DECENT · Socio-technical modularity and the decentralization of infrastructure

There is a strong theoretical imperative for why centralized grid-/network-based societal infrastructures is the gold standard worldwide. Yet, there is a growing realization that this ideal fails to deliver on social, economic and ecological promises. This project starts from the observation that decentralized societal infrastructures are gaining momentum in high- and middle-income cities. Examples include micro-grids (energy), small-scale wastewater treatment (sanitation), multi-modal mobility (urban transport) and short food value chains (agri-food). However, existing theoretical approaches to infrastructure innovation and sector transformation offer no convincing explanation for how cities overcome the strong imperative (e.g. path dependencies and lack of economies of scale) against context-sensitive small-scale solutions. Moreover, there is no systematic empirical evidence on the drivers, mechanisms and spatial patterns of infrastructure decentralization in different sectors and geographical contexts.I develop a framework based on insights from socio-technical transition studies, modularity theory and economic geography. The core claim is that decentralization is connected to modularization at different levels of structuration. The project also addresses what place-specific factors and multi-scalar reconfiguration processes mediate the success of decentralization. Methodologically, I further develop the ‘Path Tracing’ approach by combining it with ‘Socio-Technical Configuration Analysis’ (STCA) and pioneer its application in comparative analyses of three societal infrastructure sectors (urban water management, urban mobility and agri-food) in high- and middle-income contexts (cities in Europe and India). Based on the findings I will formulate a new theory of infrastructure decentralization that opens new horizons for research, revising the role of decentralized infrastructure vis-à-vis the centralized paradigm that has prevailed since the early 20th century.