Infrastructure and Politics in Twentieth Century Latin America: Urban and Rural Perspectives

This panel brings together innovative perspectives on the relationship between politics and infrastructure in twentieth-century Latin America, exploring how infrastructure intersects with labor systems, geographic imaginaries, technocratic expertise, and environmental realities. Through case studies that examine both urban spaces—such as Mexico City's road system and Santiago’s metro—and rural projects like road construction and hydroelectric development in the Peruvian Andes, the panel illuminates the processes of negotiation and resistance between local populations and, frequently, the state. By engaging with such a diverse range of experiences, these presentations highlight the centrality of infrastructure in political struggles, emphasizing that infrastructural development is far from politically neutral. It is often shaped by unintended consequences that challenge top-down state-driven initiatives. By analyzing such dynamics across urban, rural, and in-between spaces, the panel aims to deepen our understanding of infrastructural power, its scope, and its limitations in the region.