Introduction: Narratives and Temporalities of Infrastructure in Canada

Abram, Simone, and Gisa Weszkalnys, eds. 2013. Elusive Promises: Planning in the Contemporary World. Oxford: Berghahn Books. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/9780857459152

Alook, Angele, Emily Eaton, David Gray-Donald, Joël Laforest, Crystal Lameman, and Bronwen Tucker. 2023. The End of This World: Climate Justice in so-Called Canada. Toronto: Between the Lines.

Amatulli, Giuseppe. 2023. “Implementing UNDRIP in British Columbia in a Post-Yahey Context: What to Expect After the Yahey v. BC Litigation (S151727) and the Agreement on Industrial Development and Cumulative Effects Management.” Arctic Review on Law and Politics 14: 132–139. https://doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v14.5619. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v14.5619

Anand, Nikhil, Akhil Gupta, and Hannah Appel, eds. 2018. The Promise of Infrastructure. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002031

Aporta, Claudio. 2009. “The Trail as Home: Inuit and Their Pan-Arctic Network of Routes.” Human Ecology 37 (2): 131–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-009-9213-x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-009-9213-x

Appel, Hannah. 2019. The Licit Life of Capitalism: U.S. Oil in Equatorial Guinea. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478004578

Appel, Hannah, Nikhil Anand, and Akhil Gupta. 2018. “Introduction: Temporality, Politics, and the Promise of Infrastructure.” In The Promise of Infrastructure, edited by Nikhil Anand, Akhil Gupta, and Hannah Appel, 1–40. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002031-001

Budka, Philipp. 2015. “From Marginalization to Self-Determined Participation: Indigenous Digital Infrastructures and Technology Appropriation in Northwestern Ontario’s Remote Communities.” Journal des Anthropologues 142–143 (3): 127–153. https://doi.org/10.4000/jda.6243. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/jda.6243

Budka, Philipp, Brandi Bell, and Adam Fiser. 2009. “MyKnet.org: How Northern Ontario’s First Nation Communities Made Themselves at Home on the World Wide Web.” The Journal of Community Informatics 5 (2). https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/JoCI/article/view/2449.

Buier, Natalia. 2023. “The Anthropology of Infrastructure: The Boom and the Bubble?” Focaal 95: 46–60. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2022.012401. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2022.012401

Canadian Institute for Climate Choices. 2021. Under Water: The Costs of Climate Change for Canada’s Infrastructure. https://climateinstitute.ca/reports/under-water/.

Candea, Matei. 2019. Comparison in Anthropology: The Impossible Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108667609

Carse, Ashley, and David Kneas. 2019. “Unbuilt and Unfinished.” Environment and Society 10 (1): 9–28. https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2019.100102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2019.100102

Carse, Ashley, and Joshua Lewis. 2017. “Toward a Political Ecology of Infrastructure Standards: Or, How to Think about Ships, Waterways, Sediment, and Communities Together.” Environment and Planning A 49 (1): 9–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16663015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16663015

Chari, Sharad. 2018. “Commentary on From Exploitation to Expropriation: Geographies of Racialization in Historic Capitalism.” Economic Geography 94 (1): 18–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2017.1398044. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2017.1398044

Feldman, Ilana. 2011. “The Humanitarian Condition: Palestinian Refugees and the Politics of Living.” Humanity 3 (2): 155–172. https://doi.org/10.1353/hum.2012.0000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hum.2012.0017

Fischer, Edward F. 2024. “Infrastructuring Value Worlds: Connections and Conventions of Capitalist Accumulation.” Ethnos 89 (2): 312–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2023.2180064. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2023.2180064

Flyvbjerg, Bent. 2017. “Introduction: The Iron Law of Megaproject Management.” In The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management, edited by Bent Flyvbjerg, 1–18. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198732242.001.0001

Fox, Richard, and Andre Gingrich. 2002. “Introduction.” In Anthropology, by Comparison, edited by Andre Gingrich and Richard Fox, 1–24. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203463901

Garneau, Marc. 2022. The Effects of the Housing Shortage on Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Ottawa: Parliament of Canada. https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/441/INAN/Reports/RP11862143/inanrp03/inanrp03-e.pdf.

Gartler, Susanna, Johanna Scheer, Alexandra Meyer, Khaled Abass, Annett Bartsch, Natalia Doloisio, Jade Falardeau, Gustaf Hugelius, Anna Irrgang, Jón Haukur Ingimundarson, Leneisja Jungsberg, Hugues Lantuit, Joan Nymand Larsen, Rachele Lodi, Victoria Sophie Martin, Louise Mercer, David Nielsen, Paul Overduin, Olga Povoroznyuk, Arja Rautio, Peter Schweitzer, Niek Jesse Speetjens, Soňa Tomaškovičová, Ulla Timlin, Jean-Paul Vanderlinden, Jorien Vonk, Levi Westerveld, and Thomas Ingeman-Nielsen. 2025. “A Transdisciplinary, Comparative Analysis Reveals Key Risks from Arctic Permafrost Thaw.” Communications Earth & Environment 6: 21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01883-w. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01883-w

Graham, Stephen, and Nigel Thrift. 2007. “Out of Order: Understanding Repair and Maintenance.” Theory, Culture & Society 24 (3): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407075954. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407075954

Government of Canada. 2022. National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/srtg-crtcl-nfrstrctr/index-en.aspx.

Government of Canada. 2025. “Major Projects Office of Canada: Initial Projects Under Consideration.” Canada.ca, September. https://www.canada.ca/en/one-canadian-economy/news/2025/09/major-projects-office-of-canada-initial-projects-under-consideration.html.

Gupta, Akhil. 2018. “The Future in Ruins: Thoughts on the Temporality of Infrastructure.” In The Promise of Infrastructure, edited by Nikhil Anand, Akhil Gupta, and Hannah Appel, 62–79. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002031-003

Harvey, Penny. 2018. “Infrastructures in and out of Time: The Promise of Roads in Contemporary Peru.” In The Promise of Infrastructure, edited by Nikhil Anand, Akhil Gupta, and Hannah Appel, 80–101. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002031-004

Harvey, Penny, and Hannah Knox. 2012. “The Enchantments of Infrastructure.” Mobilities 7 (4): 521–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2012.718935. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2012.718935

Harvey, Penny, and Hannah Knox, eds. 2015. Roads: An Anthropology of Infrastructure and Expertise. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Harvey, Penny, Casper Bruun Jensen, and Atsuro Morita. 2017. “Introduction: Infrastructural Complications.” In Infrastructures and Social Complexity: A Companion, edited by Penny Harvey, Casper Bruun Jensen, and Atsuro Morita, 1–21. London: Routledge.

Hetherington, Kregg. 2019. Infrastructure, Environment, and Life in the Anthropocene. Durham: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002567

Karuka, Manu. 2019. Empire’s Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad. Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520969056

Kipfer, Stefan. 2018. “Pushing the Limits of Urban Research: Urbanization, Pipelines, and Counter-Colonial Politics.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36 (3): 474–493. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775818758328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775818758328

Knox, Hannah, and Evelina Gambino. 2023. “Infrastructure.” In The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Felix Stein. http://doi.org/10.29164/23infrastructure. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29164/23infrastructure

LaDuke, Winona, and Deborah Cowen. 2020. “Beyond Wiindigo Infrastructure.” South Atlantic Quarterly 119 (2): 243–268. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-8177747. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-8177747

Lammer, Christof, and André Thiemann. 2024. “Introduction: Infrastructuring Value.” Ethnos 89 (2): 195–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2023.2180063. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2023.2180063

Larkin, Brian. 2013. “The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure.” Annual Review of Anthropology 42: 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092412-155522. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092412-155522

Mason, Arthur. 2015. “Events Collectives: The Social Life of a Promise-Disappointment Cycle.” In Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas, edited by Hannah Appel, Arthur Mason, and Michael Watts, 325–339. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Mignolo, Walter D. 2009. “Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and Decolonial Freedom.” Theory, Culture & Society 26 (7–8): 159–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409349275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409349275

