonopolies,increasingaccess tobroadband,or exposing enclaves to richer formsofurbanity is to engage thepoliticalpowerofdispositionininfrastructurespace.

Redesigningdispositionininfrastructurespaceisnotaduel.Giventhebroadfoundationalspaceof infrastructure, the active forms that generate dispositions are capable of effecting significantchanges to the operating system.The activist need not face off against everyweed in the field butrather, unannounced, alter the chemistry of the soil. Dispositional capacities invite an approach toboth form-making and activism that ismore performative than prescriptive.While some politicaltraditions call for inversions, revolutions, or the absolute annihilationof theold system, a shift indispositionmaysponsortheongoingreconditioningorrevolutionizingofaspatio-politicalclimate.Suchadjustmentsmayreducetensionsandviolence,andbecausetheyareundeclared,theyneednotcalluptheprevailingdogmasthatmust,ifnamed,squareupforasymmetricalfight.

An alternative activist repertoire exploits the cultural stories as well as the organizationalattributesthatinflectdisposition.Thediscrepanciesbetweenstoryanddisposition—thewaysinwhichpowersayssomethingdifferentfromwhatitisdoing—offerthefirstpoliticalopening.Discrepancyis always present in the ever-changing dialogue between humans and technologies. It may be asymptomofanorganizationindenial,withitsactivitiesdecoupledfromitsstory.Itmayexposethedistancebetweenrealityandanoverusedordegradedideologicalstorylikeliberalism.Oritmaybetheresultofadeliberatedeception.Focusingondiscrepancyis thennotonlyuseful indetectinganunderlyingbutundeclareddisposition,itisalsoanopportunitytolaunchacounter-narrative.Ittutors

anactivisminwhichtheforthrightmaybelessimportantthanthefictionalorthesly.Releasingthetensegripofbinaryresistance,theauxiliaryactivistneverturnsaroundfortheduel

butcontinuespacingawayintoanewfieldofextrastatecraft.

Gossip/Rumor/Hoax

Thereisnomanagermorepowerfulthanconsumption,nor,asaresult,anyfactormorepowerful—albeitindirect—inproductionthanthechatterofindividualsintheiridlehours.—GabrielTarde5

Gossip,rumor,andhoaxarecommontoolsfordestabilizingpower,andallofthemultiplierspresentininfrastructurespacefacilitatesuchtrickery.

InDominationandtheArtsofResistance,JamesC.Scottarguesagainstenshriningthetechniquesof politics proper, looking instead at the actual tools most frequently used by the politicallyoppressed.ReferencingfiguresfromBalzactoBrerRabbit,hewrites,“Mostofthepoliticallifeofsubordinate groups is to be found neither in overt collective defiance of power holders nor incompletehegemoniccompliance,butinthevastterritorybetweenthesetwopolaropposites.”6

Scott identifies rumor and gossip as tools of aggression among the powerless. The servantgossipsaboutthemaster; theunderlingscan,withanonymity,stiruppublicopinionabouttheboss.Gossip,hewrote,neverstartsanywhere.The“linguisticequivalentandforerunnerofwitchcraft,”itmagically multiplies without attribution, and it cannot be contained.7 It is a technique of“infrapolitics,” the invisible, subterranean territoryof subordinategroups.8 In thisway,gossip andrumor are similar to the disguises, tricks, andperruques—the “art of theweak”—aboutwhich thescholarandtheoristMicheldeCerteauwrites.9

Still,rumorandgossiparealsoavailabletothepowerfulaswellastheweak.Hoaxandspinarethe rawmaterialofpolitics.They fuel everydaymischiefwhilealsobeingapractical techniqueofmarkets and governments. For the last decade, James Inhofe, a Republican congressman fromOklahoma,hasledadoggedcampaigntoconvincetheworldthatclimatechangeisahoax.Ina2003senate committee speech, Inhofe claimed that the elaborate climate change hoax was designed to“satisfytheevergrowingdemandofenvironmentalgroupsformoneyandpowerandotherextremistswho simply don’t like capitalism, free markets, and freedom.”10 Media personalities like RushLimbaughprovidedthestorywithitsnecessarymultiplier.Limbaughiswhatisvariouslyknowninpop-culturemarketingtermsasa“connector”ora“sneezer”—someonewiththecapacitytocontactalargenumberofpeople.11Afternearlytenyearsofbroadcastingandembellishingtheargument,heclaimsthattheleftisfinallyalsoconvincedthatglobalwarmingwasallanelaborateruse.12

During theUSpresidential election of 2008, since itwas very easy to demonstrate thatBarackObama was Christian, claiming that he was a Muslim was a very effective rumor. It found acompelling multiplier that thrived even on its own falsehood. Being false, it was kept alive evenlongerandrepeatedtwiceover—firsttospreadthefalsehoodandthentorefuteit.Rumorandgossiparelessreliantoncontentthanonthewaythatcontentbehaves,sothatwhatmustbedesignedisnotonlythecontent,butalsothebounceoftherumor—itsactiveforms.

Intheextrastatecraftofinfrastructurespace,tuningamultiplierislikecraftingrumororgossip.Designerscanaltertherepertoireofatechnologytobemoresuitedtocertainpopulationsjustastheconstructionofsuburbanhomeswasdesignedasanassembly-lineprocess.Similarly,anewspatialprotocolwillbemorepowerfulifitfindsacarrierthatmultipliesit.Infrastructurespaceisthickwithtechnologies that are potential multipliers: populations of suburban houses, skyscrapers, vehicles,spatialproducts,zones,mobilephones,orglobalstandards.

Aswithrumors,activeformsarealsosocialornarrativeforms,andthedesignercanenhancethespatial consequences of amultiplier with the non-spatial stories that accompany it. Just as the USsuburbanhousewaspopularizedinpartthroughnarrativesaboutfamilyandpatriotism,apersuasionor ideology attached to a technology may deliver it to a ready audience or a powerful politicalmachine.Thecellphone,forexample,ischaracterizedasasourceoffreedom,apoliticalright,andatoolofeconomicliberalization.Anewfreezone,evenbeforecompletion,isrumoredtobeaworldcityfaitaccompliinanattempttocaptureasliceoftheglobalmarket.Themostofficialcommuniquéorthemosthard-boiledbusinessplan,whilepurportingtorelyonfacts,oftenmarshalsevidenceinapliablerealitythatreliesonfiction.

Justastheideologicalstoriesthataccompanyinfrastructurespace,howeverimmaterial,canhaveenormous physical consequences, so a counter-story, even a deceptive one, may be the mostimmaterial yetmost effectiveway tomovemountains in infrastructure space. Discussing “energynarratives,” David E. Nye cites themoment when, despite a domestic oil crisis, President Reaganpersisted in sending out sunny messages about “abundance.”13 Similarly, rather than reveal thedangerssurroundingoilextraction,oilcompaniesadopttheimageryofgreentechnologies.Usingastory to different ends, the graphic design firm Pentagram countered the assumption that greenenergypolicyistheprovinceofleftistpoliticsbyassociatingitwithearlyAmericanpatriotism.TheirpostersforCleveland’snewenergypoliciesportrayedagreenrevolutionarysoldierorminutemanwhobecameamemorableiconinthecity’sconservationcampaign.14And theactivistorganizationGreenpeacedramatizesenvironmentalabusewithmedia-genic“mindbombs”inanalternativeformofwar.15

Perhapsonlyadesignthatcombinesorganizationalactiveformswithnarrativeactiveformshasanychanceofsuccessfullyengagingtheworld’spowerfulspatialproducts.Forexample,whenWal-Mart replaced electric lighting with day lighting, sales actually increased.16 Here a spatial rumorcould find a multiplier in the roof areas and megawatts of power-usage in Wal-Mart storesworldwide, but the environmentally sensitive designer might also embellish this with a narrativerumor—mixture of fact and fiction or what Hollywood calls “faction.” A day-light roof is thenreportedasbeinganessentialnewconditionforallbigboxstores,andwhetherthisistrueorfalseisless important than how the rumor will bounce within its audience. While utopian or visionaryprojectionsoffer comprehensive, reasonable, even righteous, reforms, the less resolute factions intheglobalconfidencegameofferrumorsthatmaybemorecontagious.17

Pandas

Anotherpowerfultechniqueofextrastatecraft,seeminglyverydifferentfromresistance,isthatofthegift.In2005,ChinaofferedTaiwantwopandasnamedTuanTuanandYuanYuan.Thenames,whentranslated,mean “unity”—referring to the unitywithmainlandChina that Taiwan has passionatelyrefused. The pandas were used here to deploy a fiction of friendship, replacing opposition withconciliatoryflattery,whiletheundiscloseddispositionmayactuallyreflectalow-gradebutpersistentformofaggression.Excessivelysoftandcute,thepandaisasteamrollerofsweetnessandkindness—an arm-twisting handshake that disarms and controlswith apparent benevolence. The pandaswerethususedtoexertpoliticalleveragebyexploitingacurrencyinvalues,socialsignals,andsentimentsnotusuallyquantifiedinthemarketplaceortreatedineconomictheory.

Infrastructure space—with its free zones, broadband networks, oil exploration, and spatialproducts—offers many pandas, or gifts that cannot be refused. The zone itself was a “gift” fromdeveloped countries to developing countries, one that promised to rescue them from poverty and

bestow upon themmembership in a global economic club.Yetwhen global corporations offer todevelopingcountriesthegiftofmobiletelephonyorsocialnetworking,theyareoftenactuallygivingthemselves a gift—a large amount of data about the world’s next big crop of consumers. OilexplorationintheEcuadorianAmazonpromisedtobringprogresstotheregion,justasdevelopmentformulas likeLAPSSETcomewith promises of economic solvency, global fluency, and signaturearchitecture. These sorts of gifts have often leveraged from their host countries billions ofconsumers, exploitative cheap labor, and immunity from regulation even in the face of labor andenvironmentalabuses.

Gifts of another sort try to temper such abuse by using awards or prizes as incentives forproductive behavior or self-regulation. TheMo Ibrahim Prize forAchievement uses profits frommobiletelephonytogrant5milliondollarsovertenyearsand$200,000peryearforlifetoanelectedAfricanofficialwhohasservedtheirtermanddemonstratedstrongleadership.18TheGlobalCitizenAward,sponsoredbyClinton’sGlobalInitiative,theAgaKhanAwards,theXPrize,andthetargetedphilanthropyoftheBillandMelindaGatesFoundationareamongcountlessexamplesofawardsusedtoincentivizesociallyresponsibleindividualsandprojects.CertificationsystemslikeISOorSocialAccountabilityInternationalalsosimilarlyrewardselectedbehaviors.

