Past-Proofing Infrastructure Futures: Usable Histories of Urban Technology Today

在关于气候、环境和社会危机的日益紧迫的辩论中，对未来的讨论淹没了对过去的思考。历史作为社会方向指南针的价值太容易被忽视了。拟议的研究项目使用的基础设施的情况下，以展示历史如何可以作为一种经验资源，以帮助导航我们今天面临的多重危机。它认为，对面向未来的基础设施系统的有效呼吁需要借鉴对过去的合理、批判和包容的理解，这样才能有效：这一过程在这里被称为“面向过去的”基础设施未来。该项目结合了三个方面的奖学金-在可用的过去，在技术的历史和城市基础设施作为历史介导的社会技术纠缠-产生一个概念上接地，方法创新和经验丰富的分析城市技术的可用历史，借鉴世界各地的可用的过去的倡议的灵感。该项目的首要目的是，利用柏林作为经验案例研究和知识传播场所，就如何以批判性和富有成效的方式调动过去的经验，帮助塑造城市能源和水基础设施系统的变革路径，提供相关知识。该项目追求四个核心目标：第一，在对学术文献、项目和网络进行广泛审查的基础上，对可用的过去的概念和实践形成一种强有力的、细致入微的和包容性的理解，第二，分析和改进阐明和传播可用的过去的方法，第三，与基础设施专业人士密切合作，共同为柏林生成可用的基础设施历史，第四，启动和巩固一个关于可用过去的全球研究网络。该工作方案包括六个工作包（WP），将对柏林城市技术史的实证研究（WP 3）嵌入到对可用过去的研究（WP 1）和对世界各地现有可用过去项目和网络的分析（WP 2）的更广泛背景中，以便与当地利益相关者一起探索和测试可用过去的应用（WP 4），得出关于技术和城市和基础设施研究的历史的学术研究的一般结果（WP 5），并建立一个关于能够在项目生命周期之后维持学术研究的可用过去的国际研究网络（WP 6）。项目团队将与实践伙伴（柏林的公用事业和博物馆）不断互动，以确保该项目在向城市基础设施服务的提供者、决策者和用户提供真正可用的过去方面的可行性。

In increasingly urgent debates about climate, environmental and societal crises, talk of the future is drowning out consideration of the past. The value of history as a compass for societal orientation is being all-too-readily overlooked. The proposed research project uses the case of infrastructure to demonstrate how history can be used as an experiential resource to help navigate the multiple crises we are facing today. It contends that the valid call to future-proof infrastructure systems needs to draw on a sound, critical and inclusive understanding of the past if it is to be effective: a process characterized here as ‘past-proofing’ infrastructure futures. The project combines three strands of scholarship – on usable pasts, on the history of technology and on urban infrastructures as historically mediated sociotechnical entanglements – to produce a conceptually grounded, methodologically innovative and empirically rich analysis of usable histories of urban technology, drawing on usable past initiatives worldwide for inspiration. The overarching purpose of this project is to generate knowledge on how the past can be mobilized, critically and productively, to help shape transformative pathways for urban infrastructure systems of energy and water, using Berlin as an empirical case study and site for knowledge dissemination. The project pursues four core objectives: first, to develop a robust, nuanced and inclusive understanding of the concept and practice of usable pasts, based on a wide-ranging review of academic literature, projects and networks, second, to analyse and refine methods for elucidating and disseminating usable pasts, third, to co-generate usable infrastructure histories for Berlin in close partnership with infrastructure professionals, policymakers and knowledge intermediaries and fourth, to initiate and consolidate a global research network on usable pasts. The work programme, comprising six work packages (WP), embeds empirical research on Berlin’s urban technology history (WP3) within the broader context of research on usable pasts (WP1) and an analysis of existing usable past projects and networks from around the world (WP2) so as to explore and test applications for usable pasts with local stakeholders (WP4), derive generic findings for scholarship on the history of technology and urban and infrastructure studies (WP5) and establish an international research network on usable pasts capable of sustaining scholarship beyond the project lifetime (WP6). The project team will interact continuously with practitioner partners (utilities and museums in Berlin) to ensure the project’s feasibility in delivering truly usable pasts to providers, policymakers and users of urban infrastructure services.