Miller, Daniel, Elisabetta Costa, Laura Haapio-Kirk, Nell Haynes, Jolynna Sinanan, Tom McDonald, Razvan Nicolescu, Juliano Spyer, Shriram Venkatraman, and Xinyuan Wang. 2017. “Contemporary Comparative Anthropology – The Why We Post Project.” Ethnos: 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2017.1397044. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2017.1397044

Murrey, Amber. 2023. “Pedagogical Disobedience in an Era of Unfinished Decolonisation.” In Decolonisation: Revolution and Evolution, edited by David Boucher and Ayesha Omar, 231–258. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18772/22023108448.14

Ojani, Chakad. 2023. “The Promise of Fog Capture: Ground-Touching Clouds as a Material (Im)Possibility in Peru.” Cultural Anthropology 38 (2): 225–250. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca38.2.03. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14506/ca38.2.03

Parker, Joshua. 2013. “Emerging Vectors of Narratology: Toward Consolidation or Diversification? (A Response).” Enthymema IX 2013, 154-156.

Parliament of Canada. 2025. Bill C-5: First Reading — An Act to Enact the One Canadian Economy Act and to Make Related Amendments to Other Acts. Parliament of Canada. https://www.parl.ca/documentviewer/en/45-1/bill/C-5/first-reading.

Pasternak, Shiri, Deborah Cowen, Robert Clifford, Tiffany Joseph, Dayna Nadine Scott, Anne Spice, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark. 2023. “Infrastructure, Jurisdiction, Extractivism: Keywords for Decolonizing Geographies.” Political Geography 101: 102763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102763. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102763

Peyton, Jonathan. 2017. Unbuilt Environments: Tracing Postwar Development in Northwest British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774833066. DOI: https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774833066

Ramakrishnan, Kavita, Kathleen O’Reilly, and Jessica Budds. 2021. “The Temporal Fragility of Infrastructure: Theorizing Decay, Maintenance, and Repair.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 4: 674–695. https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848620979712. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848620979712

Rippa, Alessandro, ed. 2021. “Archive.” Special Issue, Roadsides 5. https://roadsides.net/collection-no-005/. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26034/roadsides-202100501

Ruiz, Rafico. 2021. “Chapter 4. The Promise of Extraction.” In Slow Disturbance: Infrastructural Mediation on the Settler Colonial Resource Frontier, 153–175. New York: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478012139-007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478012139-007

Sanjek, Roger. 1998. “Ethnography.” In Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology, edited by Alan Barnard and Jonathan Spencer, 193–198. London: Routledge.

Schweitzer, Peter, Olga Povoroznyuk, and Sigrid Schiesser. 2017. “Beyond Wilderness: Towards an Anthropology of Infrastructure and the Built Environment in the Russian North.” The Polar Journal 7 (1): 58–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/2154896X.2017.1334427. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2154896X.2017.1334427

Simone, Abdou Maliqalim. 2004. “People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg.” Public Culture 16 (3): 407–429. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/173743. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-16-3-407

Spice, Anne. 2018. “Fighting Invasive Infrastructures: Indigenous Relations against Pipelines.” Environment and Society 9 (1): 40–56. https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2018.090104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2018.090104

Star, Susan Leigh. 1999. “The Ethnography of Infrastructure.” American Behavioral Scientist 43 (3): 377–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027649921955326. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00027649921955326

Star, Susan Leigh, and Karen Ruhleder. 1996. “Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces.” Information Systems Research 7 (1): 111–134. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.7.1.111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.7.1.111

Sturm, Circe. 2017. “Reflections on the Anthropology of Sovereignty and Settler Colonialism: Lessons from Native North America.” Cultural Anthropology 32: 348. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca32.3.03. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14506/ca32.3.03

Xiang, Biao, and Johan Lindquist. 2014. “Migration Infrastructure.” International Migration Review 48 (1): 122–148. https://doi.org/10.1111/imre.12141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/imre.12141

Zeiderman, Austin. 2016. “Prognosis Past: The Temporal Politics of Disaster in Colombia.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22 (S1): 163–180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12399