Inextrastatecraft,however, thegive-and-takedesignedintoaninterplayofspatialvariablesmayoffer active forms like governors—pandas more powerful than awards and self-congratulatorycertificates.Governorscanestablishacounterbalancinginterdependencythatmayremaininplacetoextractmorebenefitsforlaborortheenvironment.Theycanbedesignedtoyieldmorethaninferiorjobsinglobalfreezones.Liketheoffsets thatwerepartofDubai’sdealwithforeigninvestors, theofferings ofworkers, urbanity, natural resources, and consumers can be usedmore effectively toleverage access to education, technology transfers, wilderness preservation, and better laborpractices.

ExaggeratedCompliance

InDominationandtheArtsofResistance,ScottdrawsattentiontoapassageinMilanKundera’sTheJokeinwhichtheprisonersinthestoryarechallengedtoarelayraceagainstthecampguards.Theprisonersdecide torunveryslowly,whilewildlycheeringeachotheron.Theircompliancebringsthem together in an act of defiance that does not diminish their energies as would competing orfighting. Compliance can disarm and deliver independence from authority.19 It can destabilize anenemythatisbracingforoppositionratherthananobedientresponse.

WhenthemayorofCopenhagen,RittBjerregaard,madeacampaignpromiseof5,000affordableapartmentsforthecity,theDanisharchitecturefirmPLOT(laterBIGandJDSArchitects)appearedtorushtoheraidbyproducingdesignsforthebuildingsinadvance.Theirdesignskepttheissueinthepress,makingithardforthemayortobreakherpromiseandforcingadesigncompetitionforthehousing. In thisway,compliantactivismcanmobilize resources forchange inadvanceofpoliticalwill—submittingtoandevencongratulatingpoweronintentionsitneverhad.

The New York City Occupy movement generated symbolic capital by demonstrating that theOccupyKitchensetuptofeedtheprotestorswasactuallybetteratdeliveringfoodtotheneedythanmanyofthemunicipalagenciespaidtodothejob.Winningovertheirpotentialcritics,theygottheupperhand.Likegoodchildrenwhoseperfectgradesandmodelbehavior strip theirparentsofallauthority,thecompliantactivistcanrunringsaroundsupposedlymorepowerfulplayers.

Responding to the Taksim Square protests of 2013 in Istanbul, Turkish PrimeMinister RecepTayyipErdoğandeliveredaspeechinwhichhereferredtotheprotestersasçapulcuor“looters.”The

protestersrespondedbyembracingtheinsult,usingitonsocialmedia,andprintingitonT-shirtsandbags.Thelabelservedasbothaprotectivecamouflageandcalltoarms.Madeintoaverb,çapulingevencametomeanstandingupforyourrights.20

Exaggerated compliance is central to the tactical bluffs of infrastructure deal-making.Infrastructure contractors have long operated under the banner of economic liberalism, and theiraccess tonewterritories isoftencharacterizedasastrugglewithregulation.Thecompanies layingterrestrialorsubmarinefiberopticcableinKenyawereallcompetingagainsteachotherformarketsharewhilebeingforcedto“submit”toregulationsfromthehostnation,theWorldBank,orsomeotherorganization.Theywouldallcharacterizeeachotherasmonopolistsandcompetitorsatanyonemoment in the game. Yet, the smartest entrepreneurs discovered that if they stayed together in areciprocal game, alternating between resistance to regulation and compliance, they generatedcollectiveadvantages.Andtheopen,competitivesystemtowhichtheyappearedtosubmitwouldyieldalargermarket.

In extrastatecraft, picking one’s submissions rather than one’s battles is an almost invisible,noncontroversial means of gaining advantage in the field without drawing attention to a broaderstrategy.

Doubling

Head-to-headconfrontationsaremarkedbycompetitionandsymmetricalmimicrythatoftenleadstoviolence.Anotherkindofmimicry,thedouble,canbenotonlyasourceofcompetitionbutalsoanopportunity for confusionanddisguise.Thedouble is a shill orproxy that, like twin siblings, cansometimesfooltheworldorlaunderanidentity.Adoublecanalsosimplyhijacktheplaceorpowerofitscounterparttoincreaseitsterritoryintheworld.

Employingthedoubleasimposterorcaricaturehaslongbeenatacticinexposingtheabsurditiesofauthority.In2007,amemberoftheactivistgroupTheYesMenposedontheBBCasanexecutivefromDowChemical(whichownsUnionCarbide)andannouncedthatthecompanyhad,afteryearsofevasion,finallydecidedtomakefullrestitutionforallofthesufferingtheyhadcausedinBhopal.AYesMenmemberalsoposedasspeakerintheUSChamberofCommerce,promotinggreenpoliciesthat the organization lobbies against. Another member appeared at a Wharton Business Schoolconference suggesting that “full private stewardry of labor,” or the buying and selling of humanbeings,wasarealisticapproachtoeconomicstabilityinAfrica.TheYesMencouldthenreportthatthis advocacy of slavery, smothered in jargon, had been politely received without questions orchallengesfromthefloor.21

TheDutchnon-profitorganizationWomenonWaves(WoW),foundedin1999, isadouble thataddresseswomen’sreproductiverightsbyadoptingtheimbricatedsovereigntiesandshiftingpoliticalidentitiesusedincommercialmaritimetrade.Commercialshipsmovebetweenlegaljurisdictionsastheycrossfromnationaltointernationalwaters.Whenininternationalwaters,theyaresubjecttothelaws of the country in which they are registered. Many shipping companies select legalresponsibilitiesthatworktotheiradvantagebyregisteringinacountrywith,forinstance,laxlabororenvironmentallaws.Exploitingthisfreedom,WoWfundsamedicalshipthatconductsabortionsforwomenfromcountrieswhereabortionisillegalbysailingintointernationalwaterswhereonlyDutchlawhasjurisdiction.22

On their day off, domesticworkers inHongKongmeet by the hundreds in the central publicspacesofthecitythatareotherwiseinhabitedbytheiremployers.Takingovertheseopenspaces,theysit,talk,preparemeals,andreconnecttotheirhomeculture.Theiroccupationisentirelypeacefuland

yet is a way for the workers to stand their ground and establish themselves as a group ofprofessionals,ratherthaninvisibleservants.Thedoublingispassivebutresolute.

TheTeaPartymovementusedthelabel“fascist”todescribeObama,thushijackingamarkerthathadbeenuseddefensivelyby the left to refer topower seized through theexploitationof fear andhatred.TheTeaPartydoublewasusedoffensivelytoinstigatethesamekindoffearandhatredthatmighthavebeenoriginallyanticipated.Thedoublesimultaneouslydefangedtheterminitsprevioususageandinoculatedthepresentuseragainsttheaccusation.

The doubled and redoubled ideological stories that attend infrastructure space can be used tocommandeerpoliticalsupport.FDRappropriated the liberal label toswayright-wingsentiment forhisNewDealpolicies—tocaptureterritoryandeitherconfuseorneutralizetheargumentsoflaissez-faire.Sentimentssurroundingliberalizationhavefueledcontemporarydevelopmentpatternsrelatedtothezoneortobroadbandurbanism.Theneoliberallabelisyetanotherdoublingusedtoexposetheinequitiesofliberalizationandprivatization,andsomethinglikealibertarianstrainofliberalismnowattendsthe“free”exchangeofinformationinsocialmediaandthecommunitiestheysponsor.

Market platforms like Jana are doubles of the activist crowd-sourcing platformUshahidi. Janacomescloakedinideasaboutthewell-beingofthecollectiveandareroutingofcompensationfrombigbusinesstobillionsofcellphonecustomers.YetitremainstobeseenwhetherJanawillleverageusefulincomeandotherassetsfordevelopingcountriesorwhetheritwillbeusedprimarilytoshapeaconsumermarket—whetheritsprimaryresearchwillbeconductedfortheUNorforUnilever.

Justastheprivateerwasashadowforthestate,zoneurbanismhasservedasthedoubleforHongKonginShenzhen,MumbaiinNaviMumbai,SeoulinNewSongdoCity,andAlmatyinAstana.Eachmajorcityorcapitalhasacamouflagingagentable toconductbusinesswithrelaxed lawsand lessaccountability,allowingittooperateinmorefluidorprofitableglobalnetworks.

Thedoublecanalsoengineerareplacementforabusiveorunproductivesituationsbycreatingatwin enterprise that satisfies or exceeds projected revenues while being a carrier of alternativepolitics.When the zone doubles the city, it becomes the city, potentially adopting the politics andpublicaccountabilitythatthecityofferswithoutreducingrevenues.Theinterplayofspatialvariablesinthenewbroadbanddigitalvillageandthenewfinancialportfolioforsubtractingdevelopmentaredoubles—parallel markets designed to slip into and displace existing markets, social habits, anddesires.

Extrastatecraft as an alternative activist repertoire is, in someways, a doubling of the kind ofextrastatecraft practiced by the world’s most powerful. It creates not a binary—an enemy and aninnocent—butrathercountlessmirroringsofpowerinaworldwherenooneisinnocent.Itmonitorsthesleightofhandofanydoubleintheworldevenasitmanipulatesthesetwistsandturnsofidentitywithdoublesofitsown.

Comedy

As an expert on internet dissent in China recently said, “humor works as a natural form ofencryption.”23Comedypresentscontradictionsthatcan,withoutdirectconfrontation,topplethelogicof dominant organizations.With irreverent cheekiness, it interrupts the rigidities that characterizeboth concentrations of power and resistances to power. Comedy may engage in a direct satiricaladdress,asdoTheYesMen.Itmayrelyonwordplayorasinglepunchline.Itmaysimplyeffectaninversion,asinthecaseoftheBLOorBarbieLiberationOrganization—aprojecttocovertlyswitchthevoicechipsofBarbiesandGIJoesin toystores(Barbie:“Eat lead,Cobra.”GIJoe:“Let’splanourdreamwedding”).24

Infrastructuralspaceitselfisoftenacarrierofcomedythatisperhapsmostpowerfulwhen,likethehumorofRyle’sclown,itisdispositional,unfolding,andundeclared.25ErandiDeSilva’scomicdesignworkLogopelago satirizes “TheWorld”—Dubai’s familiar archipelago of artificial islandsconstructed in the shapeof aworldmap.DeSilva’s cartoonsof similar island formations take theshapeofgiganticlogos—aNikeswish,aMickeyMousehead,aRalphLaurenhorse,orthedoubleCsofChanel.Alltheselogoislandsarepopulatedwiththevillas,golfcourses,andotherspatialproductsthatfillupinfrastructurespace.Yet“TheWorld”itselfmaybeitsownbestsatire.Initshyperbole,theislandformationisalreadyajokeaboutglobalrealestateconquestorthemigrationofglobalpowerintoislandsofexemption.Preemptingitsowncritique,orstealingthepunchline,eachmicro-nationisnotunlikethecity-stateofDubaiitself.Thecomedynowcontinuesinadifferentveinsince,afterthefinancialcrisisof2008,theseahasbeenreclaimingthedissolvingislands.

