Transnational Infrastructures and the Transformation of Global Orders

This book explores how infrastructural changes impact the production, development and contestation of global order(s). Infrastructures, the material basis of our daily lives and the subject of political conflicts, often become significant for social and political orders when disruptions occur in the circulation of data, goods and people – especially during global crisis. Energy and transport systems, for example, are central to the climate crisis, the Russian war in Ukraine, and the ensuing energy crisis.

Transnational infrastructures not only strengthen ties between individuals, societies, and states, as the liberal literature on globalisation and interdependence suggests. Instead, while they may stabilize global orders, they also foster their reconfiguration, contributing to power shifts and new conflicts. This prompts the question of how infrastructural transformation manifests itself historically and how it shapes present and future global order(s).

The contributions to this volume approach these themes from different disciplinary perspectives, examining infrastructures in energy, transport, communication, and migration. They analyse how infrastructures impact global orders at different societal scales, highlighting the importance of understanding the infrastructure-order(s)-nexus in tackling 21st-century challenges.

The editors

Hans-Jürgen Bieling is Professor for Political Economy at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen. 

Thomas Diez is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen.

Riccarda Flemmer is Junior Professor for “Political Struggles in the Global South” of the Global Encounters Platform at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen.

Andrea Futterer is a postdoctoral researcher  at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen