Temporary Infrastructure: Temporal Boundary Work,Form Investments,and Delayed Endings

Abstract

Temporality has become a prominent theme in research on infrastructure in science and technology studies. Infrastructure is often conceptualized as permanent and enduring, except when it breaks down. This focus limits the scope of phenomena to which the status of infrastructure is ascribed, risking overlooking indispensable entities of sociomaterial ordering and transformation that are anticipated and built to be temporary. These temporary infrastructures are established in the bounded period between provisional stabilization and the permanent reintegration of routine practice. Building on pragmatist theories, we develop a set of sensitizing concepts for studying such deliberately temporary infrastructure, emphasizing the role of temporal boundary work that anticipates lifespans to regulate form investments, creating interstices for experimentation with alternative practices, but also for intensified dominance. This makes temporary infrastructure a crucial technology of power, enabling transformative practices, rather than sustaining long-term routines. To map the field, we propose a typology comprising interim infrastructure, temporary infrastructure of development, demise, and experimentation, and event infrastructure. Finally, we highlight the paradox of delayed endings and persistence to shed light on infrastructural trajectories that diverge from linear long-term planning and instead arise from dynamic reconfigurations of temporary infrastructure and problem situations.