Similarly,FrançoisRoche’sDustyRelief/B_mu,a2002designforabuildinginBangkok,avoidsthesinglepunchlineinfavorofalongercomedicperformance.Thebuildingwasdesignedtoattractdustelectrostaticallyfromthesurroundingpollutedair.26Itscontinual,obligingwillingnesstocleanitssurroundings,coupledwithitsslowminisculeadvancetowardbecomingagiganticandadorablyflockedfuzzball,areactivelycomicinvisual,temporal,andcognitiveregisters.Itcritiquespollutionwithasympathetic,resourceful,andenthusiasticremedy.Yetitassociatesthisdesireforcleanerairwith hapless self-deprecation rather than the piety and belt-tightening that often accompany greeninitiatives.

Deadpanreportageofthecomediesofinfrastructurespacemightoftenbesufficienttoachievethedesired political effect. Yet another promotional video for yet another zone that begins, as havedozens before it, with a zoom from outer space, exposes the entire PR apparatus with its cannedfanfares and toy architectures.A simple comparison of the acronyms formanagementmottos andcreeds—PDCA,POCCC,POSDCORB,CSSBB,ISSISSIPPIamongthem—togetherwiththeirbuoyantnarrativesandsobermetricsalsorequiresverylittleeffortfromthecomedian.

Remotes

Aremotecontroleffectschangeindirectlyorfromsomedistanceaway,oftenwithoutbeingdetected.Jerry,thesoftcartoonmouse,pressesdownontheplungerlabeled“TNT”withTomatthereceivingendofalongfuse.HecatapultsTomintotheairbydroppingananvilontheoppositeendofaseesawwherethecatissitting.ObjectsinonepartofthehousericochetuntiltheyeventuallyhitTomoverthehead.Insimilarfashion,anationindirectlyfloodsacitywhenitbuildsadamdownstream.Ahackerdropsapebbleintheinternetwaterswithcollateraleffects.Amass-producedsuburb,remotefromthecenter,drainsthecityofitspopulation.Anyswitchinanyofthenetworksofinfrastructurespacecanactlikearemote—asavalvethatmaycontrolflowsofcars,electricity,microwaves,orbroadbandcapacitysomewheredowntheline.

Theactivistoftenlongstodirectlyconfrontandcureaproblemjustasthedesigneroftenlongstoaddressurbanissueswithobjectform.Politicalengagementistypicallyscriptedwithconcernsaboutthe environment, natural resources, labor, or human rights, accompanied by persuasions aboutvolunteerismandself-sacrifice,ordramatizedwithgravemanifestosandsci-fidystopias.Showingupatthelocalsiteandgettingone’shandsdirtyisconsideredtobeasignofpoliticalauthenticity.

Yet theremay be no great virtue in exclusively local action on the groundwhen the powerfulremotecontrols in thenetworksofextrastatecraftmaybebusinesses,governments,or internationalorganizations halfway around the world. These remotes lend extra leverage to the bargaining of“pandas”since,alongsidethemultinationals,therearenowextraplayersinthegame—NGOs,IGOs,

and coalitions of all sorts. Saving awilderness, for instance, relies on direct advocacy aswell asremote pressures and incentives from research institutions, distant markets, regulations, andcompacts.AdvocateswhocannotprovokeactionfromtheirownstatecanlooktoNGOsorIGOsinanother state or in the international community, creating “governance triangles” that leverageinfluenceorexertpressureonthehomestate—whathasbeencalleda“boomerangeffect.”27

Remotes are essential to designing an interplay of spatial variables rather than a singleprescription.ThedesignerandurbanistRahulMehrotraapproachedtheslumsofMumbainotwithamasterplantoreorganizetheentireterritorybutwithasimplepublictoiletthatwasdesignedtohaveremote effects throughout the slum. Solar panels allowed the toilets to operate off the grid,eliminatingachargeforelectricityandmaintainingconsistentpower.Womenandchildrenwerethennot fearful to use the toilet at night. A caretaker ’s apartment above the toilet further ensured itscleanlinessandsafety,andanopen-airporchonthetopfloorprovidedapanoramicview,torelievethelimited,congestedperspectiveofstreets.28

Inthesamewaythataconfidencemanneedstofindawaytolookcompletelynormal,theremotecan also be camouflaged in a seemingly nonpolitical, non-spatial, self-serving project with anundisclosedpoliticalintent.Themostconscientiousconsumersalreadycheckthelabelsonclothingorpacksofcoffeeandboycottthoseproductsthathavebeenmanufacturedinabusiveconditions.Yetwithout overt political declaration, a remote might simply work on the prevalent tastes of, forinstance, fashion or food. Companies that make clothes poorly with mediocre materials and cutsusuallyalsosearchforthecheapestlabor.Anewarticulationindesire,seeminglypursuedforself-serving,evenfrivolousreasons,maydeliberatelydeflate themarketfordisposableclothesorfoodproduced under abusive conditions. These remotes can indirectly retool the disposition ofmanufacturingandagriculturalspaces,buyingtimebeforetheracetothebottombeginsagain.

Distraction/Meaninglessness/Irrationality

Activism cast as resistance typically goes head-to-headwith an oppressing power, facing off in asymmetricalopposingposition.Yetratherthanengaginginthefight,withtheriskofitescalatingorbeingdrawnintoitsvortex,theactivistmaydistractfromitwithmisdirectionandsurprise—oftenbycreatingathirdthingthatissupposedlyneutraltotheopposingforces.Thecomedianalreadyknowssomethingaboutthepowerofdistractiontodefusetension.Warringcountriesarebroughttogetherover ping-pong, chess, or music. In Tirana, Albania, mayor Edi Rama transformed the exhaustedpost-war city by first simply painting the facades with very bright colors—a move sufficientlystrangetorefreshthetermsofdevelopment,evengovernance,inthecity.

Meaninglessness can continue the work begun by distraction, crafting the initial moment ofdestabilization into a condition that must be continually maintained. Generally considered by theforthrightactivisttobeanevacuationofprinciplesandanindicationofcrisis,meaninglesscanbetheopposite—a tool with enormous political instrumentality. Just as the bait and switch relies ondistraction, the longer confidence game relies on a series of distracting stories that draw attentionawayfromtherealdetailsofthetransaction,whichis,ofcourse,neverdeclared.Hustlersleadtheirsuckers down the garden path with countless little courtesies and unimportant details that becomecollectivelyuntraceablebutareinescapable.Theabsenceofasinglecoherentstoryisthecompellingfactor,convincingthevictimsthattheydonotseewhatisinfrontofthem.29

Manyofthemostpowerfulpoliticaloperationsintheworldarelubricatedwithobfuscationsandirrational desires that have anesthetizing effects, keeping at bay the dogma that incites conflict. InJerzyKosinski’snovelBeingThere,ChaunceyGardiner isatonceacomedianandabeautifulsoul

whosemeaninglessstatementsaboutthegrowthofthegardenortheinevitabilityoftheseasonsallowhimtobecomeaconfidantoftheUSpresident.Howevertransparent,somehypnotizingfictionsmayformastrongwebcapableofholdingtogetheropposingforcesordiffusingcruelformsofauthority.

Meaninglessness, like simplemindedness, can be powerful because it is not burdened withinformation.LeaderslikeRonaldReaganoftenresistedintelligenceasamatterofdutyandprinciple.Inanowfamousstory,atoneG-7summitReaganfailedtostudythebriefingbooks,choosinginsteadtostayupandwatchhisfavoritemovie,TheSoundofMusic.Hisaid,DavidGergenrememberedthatthenextdayReaganwas in top form—able tograsp the“bigpicture” freeofcomplicating facts.30Apparentoblivion—akindofspecialstupidity—nourishesresilientformsofpowerandattendsmanyofthemostsuccessfulpoliticalstrategies.31

Howeverpowerful andmonolithic itmay seem tobe, infrastructure space tradesonephemeraldesiresandirrationalaspirations.Organizationsofeverykind—fromcelebritygolfsuburbstoretailchainstozones—attempttoprofit,govern,orotherwisemaintainpowerwithinstrumentalformsofmeaninglessness.Qualitymanagementattractsalargefollowingwithprinciplesthatlackanybindingcontent.Managementese isoftena formofbabbleused in isomorphicorganizations. Itmeansverylittle, but it can be used to create consensus around almost anything.Typically these organizationsfindcollectivebeliefsandrationalizingformulasgalvanizing,buttheymustalsodeveloptechniquesforoverlookingtheevidencethatcontradictstheirformulations.Theymustfindwaysofdecouplingerranteventsfromcontrollinglogics.Rationalizingformulascanalsoengendernonsensicalbeliefstowhichthegroupissentimentallyobedient.

Forextrastatecraft,thelongconisinstructive.Justasfictitiousrumorscanbesuccessful,sotoocan the stubbornly circuitous unfolding story. The day of reckoning can always be delayed.Diaphanousfairy talescanreplacehard-nosed logics.Theauxiliaryactivist learns that throughanycombination of new technologies, new spatial software, or new persuasions, a snaking chain ofmoves can worm into an infrastructure space and gradually generate leverage against intractablepolitics.

