VIRTUAL: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

Urban infrastructures are renowned for determining the liveability of a city. They do not only enable flows of goods, people, and information but also a new – or different – understanding of our environment and ourselves, both from a personal viewpoint and from encountering others. However, despite such an acknowledgement, a comprehensive review of these themes seems to be missing. With this paper, I intend to fill this gap by drawing on the literature on Science and Technology Studies. In doing so, I will present urban infrastructures according to what I call “double dimension”: material and immaterial. This perspective will enable to see how, over the decades, urban infrastructures impact and are impacted by cities, focusing specifically on the work undertaken at the social level of the former. Indeed, given the crucial role they play with respect to the liveability of cities, it is necessary to consider how they can affect issues such as integration, uneven development and growing masculinity. This paper has a twofold goal. On the one side, it contributes to academic research by providing an exhausting review, which can help scholars identify new elements to advance in research. On the other, it gives practical consequences: by presenting key components in the relationship between urban infrastructures and liveability, it can pave the way toward improved practices in planning, building, and maintaining these projects. From this viewpoint, this practical aspect will enable a more proactive engagement of the audience, who will be able to discuss ideas and suggestions.