Hackers/Entrepreneurs

To ask, “How can one escape themarket?” is one of those questionswhose principal virtue is one’s pleasure in declaring itinsoluble.—JacquesRancière32

Hackers and entrepreneurs—whether as social, political, or commercial agents—understand thepowerofmultipliers,rumors,remotes,anddistractions.33Understandingthecurrenciesofallkindsofvalue,thesecharactersplaysocialandmarketnetworkswiththeviraldisseminationofpandasandpersuasionsaswellasproductsininfrastructurespace.Bothoperateverydifferentlyfromtheutopianactivistordesigner.Theutopianoften imaginesa transcendent and singularmomentof change—acomprehensive reform or a soulfulmasterpiece. Like the activism of declarations, the designs ofarchitectsandurbanistsareoftenpresentedasacorrectiveprogram.Evenwhen,movingawayfromtheobjectormasterplan,designhasborrowedextradisciplinary techniques from, for instance, thesocialsciences,cybernetics,ormathematics,thedesirehasoftenstillbeentodeclare—tofinddataorequations that deliver the right answer. The fact that the world never seems to adopt the utopianschemesofplannerscanthenbeportrayedasasadmistake,oralackofpurity.

Thehacker/entrepreneurdoesnotvaluepuritybutratherreliesonmultiplecyclesofinnovation,updatingplatforms,andtrackingchangeabledesiresthatsupersede,refresh,orreversetheproductsandplanstheyintroduceintotheworld.Entrepreneurscannotsurviveunlesstheyarealwaysontheway to becoming obsolete. Finding fertile territory in inversion—an inversion that is often

considered to be unreasonable—entrepreneurs will be most successful if they renovate what isconsidered to be practical. They vigorously engage the world looking for multipliers that willamplifytheirinfluence.

Thecageyandenterprisingbargainsofthemostproductivehacker/entrepreneurmaynotmeasuretheir productivity in moral terms—on a determination of what is good. Just as Bateson assessedpoliticaltemperamentintermsofinformationflow,productivechangemightconstitutethosemovesthat release and mix more information than they hoard or deny—breaking deadlocks, undoingisomorphisms, unwinding authoritarian concentrations of power to generate less violent, moreresilientpoliticaldispositions.Theutopian’sbinaryrighteousnessandrefusalmayevenbetheleastdesirabledispositionifitmeansarrestingtheflowofinformation.

Forthehacker/entrepreneurofextrastatecraft,spaceistheunderexploitedopportunityorthelow-hanging fruit. Not products and technologies circulating in space but space itself is the operatingsystem to manipulate or overwrite. Spatial variables are the crucial active forms in an extensivesharedplatform—atonceinformation,technology,product,andpawn.Thespacethathasalwaysbeenavailableformanipulation,whenseeninthisway,becomesafreshterritoryforpoliticalaction.

InadmissibleEvidence

Iwouldrathertalkaboutdissensusthanresistance.—JacquesRancière34

Dissensus,astheoppositeofconsensus,isusuallyseenasaconditionthatneedsremedying,butitcanalso be a positive engine. Dissensus disrupts the self-reflexive consensus that only considerscompatibleevidence.Italsosuggestsageneralunrest,aconfusioninorderthatismorewidespreadthanasingletargetofdissent.ForJacquesRancière,“Theworkofdissensusistoalwaysreexaminetheboundariesbetweenwhatissupposedtobenormalandwhatissupposedtobesubversive,betweenwhatissupposedtobeactive,andthereforepolitical,andwhatissupposedtobepassiveordistant,and therefore apolitical.”35 For Rancière, “inadmissible” evidence generates dissensus.36 Forinstance, the immigrant worker, a character for whom there is often no relevant national orinternationallaw,issomethinglikeinadmissibleevidence.Rancièredescribestheimmigrantasa

wordlessvictim,objectofanunquenchablehatred.Theimmigrantisfirstandforemostaworkerwhohaslosthisname,aworkerwhoisnolongerperceptibleassuch.Insteadoftheworkerorproletarianwhoistheobjectofanacknowledgedwrongandasubjectwhovents his grievance in struggle and disputation, the immigrant appears as at once the perpetrator of an inexplicablewrong and thecauseofaproblemcallingfortheround-tabletreatment.37

The immigrant worker returns again and again in the evidence of infrastructure space as thesubjectofanuneasyorfalseconsensus—“theround-tabletreatment.”Dissensusalwaysexposesthisinadmissible evidence, forwarding and highlighting it within the consensus that tries to explain itaway.

Looking beyond the sanctioned plotlines of the proper political story, inadmissible evidenceidentifies thecategory leftovers,or thebutterflies thatarenotpinned to theboard.Politicalchangeoften pivots around less dramatic turning points that are not taxonomized by either the left or theright.Unlikelyevidencemaybetherealcauseofshiftsinsentiment,changesineconomicfortune,orescalationsandsuspensionsofviolence.Justasconsensusmaydelivertheworstandmostdestructiveleadersor juridicalforms,anopponentmaybestrong-armedwithagift.Thebiggestchangesmayresult fromaseemingly innocuousdetail that sneaks inwhennoone ispayingattention.Themostproductivemovemaybetheselfishlymotivatedinnovationofthemostabusiveplayer.Anabundanceoffictionmaymakeasupposedlyimpossibleoption,whetherproductiveorunproductive,suddenly

inoffensiveandplausible.Watersmaypart inexplicablybecauseofanindirectbargainmadeoveraremoteproblem.

Extrastatecraft plunges into the field of contradictory or inadmissible evidence. Thehacker/entrepreneurlooksforopeningsinabitofcodeorastraydesirethatwillunsettlethestatusquoandreleasemoreinformation.Thescholarlooksfortheextrahistorysidelinedbythedominantideologies.Theinnovativeeconomists,sociologists,informationspecialists,andurbanistsareoftenlooking beyond themaster narratives and assumptions of their disciplines formore actors, morecomplexcontexts,andmoreinformationforproblemsolving.Theauxiliaryactivisthopestoengageallkindsofvaluesandconcentrationsofauthoritarianpower,notjustthosecelebratedinthepoliticaltheologiesofCapitalorNeoliberalism.

Dissensusisnotonlyaboutidentifyingtheinadmissibleandnavigatingtheripplesanddimplesonthewater;itisalsoaboutcreatingsomeofthoseripples.Spacecanembodydissensuswhenitscriptsaninterplayformultipleopposingorcounterbalancingplayersandwhenit returns to thatgameofthe laws and people that themarket has erased or excluded for its convenience. The dissensus ofextrastatecrafttroublesthewaters.

English

Englishisawordusedwhenplayingpoolorbilliards,inphrasessuchas“putalittleenglishontheball” or “give it someenglish.”Grazing the cueball in a particularway imparts a bit of spin thattransferstothenumberedball,perhapstoovercomeabadangleandhelptheballslipintothepocket.Apartfromthegeneraldirectionandintentoftheshot,whichmayevenbeannouncedbytheplayer,theballdeliversanotherunannouncedagencythatismuchhardertocontrol,onethatevensometimesseemstobeamatterbetweentheballsthemselves.

InThePoliticsofAesthetics,Rancièredoesnotdiscusstheaestheticsofpolitics,but thepoliticssurroundingaworkofart.Hedoesnotdescribe,forinstance,thepageantofgoose-steppingsoldiersinaZeppelinfield,ortheaestheticizingofresistanceasferviddisappointment.Insteadhedescribesthescatterofassociations thatattendartordesignas theyarereceivedandused inpoliticalaction.For instance, discussing the ways in which art both inflects and generates political activity, hementionsFlaubert:

WhenMadame Bovary was published, or Sentimental Education, these works were immediately perceived as “democracy inliterature” despite Flaubert’s aristocratic situation and political conformism.His very refusal to entrust literaturewith anymessagewhatsoeverwasconsideredtobeevidenceofdemocraticequality.38

Somehow the novels relayed to their audience a liberating disposition despite Flaubert’sconservativepolitics.Thebookshad“english,”oranindirectpoliticalspininculture.

BobDylan’s “Like aRollingStone”was something of an accident—the result of a single takeafteratwo-dayrecordingsessionfilledwithfalsestartsinJuneof1965.Thesnarlingsongseemedtobe addressed to a rich girl, and it had no explicit political content. Yet for whatever reason—theopening“pistolshot”ofdrums,Dylan’sassociationwithWoodyGuthrie,orhisstrainedvoicecrying“how does it feel?”—the song became an anthem of the counter-culture during the wars andassassinationsofthe1960s.Itintroducedakindofenglishthathelpedtoignitethesongforpoliticaluse.39

Political disposition often relies on a bit of english or aesthetic spin. Rancière outlines anaestheticsthat“doesnotrefertoatheoryofsensibility,taste,andpleasureforartamateurs.”Ratherthantreatingaestheticsasacodifiedsetofguidesorrulesthatculturecarefullytendsandmaintains,

he focuses on “aesthetic practices” that both “depict” and enact, that articulate “ways of doing andmaking.”Aestheticsexistsasachangingregimeofformsthatarefullofmeaningbutnotdeterminatemeaning. Rancière describes the ways in which forms are “distributed” into various strata of thesensible.40JustasFoucault’sdispositifisamatterof“thesaidasmuchastheunsaid,”forRancière,“Politicsrevolvesaroundwhatisseenandwhatcanbesaidaboutit,aroundwhohastheabilitytoseeandthetalenttospeak,aroundthepropertiesofspacesandthepossibilitiesoftime.”41

“English”isanadvancedtechniqueinpoolandininfrastructurespace.Itisdeployeddeliberatelybut it isnotentirelyunder theuser ’scontrol. Its intelligentuse lies in therecognitionthataspecialkind of spin is possible beyond the straightforward dynamics of the ball. In the crafting ofinfrastructure space, it is not possible to control the consequences of technologies and theirinteractionswithhumansinspace.Beingabletocontroltheenglishininfrastructurespacewouldbelike inventing the cell phone knowing that it would go from being a “yuppy toy” to a tool ofdevelopment in the world’s poorest countries. If it is not possible to control the english, it isneverthelesspossibletobeateasewiththepresenceoferrantspin,toanticipateit,spotit,anduseittoadvantage.Whileperhapsasourceofdisappointmenttothosewiththefixedanticipationsofaproperpolitical program, swerves, unexpected consequences, and the shadings of disposition are the rawmaterialofapoliticalperformanceinextrastatecraft.

KnowingHow

A refreshed activist repertoire learns from a number of characters—pirates, prisoners, hackers,comedians—who, considering themselves too smart tobe right, successfullypursuemore slipperypolitical practices. Like actors in theater, their job is to create mixtures of opposing intentions—playingactionsthataredifferentfromthestatedtext.Theoperationneednotbeovertordeclared.Itmay be remote or invisible. The InvisibleMan was only powerful because he both appeared anddisappeared.Whenthemanhimselfwasnotvisible,adrinkwasdrainedfromaglassordoorswereopenedandclosedandonlythespacethathedisturbedwasvisible.Inthiscontext,asneakierDavid—happy that Goliath is big—would never go to the trouble of killing the giant. He would see ininfrastructurespacenotdefeatbutratheropportunity.Whykillthegiantwhenitcanbeputtowork,andwhenit’sgreatsize,likeamultiplier,canamplifythatwork?

The indeterminacy of these alternative activist techniques is ultimately what is most practicalabout them.ErvingGoffmanwas fascinated by discrepant characters like confidencemen and go-betweens,justashewasfascinatedbythediscrepancybetweenwhatpeoplesayandwhattheydointheireverydayperformances.Hewonderedhowtheylearnedtheirart.42Mostdisciplinestraintheirpractitionerstoreconcileandverifyevidenceusingtheirowndisciplinarystandards,laws,andtestsfor what constitutes information. One does not ordinarily train in discrepancy or trickery.Discrepancyisthesupernaturalcounterpartofforthrightcommunication,thewispysmokethatpassesbetween the supposedly solid fieldsof signifiers.Training tobe ahustler, a conman,or a shill islearning to be responsive to change. It is dispositional. It relies on practical knowledge andimprovisation—whatJamesC.Scottcallsmētis.43Thetechniquesofextrastatecraftarerehearsedinpreparationforaperformancethatonecanonlyknowhowtodo.

Anauxiliaryactivismisenacted.ThedeclarativeandtheenactedapproachestoactivismbothmapontoanethicalMöbius.Onealignswith themaintenanceofconsensusaroundstatedprinciples; theother, in a partial inversion, describes the maintenance of dissensus around a necessarilyindeterminatestrugglewithundeclaredbutconsequentialactivity.Each—whilemovingonoppositesites of the same surface and approaching from different directions—supports and challenges the

other.Thetwotogetherdescribeboththesolid,stablestateandthestateofencounter.Thegalvanizedandtheatomized.Themomentofcertaintyandthemomentofuncertainty.Theprescriptionandtheepidemiology.Thefixandthewager.Theconditionof“knowingthat”andtheevolvingactivitiesof“knowinghow.”

_______________1 AlexanderCockburn,JeffreySt.Clair,andAllanSekula,5DaysthatShooktheWorld:SeattleandBeyond(LondonandNew

York:Verso,2000).2 Todd Gitlin, “The Self-Inflicted Wounds of the Academic Left,” The Chronicle Review 52, no. 35 (2006), B6, at

http://chronicle.com.3 Architecture discourses often drift toward tragic or stock narratives. For instance, with its attraction to tragic ultimates and

endgames,ManfredoTafuri’scritiqueof the“impotentand ineffectualmyths”ofapoliticalarchitecture isapt ifarchitectureseesas itsonlytoolsobjectformandideology.SeeManfredoTafuri,ArchitectureandUtopia:DesignandCapitalistDevelopment(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,1979),178,182.

4 Colin Gordon, “Afterword” in Michel Foucault and Colin Gordon, ed., Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and OtherWritings1972–977(NewYork:PantheonBooks,1972)256–7.

5 BrunoLatourandVincentAntoniLépinay,TheScienceofPassionateInterests:AnIntroductiontoGabrielTarde’sEconomicAnthropology(Chicago:PricklyParadigmPress,2009).

6 SeeJamesC.Scott,DominationandtheArtsofResistance:HiddenTranscripts (NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1990),136.

7 Ibid.,143–4.8 Ibid.,19.9 SeeMicheldeCerteau,ThePracticeofEverydayLife(Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1984),37,29–44,142–3.10 “Sen.InhofeDeliversMajorSpeechontheScienceofClimateChange,”atinhofe.senate.gov.11 Twoexamplesofpop-culturebooksaboutmarketingareSethGodin,UnleashingtheIdeaVirus (NewYork:DoYouZoom,

2001);andMalcolmGladwell,TheTippingPoint(NewYork:LittleBrown,2002).12 RushLimbaugh,“LeftJustNowDiscoveringGlobalWarmingHoax,”April1,2013,atrushlimbaugh.com.13 Nye,“EnergyNarratives,”inNarrativesandSpaces,85–6.14 “GreenMachines,”athttp://new.pentagram.com.15 See“History”atgreenpeace.org.16 “SomeFactsAboutWal-Mart’sEnergyConservationMeasures,”athttp://news.walmart.com.17 ForanexhibitionofarchitecturalrumorsseeSomeTrueStories:ResearchesintheFieldofFlexibleTruth,Storefront forArt

andArchitecture,NewYorkCity,November2008,atstorefrontnews.org.18 “CeltelChiefUnveils$5MillionAwardforGovernance,”PropertyKenya,October31,2006,atpropertykenya.com.Ibrahim

foundedCeltel International (subsequently bought byZain andBahariAirtel) and turned it into one of the continent’s largestmobilephoneoperators.HeisoneofthemostsuccessfulAfricanbusinessmen.

19 Scott,DominationandtheArtsofResistance,139–40;MilanKundera,TheJoke(NewYork:Harper,1992),139–40.20 SebnemArsu,“ProtestGroupGivesTurkishOfficialsDemands,”NewYorkTimes,June6,2013.TheauthorisindebtedtoA.J.

Artemelforsharinghisresearchonthe2013anti-governmentprotestsinTurkey.21 Seehttp://theyesmen.org.22 Seewomenonwaves.org.23 HuYongquotedinBrookLarmer,“WhereanInternetJokeIsNotJustaJoke,”NewYorkTimesMagazine,October30,2011,

38.24 Cheekiness—thekynicism aboutwhichphilosopherPeterSloterdijkwrites—resists a self-satis( edcynicismorconsensus.See

PeterSloterdijk,CritiqueofCynicalReason(Minneapolis:UniversityofMinnesotaPress,1987),101–33;andrtmark.com.25 Usually producing the humor of “knowing that” rather than “knowing how,” the architecture culture that called itself

“postmodern”createdcompositionsfromvariousarchitectural tropes thatwere tobeconsciouslyreadaswitticismsandironieswithin(xedobjectformsandone-to-onecorrespondencesofmeaning—“one-liners”incomedyjargon.Thecounter-culturedemonstrationsandsatiresofAntFarmorArchigramenteredintootherprint,( lm,andperformancemediawithmixturesofobjectandactiveforms.Somewere designed to reference a speci( c antecedent uponwhich the humor relied.Others carried non-speci( c references thatwere bothfunnyanddisruptive.Whiletherewasspeci(ccontentinthecomicsthatArchigramdesigned,theveryactofdepictingarchitecturewithcomicbookswas itselfanactive formwithmanyassociations.AntFarm’sCadillacRanch, a sculptureofCadillacshalfburied in theground,oritsMediaBurnperformancefeaturingacollisionofacarwithapyramidofTVs,travelasactiveformwithnoonespeci(cantecedent.

26 Seenew-territories.com.27 KennethW.Abbott andDuncan Snidal, “TheGovernanceTriangle:Regulatory Standards Institutions and the Shadow of the

State,” inWalterMattliandNgaireWoods,eds.,ThePoliticsofGlobalRegulation (Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,2009),50;Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca: CornellUniversityPress,1998),23–4,12–13.

28 “ConversationwithRahulMehrotra,”athttp://harvardmagazine.com.29 InEmpire,Hardt andNegridiscuss anumberof techniquesofpolitical craft, including the refusalof characters likeHerman

Melville’sBartlebyorJ.M.Coetzee’sMichaelK.,payingparticularattentiontoMichaelK.asagardenerwhoseconstantmovementismimetic of the vines hewishes to be tending. This serpentine disposition eases the dangerous stakes embodied in de( ant refusal andenhanceshischancesofsuccess.SeeHardtandNegri,Empire,203–4.

30 PBSNewshour,“RememberingRonaldReagan,”airdateJune7,2004,atpbs.org.31 Foradiscussionof“specialstupidity,”seeEasterling,EnduringInnocence,195.32 Jacques Rancière, “The Art of the Possible: Fulvia Carnevale and John Kelsey in Conversation with Jacques Rancière,”

ArtforumInternational45no.7(March2007):256–60.33 MattliandWoods,eds.,ThePoliticsofGlobalRegulation,x–xi.34 Jacques Rancière, “The Art of the Possible: Fulvia Carnevale and John Kelsey in Conversation with Jacques Rancière,”

ArtforumInternational45,no.7(2007),256–60.35 Ibid.36 JacquesRancière,ThePoliticsofAesthetics(London:Continuum,2004),85.37 Rancière,OntheShoresofPolitics,105.38 Rancière,ThePoliticsofAesthetics,14.39 GreilMarcus,LikeaRollingStone:BobDylanattheCrossroads(NewYork:FaberandFaber,2005),80,224,3.40 Inresponsetoselectedmediaandinstallationworkofthe1990s,artcriticNicolasBourriauddevelopedanotionof“relational

form” that described art as a “state of encounter” rather than “the assertion of an independent and private symbolic space.” In hismanifesto,RelationalAesthetics,Bourriaudwritesthatthisnew“policy”ofform“pointstoaradicalupheavaloftheaesthetic,culturalandpoliticalgoalsintroducedbymodernart.”Rancière’sbroaderframeworkdescribesapoliticsofaestheticsthatdoesnotrelyonthesenew forms ofmedia and performance art as a radical or inauguralmoment. SeeNicolasBourriaud,Relational Aesthetics (Paris: LesPressesduRéel,2002).

41 Foucault,“TheConfessionoftheFlesh,”inPower/Knowledge,194;Rancière,ThePoliticsofAesthetics,22–3,12–14.42 Goffman,ThePresentationofSelfinEverydayLife,73–4.43 Scott,SeeingLikeaState,6–7,340.

Afterword

Fast-forwardagainthroughtheimagesfoundatthebeginningofthisbook—therepetitivematrixofspatialproductsandnetworksofinfrastructurespace.Likeanoperatingsystemmanagingactivitiesinthebackground,spaceisatechnology,acarrierofinformation,andamediumofpolity.Exposingtheworkingsofthisoperatingsystem—infreezones,broadbandtechnoscapes,orglobalstandards—isasimportantasrehearsingtheskillstohackintoit.

Manydisciplines arequestioning theirownpresumptionsand searching for alternativeways toadjusttheglobalpoliticallandscape.Infrastructurespaceisagoodtestbedfortheseexperiments—acomplexmatrixharboringofallkindsofsocialhabits,culturalvalues,economies,andtechnologies.

A web of active forms contributes to the disposition of infrastructure space—its immanentcapacity, propensity, or political bearing. The active forms thatmake it powerful—itsmultipliers,switches,ortopologies,amongmanyothers—canalsobespatialvariablesorleversformanipulatingit.Thepervasivenessof infrastructurespacemayevenoffer themeans toamplifyanadjustmentormakeitcontagious.

While the world looks to master plans, metrics, standards, and bottom lines, the precedingdiscussions have suggested an expanded repertoire for design—not fixedplans but an interplayofactive forms that act like spatial software. Interdependent spatial variables can operate like littlemachinestocontinuallyadjustdispositionwithinacontext.Theobjectofdesignisnotasingleformbut an apparatus for shaping many forms. A vessel of dissensus rather than consensus, interplayfavorscounterbalancingdifferencesthatleveragebenefitsformultipleplayersovertime.Thiskindof interplaycan rewire a city, as in the caseof the zone transplanted to themetropolis. It canbeagovernor, as in the case of the broadband village that balances enhanced global networks withlandscapepreservation. It can evendirect the subtraction aswell as the additionofdevelopment inmany economically or environmentally exhausted sites around the world. In these ways, spatialvariables,underexploitedinglobalpoliticalnegotiations,mightbetoolsofanunorthodoxformofspatio-politicalactivism.

Thestories thataccompany infrastructurespacearealsoactive forms thatpropeland inflect itsdisposition. While some stories remain fluid, others become fixed ideologies that, howeverdecoupled from reality, hold sway over politics. Stories about infrastructure space as a militaryapparatus,forexample,perpetuateunnecessarybinariesandmayevenobscureevidenceofsomeofthe most insidious violence against labor and environment. The ideological stories of economicliberalism that attach to infrastructure space and commandeer political policy can, ironically,profoundly compromise liberty. Meanwhile, some spatial software that avoids associations withfreedom may demonstrate that interdependent obligation can yield expanded capacity and greaterchoice. Despite the stories of universal logic and rationality that prevail throughout infrastructurespace, irrationality rules in aworld that is susceptible to themost immaterial rumors andunlikelyevents.

In infrastructure space, discrepancy may be a better tutor than certainty. The misregistrationbetween stated intentions and undeclared activity makes more palpable active forms and theunderlyingdispositionstheyshape.Discrepancytrainsacraftypoliticalimaginationtoanticipatethetwists,deceptions,orfictionsthatusuallyoutrunoroutwitutopias.

Disposition isalsopolitical temperament.Theway inwhichorganizationsencourageor inhibitthe exchange of information is an important marker of this temperament. Designers can tunedispositions in infrastructure space by discouraging the violence that comes from excluding

information and encouraging the stability that comes fromenriching it.Design activismmayevendeliberatelyavoidthemostrighteousresistanceifitisreductiveandcompetitive,lookinginsteadforwaystoreleasetensionsbyreleasinginformation.

There isoftenmorepower in“knowinghow”rather than“knowing that.”Themarkersused tonavigate a river are indeterminate in order to be practical. Similarly, in the fluid organizations ofinfrastructurespace,themanipulationofactiveformsinanunfoldingprocessismorepracticalthanprescriptions or declarations of urban reform. The aim is to offer not solutions but rathermechanisms for generating solutions.Beyond those cautions offered in themost familiar politicaltheories, infrastructure spacedrawsattention tobroad,dynamicmarkersofdanger associatedwithobstructionsofinformationandconcentrationsofauthoritarianpower.

Whetherdeployingcunning,banality,orabsurdity, infrastructurespace isa toolofsomeof themostpowerfulforcesintheworld.Buttwocanplayatthisgame—inanartofextrastatecraft.

Index

Pagenumbersinitalicsrefertoillustrations

AbuDhabi46,58activeforms

anddisposition21,72–3,81–5,92,214,239informationmanagement86,232interplay78–81,132–6,203,205–6multipliers68,73–5stories89–91,207,217–18,240switchesandremotecontrols75–6,227–9

activismanddeclaration22–3,211–14,231–2,240–1anddiscrepancy214–15,237–8andinstitutions197,227–9,234middleclass43techniques221,222–3,225,229

actor-networktheory(ANT)89–91,131“AdministrationIndustrielleetGénérale”(Fayol)180aesthetics235–6Africa

LAPSSET128–9managementculture196submarinecables110–14,112telecommunications96–7,99–106,117n60,122terrestrialcables114–17,115zones66seealsoKenya;Mauritius;Sudan

AfricanUnion103Agamben,Giorgio53n76airportcities38n36Al-HassanIndustrialEstate63–4AlQaeda147Alcatel-LucentS.A.101–2,111Alexander,Christopher84n15AllianceTexas63Almogran58AmazonCrude(Kimerling)200AmericanNationalStandardsInstitute(ANSI)175,181n23AmericanSocietyforQuality(ASQ)178,181n23Angevine,Robert153n48Annan,Kofi104AntFarm225n25Appadurai,Arjun110AppleInc.58,197–8Archigram225n25architecture

andactiveforms81,83–4andinformation12–13internationaldesignprinciples163,188–9,191political213n3postmodern225n25

ARPAnet71,143Arquilla,John144–7Astana51–3,52

AT&TCorp.100–1AthiRiverEPZ126–7,127authoritarianism157–8,168,211awards219–20

Banerjee,AbhijitVinayak132Bangladesh54,149banking17,40–1n43,60,121,204

seealsofinanceBaran,Paul144Bateson,Gregory85–8BeingThere(Kosinski)230Benkler,Yochai92,159Biemann,Ursula64binarypatterns86–8,147–9,212–13,240Bjerregaard,Ritt221BLO(BarbieLiberationOrganization)225Boli,John206–7Bolin,Richard32n19,57BoozAllenHamiltonInc.182,193–4BorderIndustrialProgram(BIP)30Bourdieu,Pierre89n26Bourriaud,Nicholas236n40Brenner,Neil49n63ABriefHistoryofNeoliberalism(Harvey)157Britain99–100,154–5BritishCableandWirelessCompany101Britishterritories60broadband

accessto95–8,104–6,109,125–6,167companies100–3development129,130–1,136networks17–18,124–5pricing117–19spatialvariables97–9,132submarinecables110–14,112terrestrialcables114–17,115villages134–5,224andzones37–8,126–7,133–4seealsointernet;mobiletelephony

BroadbandCommissionforDigitalDevelopment105–6,119Brunsson,Nils199BSI(BritishStandardsInstitute)175,178,180n21,181n23,186buildings

DustyRelief/B_mu226form14,81asreproducibleproducts11–12,73–4standards188–191subtractionprotocols205–6,240

bureaucracyandeconomicliberalism107–8andgovernance167–8,173,196,208–9andzones27,66–7,160–1

Burnham,Jack84n15Burnham,James183n35businessschools182

seealsouniversities

CanadianStandardsAssociation(CSA)186

capitalism146,151–4,179–80,183n35seealsomarketeconomicscarbonmarket174,204

Castells,Manuel41,188CCK(CommunicationsCommissionofKenya)106–7,111,116–17certificationprograms199

ascorporatePR19,65,176–7,197–8globalreach196–7incentivizing220non-ISO190,193seealsoISO

Chandler,AlfredD.152–4Chen,Xiangming39China

andAfrica66,127andISO196andTaiwan219zones26,35–7,42–4,59,62

ChinaDaily(newspaper)49Churchill,Winston155CIDCO(CityandIndustrialDevelopmentCompanyofMaharashtra)48cities

charter66n110doubles48–53,224free27–8andinfrastructurespace13,191internetofthings81n6multipliers74–5,90astransnationalproduct12,62–3Vision2030127–8andzones26,37–8,42–8,68–9,133–4

class43,157ClassicFashionApparelIndustryLtd.64–5,201Clausewitz,Claudevon139–40,147climatechange216Clinton,Bill194ColónFreeTradeZone29–30comedy225–7compliance

ISO19,168,172,195–7,209andpower215,220–2asasmoke-screen197–201

TheConceptofMind(Ryle)81–3ConceptoftheCorporation(Drucker)183–4ConstitutionofLiberty(Hayek)158n65constructionindustry38,152–3,179,189,190content

andactivity13–15andmobiletelephony121andqualitymanagement176–7,187,194–5,202,230andrumor217

convergence125n87corporatesocialresponsibility65,189–90,196–8,200,219–20corporations

anddevelopingcountries219globalgovernance184–7,196–201,221–2globaltelecommunications100–2,106–7infrastructurebuilding150–4managementthinking179–85,192–4

offshorepractices60–1andzones38,40,67,160

Covey,Stephen194Cox,Louise191n57crowd-sourcing96–7,122–3,131Cyberjaya15,38

Dabba122DariushGrandHotel,Kish61–2,61Deleuze,Gilles80,145–7DelhiMumbaiIndustrialCorridor66Deming,W.Edwards178n17,185design

activeforms81,84–5,91,218andbroadband132–3andcomedy226disposition92,240–1environmentallysensitive190,205international163multipliers74–5,84,202–3,217assoftware80,84n15,239utopian231–2

DEVCO196DhakaEPZ54,149Diamond,WalterH.andDorothyB.40digitalmedia81,85,119,163DiMaggio,PaulJ.206DIN(DeutschesInstitutfürNormung)175,180n21,186discrepancy91,212,214–15,237–8,240disposition

broadband124description21–2,71–2,81–3,92–3interplayofactiveforms78–81,206markers72–3,77–8insociology89n26,91andstories88,90,138,168–9,214–15switches75–6andtemperament86–8,240–1

dissensus233–5,238–9distraction15,229–30DominationandtheArtsofResistance(Scott)215–16,220doubling26,48–51,222–5Drucker,PeterF.57,183–4,194Dubai14,42

workers’rights56–7“TheWorld”islands226zones26,41n42,45–6,59

Duflo,Esther132DustyRelief/B_mu(designwork)226Dylan,Bob235–6

Eagle,Nathan123EASSy(EastAfricaSubmarineCableSystem)105,110–11,113–14,118n67EbeneCybercity37,105EconomicControlofQualityofManufacturedProduct(Shewhart)181economicliberalism

inAfrica106–9,160–1andinfrastructure138,150–4,221–2andpoliticalideology154–60,166n85,224,240

andzones27,35–6,39–40,65–6,90,160seealsoneoliberalism

economictheory130–2,151,154–5,159–61Economist(magazine)119Ecuador66,200,219Egypt63–4elevators74–5TheEmergenceofNoopolitik(ArquillaandRonfeldt)145Empire(HardtandNegri)148,229n29enclaves25–6,35–6,68,97–8,125–6

seealsozonesTheEndoftheNationState(Ohmae)40english235–7entrepreneurialism125,129,212,231–2,234environment

abuse16,43,54climatechange216anddevelopment204–6,240greenenergy46,218regulation34,167socialresponsibility200,219–20andstandards19,189–91,197–8,200–1

EPZs(ExportProcessingZones)development25,29–30,32–3,36–8,39Dhaka54,149disadvantages34–5diversity40–1inKenya126–7ShekouIndustrialZone43WEPZA32–33nn18–19,39–40,57seealsozones

Erdoğan,RecepTayyip221Euler,Leonhard76–7extrastatecraft(definition)15

Facebook71,77FairLaborAssociation(FLA)58,197–8fascism155,157–8Fayol,Henri180Feigenbaum,ArmandV.185fiber-opticcable

contracts118n67development100–1,104–5,126asanetworkswitch17–18,76submarinecables95–6,110–14,112terrestrialcables98,114–17,115

finance60–1,150–4,174seealsobankingFlaubert,Gustave235FordMotorCompany179–80form14,21,74–5,79–82,89–90,205

seealsoactiveformsFortune(magazine)182–3Foster,Norman46,52Foucault,Michel92,141Foxconn57–8freeports27–8,39,43freezonesseezonesFriedman,Milton157n62

FTZs(ForeignTradeZones)28–9,34,59,63seealsozones

Furusten,Staffan178

Gale,Stanley50GeneralMotorsCo.183–4Georgia66,67Germany28,53n76,151n39,180n21gifts219–20Gingrich,Newt194globalization

ofgovernance18–19,100,161–2,164–5,167–8,206–9ofinfrastructure12,162–4,173–4interdependencies203–6managementstandards184–5,187–9,195–6ofmarkets25–6,31,40,135andprotest211“scapes”110

GlobalizationandOrganization(Drori,MeyerandHwangeds.)207–8Go(game)145–7Goffman,Erving89n24,90–1,237–8golfcourses79–80Google77,122Gordon,Colin213gossip213,215–17governors78–80,84,86,134–5,205–6,220Govindarajan,Vijay109,196Graham,Stephen142Gray,John150TheGreatTransformation(Polanyi)150–1,155–6greenenergy46,218Grima,Joseph81n6Guattari,Félix80,145–7Gulick,Luther180–1

hackers231–2,234Hall,Peter41Hamburg27,28HanseaticLeague27Hardt,Michael148,229n29Harvey,David157Hayek,FrederickA.156–7,158n65Heeks,Richard130–1Herlihy,Brian109,121highwaysseeroadsHill,Charles140n4history

ofmanagement179–87militaryandcivilsociety21–2,139–45,150–4political154–8oftelecommunications99–106,137,161–3ofzones27–31

HITECCity15,37hoax215–6homoeconomicus151,158–60HongKong28–9,43,49,223Hoover,Herbert155HuaweiTechnologiesCo.Ltd.102,109,116Hughes,ThomasP.143

Hugo,Victor12HundredYears’Peace150–1

IbrahimPrizeforAchievement219–20ICT4D130–2ideologies

conflict183–4anddisposition168economicliberalism160,223–4,240andISO209andtechnology21–2,93,138,217seealsopolitics

IEC(InternationalElectrotechnicalCommission)167–8,174ILO(InternationalLaborOrganization)56,64,197Imai,Masaaki186IMF(InternationalMonetaryFund)103,106inadmissibleevidence233–5IncheonFEZ30,50India30,37,57,66,196,228information

access17–18,109,133–6,164andactivity85–6,91circulation67,77–8,240–1flows41,88,188,232andinfrastructurespace13–14,71,98andISO201–2technologies36–8,96–7,119–24,130–2,136

TheInformationalCity(Castells)41infrastructure

andcomedy225–7description11–14,17–20,239disposition21,71–3,78,80–1,92,214–15andextrastatecraft15,174militaryandcivilian139–45,148–9narratives22,137–8,168–9,217–18,240organizationanddevelopment150–4,161–4seealsobroadband;qualitystandards;space;zones

Inhofe,James216“InstitutionalizedOrganizations:Formal

StructureasMythandCeremony”(MeyerandRowan)166

intergovernmentalagencies18,103,110–14,165,184–5,196InternationalCongressesofModernArchitecture163,188internationalorganizationsandbroadband96

contradictions166–7,207–9andfreemarketliberalization106–7globalgovernance100,161–2,196–8growth164–5leverage227–8andstandards18,167–8andzones32–3,55–6seealsoISO;ITU

InternationalTextileGarmentandLeatherWorkersFederation56InternationalTradeUnionConfederation(ITUC)56internet

access96,107,109,125–6control77,164,211militarynarratives143–5pricing117–19

seealsobroadbandinternetofthings81n6,119–24interplay78–81,133–6,203–6,220,228,239–40Iraq147,211islandzones59–61ISO(InternationalOrganizationforStandardization)174

containershipping187–8description18–19,171–3,201–3,206–8globalambitions195–6inception174–5,181n23irrationality167–8,209ISO900019,172,176–7,186–7ISO14000189,196,198,200ISO26000196–7asasmoke-screen199–201andtechnologies191seealsoqualitystandards

ISPs(internetserviceproviders)117–19,125–6Israel58,63ITU(InternationalTelegraphUnion)174

andbroadbandinfrastructure105–6firstmeeting137–8,139,150,161andgovernance100,107,167–8asinternationalmediator162andteledensity103–4,119

JanaMobileInc.123–4,224Jansen,Ludger81Japan37,163,185–6,192JapanPortConsultantsLtd.129JejuIsland59Jobs,Steve58TheJoke(Kundera)220Jordan63–5Juran,JosephM.185JUSE(JapaneseUnionofScientistsandEngineers)185n40just-in-timeproduction185,188

KAEC(KingAbdullahEconomicCity)15,47–8,47,54KaohsiungExportProcessingZone30,32Kazakhstan51–3KDN(KenyaDataNetworks)114–17Kelly,Kevin41Kenya108,120,127

accesstotelecommunications95–9,100,103–4,110–11,117–20,125businessinnovation17–18,65,121–4cable111–17development126–9,133–6,204andeconomicliberalism106–9,160–1andintergovernmentalagencies103telecommunicationscompanies101–2

Keynes,JohnMaynard155,157n62Kimerling,Judith200KishIsland61–2Kissinger,Henry140,147“knowinghow”81–3,85,92,225n25,237–8,241KonigsbergBridgeProblem76–7KonzaTechnologyCity127–8Kosinski,Jerzy230

KP&TC(KenyaPostandTelecommunicationsCorp.)101–2,106,107KPMGInternational178Krasner,StephenD.48–9Kundera,Milan220Kurokawa,Kisho52

LaFontaine,Henri164–5labor

abuse16,27,54–8,200–1,219,222–3cheap25,30,37,43–5,64andeconomicliberalism39immigrantworkers233–4protection19,33–4,160,167,197sexualharassment64–5seealsoRanaPlaza

laissez-faireseeeconomicliberalismLAPSSET(LamuPort–SouthernSudan–EthiopiaTransport)128–9,219Latour,Bruno81n5,88–91,159–60law

andlabor56,160maritime223andstandards18,199–201andstatesovereignty49andzones15–16,26,33–4,45–6,51,53

Lazikacity66–7LEED(LeadershipinEnergyandEnvironmentalDesign)190LekkiFreeZone66Lépinay,VincentAntonin159–60Levine,Les84n15Levitt,William73–4,90liberalism108–9,150,154–61,166n85,224

seealsoeconomicliberalism;neoliberalism“LikeaRollingStone”(Dylan)235–6Limbaugh,Rush216Linder,Marc152Logopelago(designwork)225–6Lotringer,Sylvère141Lyons,ThomasE.30

M-PESA17,121–2Macau59Madigan,Charles194n68“TheMakingandExpansionofInternationalManagementStandards”(Mendel)196n72,207Malaysia38,42,57managementculture

history153–4,179–82Japanese185–6,192jargon173,192–3,195,226–7,230

managementconsulting182–5,192–5newtrends196significance178–9

managementstandardsglobalization187–9,195–6ISO9000172,176–7,186–7ISO14000189,196,198–200significance173–4,201–3socialresponsibility196–8,200–1seealsoqualitystandards

TheManagerialRevolution(Burnham)183n35manufacturing

standards174–5,181,185–6supplychaincities44inzones28–9,30,39,48,63–5

maquiladoras30,31,39markers72–3,77–8,88,214,240–1marketeconomics

inAfrica106–9,160–1developmentandregulation151–6,158–60andzones35–6,39–40,65–6seealsoeconomicliberalism

MasdarCity46,191Mattelart,Armand140,143,161,191–2Mauritius37–8,104–5McCormick,JosephP.158McKenna,ChristopherD.194n68McKinsey&Company,Inc.103,130,182,185,192–4McLuhan,Marshall13meaninglessness229–31Mehrotra,Rahul228Mendel,Peter196n72,207Meng,Guanwen39n36,40–41n43Mexico30,63,145Meyer,JohnW.165–6,207–8Micklethwait,John183n34,194n68military

administration153–4conflict58andinfrastructure138,141–5,148–9,240andrealpolitik139–41warmachine146–8,152seealsowar

MillenniumDevelopmentGoals106,126mimicry87,190,222–3MindandNature(Bateson)86Mises,Ludwigvon156–7TheMissingLink(ITUreport)103–4MoIbrahimPrizeforAchievement219–20mobiletelephony108,120

advertisements95entrepreneurialism125,129internetofthings119–24pricing109,118–19ubiquity17–18,96–8,163,167seealsobroadband

Morozov,Evgeny164MTNGroup109,122MultimediaSuperCorridor(MSC)38,42multinationalindustriesseecorporations;internationalorganizationsmultipliers

cellphones98–9,120–1,133gossipandrumor215–18hackers/entrepreneurs231–2ISO198,202–3topologies77–8urbanspace73–5,78–9,84,90,134zones27,68,188

Mumbai48,228

Nairobi98,103,116n58,126,134

seealsoKenyaNationalOpticalFibreBackbone

Infrastructure(NOFBI)115,116–17NaviMumbai48Nazarbayev,Nursultan51,53Ndemo,Bitange111,118n67,128Negri,Antonio148,229n27Negroponte,Nicholas84n14neoliberalism

andgovernance55–6andliberalism158–9,224“Washingtonconsensus”economics66,106–8,157,160–1

WEPZA33n18,39–40NEPAD(NewPartnershipforAfrica’sDevelopment)103,110–11,113networks

broadband17,98–9,133–5financial60information119–24,164–5rail152–4andsecurity144–5,147social143,159–60socio-technical20,22n5,88–90,124–5switches75–6,97–8,227telegraph99–100,137topologies77–8

NetworksandNetwars(ArquillaandRonfeldt)144–5,147NewDeal155,224TheNewInstitutionalisminOrganizationalAnalysis(PowellandDiMaggio)206NewSongdoCity15,26,50–1,50NGO-IndustrialComplex198,199NGOs199

FEMOZA167n87power144,227–8proliferation18,165

WEPZA32nn17–18,39–40,40–41n43,57andworkers’rights55–6,58,197–8seealsointergovernmentalagencies;ISO

Nigeria66Noam,Eli104Nomadology(DeleuzeandGuattari)145NorthKorea62NotreDamedeParis(Hugo)12Nye,DavidE.218

OAU(OrganizationofAfricanUnity)103Obama,Barack216–17,223objectforms14,74,81–2,84,133Occupymovement211,221O’Connell,Charles153n49OECD(OrganizationforEconomic

CooperationandDevelopment)35,41,197,198offshorebanking40–41n43,60Ohmae,Kenichi40oilandpetrochemicals44–5,48,200,218,219“OnDistributedCommunications”(Baran)144OntheShoresofPolitics(Rancière)233Ong,Aihwa55–6,158–9“OpenSourceArchitecture(OSArc)”(Ratti,Grimaetal.)81n6operatingsystem

formsascode72–3,92infrastructurespaceas12–14,173–4,232,239seealsosoftware

Ordos,InnerMongolia16organizationstudies181O’Shea,James194n68Otlet,Paul164

Palen,Ronen49Palestine58,64pandas219PapersontheScienceofAdministration(Gulick)180–1PDCA(PlanDoCheckAct)177,185n40peace137,150–1

seealsowarPentagramDesign218Peters,Tom193,196PLOTarchitects221Polanyi,Karl150–1,155–6,184politicalactivismseeactivismpolitics

andart235–6binaryoppositions86–7British154–5anddisposition77–8,92,214,240–1andinfrastructure137–8,168–9andmeaninglessness229–30andmobileplatforms122–3andpower212,215–16undeclaredoutcomes71,73US155–8andwar139–41,144–8andzones16–17,27,55–6,67–8,90,148seealsoactivism;ideologies;liberalism;neoliberalism

ThePoliticsofAesthetics(Rancière)235–6Powell,WalterW.206power

andcomedy225–6anddesign84–5destabilizing215–16anddisposition73,168,214industrial99–100,137–8,152–3andinfrastructurespace15,22–3,230relationships87–8state49,55seealsopolitics

Prahalad,CoimbatoreKrishnarao109,196Price,Cedric84n15protocols78–9,137,203–6PudongSEZ44PuertoRico29,30n11

Qatar46QIZs(QualifyingIndustrialZones)63–4,201

seealsozonesQualityDigest(magazine)178n17qualitystandards

content176,187,201–2,230description19,172–4,209

globalization187–9,195–6history179–82intentions198–201andmanagementgurus192–4asaserviceindustry177–8TotalQualityManagement185–6,192seealsoISO

rail48,152–4,163,179rainforest174,204–5RanaPlaza54,149Rancière,Jacques202,231,233,235–6RANDCorporation144–5rationalization

andirrationality12,27,65,168,173,230–1organizations207–8universal163,166n85

Ratti,Carlo81n5Reagan,Ronald157,218,230realpolitik139–41,148ReassemblingtheSocial(Latour)89–90REDD(ReducingEmissionsfrom

DeforestationandDegradation)204regulation

ofmarkets107–8,154,155–6ofmoneytransferservices121n74andmultinationalindustries197–201,221–2andstandards173ofzones27,33–4,49,54,167seealsoqualitystandards

remotecontrols75–6,133,227–9RepublicofPanama29–30resorts58–61TheRoadtoSerfdom(Hayek)157,158n65roads76,98,128,135

seealsotransportationRobbins,Anthony194Roche,Francoise226Ronfeldt,David144–7Roosevelt,FranklinDelano155,224Rowan,Brian166rumor212–3,215–18Russia62Ryle,Gilbert81–3,91

Safaricom107,109,111,117–18,121seealsoM-PESA

SAI(SocialAccountabilityInternational)197satellitetechnology95,97,113n53,117,163SaudiArabia47–8Savannah,Georgia78–80,79,133Schmitt,Carl53n75,55,157–8Schwartz,FredericJ.180n21TheScienceofPassionateInterests(LatourandLépinay)159–60scientificmanagement179–81,183n34,187Scott,JamesC.164,215–16,220SeacomLtd.113,117,118n67SEED(SocialEconomicEnvironmentalDesign)190Seigel,Jerrold158

Seoul30,50SEZs(SpecialEconomicZones)35–9,42–4,51,59,62

seealsoShenzhenSEZ;zonesShanghai44ShannonFreeZone29,32Shaxson,Nicholas60ShenzhenSEZ36,43–4,49,57–8,102Shewhart,WalterA.181shipping31,38,187–8,223SiemensAG101Silva,ErandiDe225–6SIPs(ScienceIndustrialParks)36–9

seealsozonesSixSigma193Skolkovo62socialism155,157software

activeformsascode14,79–81crowd-sourcing122–3anddesign84n14,239spatial20,27,98,134–6,203–6seealsooperatingsystem

SoftwareTechnologyParksofIndia(STPI)37SongdoseeNewSongdoCitySouthKorea30,37,50–1,59SouthSudan58,128,129sovereignty

bifurcation49,148exemption15,51,53,55–6,223andliberalism159

spaceandactivism232andbroadbandinfrastructure97description11–12,14,22–3disposition72,124–5,214asinformation13,19–20,173–4interdependencies203–6,239–40militarization142,148spatialproducts26,37,38n36,62,74–5,188–9stories90,218urban15–18,78–80,133–6

spin216,235–7standardsseemanagementstandards;qualitystandardsStanfordResearchPark36Starr,Paul143stateofexception53,55states

conflict58,129,139–43,146–8andinternationalcompanies152,161–2,179,183–4regionstates40andstandards199,202,208andzones15–17,26–7,34–5,48–9,66–7

StepstoanEcologyofMind(Bateson)85,87Sterling,Bruce143stories

activeforms90–1,207,240andcounter-stories217–18anddisposition21–2,88,92–3,168–9,214–15ofglobalization110,163–6

military143–9power137–8

subtractionprotocols205–6,240suburbanhousing73–5,80,84,90,204–6,217Sudan58,105,129switches75–7,86,133–4,227

Taiwan30,37,219TaksimSquareprotests221Tarde,Gabriel159–60,215tax

havens59–60,160incentives15,25,29,33,43,48

Taylor,FrederickW.179–80TeaPartymovement158n65,223TEAMS(TheEastAfricanMarineSystem)111,113,116–17,118n67technology

asactant88–90building188,191anddisposition21,71,92–3international163–4militaryandcivilian142–4printing12satellite95,97zones36–9,42,127–8seealsoinformation

TECHNOPARK-Allianz62TechnopolesoftheWorld(CastellsandHall)41telecommunications

development18,95–6,99–106,124–5,136–7andeconomicliberalism106–7,110–11seealsoITU;mobiletelephony

TelkomKenya106–7,111temperament86–8,240terrorism142n12,144,146–7TheThirdWave(Toffler)97n6Thomas,GeorgeM.206–7Toffler,Alvin97n6topologies76–8,98,144–5tourism58–61,128–9,134,205TQM(TotalQualityManagement)185–6,187n44,192trade

ethical131,204–5historicfreeports27–8roleofstandards172,199–201shipping31,38seealsomanufacturing;marketeconomics;zones

tradeunions39,44n49,56,160trafficengineering76,164trafficking64TranscendentalMeditationmovement195n70transportation

andbroadband98,134–5corridors128–9networks11,20,76,126andorganizationalpower152–4,179technologies46

“TreatiseonNomadology”(DeleuzeandGuattari)146Twain,Mark21

UAE(UnitedArabEmirates)40–41n43,44–6,111,203–4seealsoDubai

UIA(UnionofInternationalAssociations)164–5UNIDO(UnitedNationsIndustrial

DevelopmentOrganization)32,34–5,167UnitedNationsGlobalCompact197universities46,98,134urbanism

broadband18,98–9,124–5,133–6global12,163–4,188–9,191incentivized15–16,26,38,62,68andthemilitary140–2subtractionprotocols205–6zone40–1,66–7,224

Urwick,Lyndall180–1USGreenBuildingCouncil(USGBC)190USA

industry77,99,152–4,179–80,185–6laborstandards56,197managementsystems182n29,183,192–3,196politics140,155–8,194,211,216–17zones28–9,33,36,59,63

Ushahidi,Inc.122–3,224USSR37

villages117,126,134–5,164violence54,58,88,148–9

seealsowarVirilio,Paul139,140–1TheVisibleHand(Chandler)152–4Vision2030126–9,134

Wal-MartStores,Inc.54,218war54,58,139–43,145–7,211

seealsomilitary;peaceTheWealthofNetworks(Benkler)92,159Weizman,Eyal142WEPZA(WorldEconomicProcessingZoneAssociation)32–33nn18–19,39–40,40–41n43,57Werkbund180n21Wirth,DavidA.199–200women61,64–5,223Woodridge,Adrian183n34,194n68workersseelaborWorldBank

andbroadband96,110–11,117n60,130,167andfreemarketliberalization106–8andKenya103andmanagementconsulting184–5andzones25,32

WoW(WomenonWaves)223WTO(WorldTradeOrganization)56,106,211

YesMen222–3

ZainKenya107,118,121n73Zapatistas145zones

antidote68–9,78,133–4ascities42–8

cross-border39,40–41n43,53description15–17,25–7disadvantages34–5,66–8,148–9asdoubles48–53,224growthanddevelopment32–3,35–41,65–6,167history27–31incentives33–4,43,45,48inKenya98,126–9andlaundering62–4leverage203–4andqualitymanagement172,187–9asresorts58–61asstateofexception53–4workers’rights55–8,64–5,160

ZTECorp.102