Why Railroads Now? Anthropology of Infrastructure and Debates around “Green” Transit

As the introduction to this special issue points out, railroads are a relatively new object of attention for anthropologists. My response dives more substantially into the question of why they are such compelling sites in this present moment. What does the growing interest in railroads—exemplified b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTransfers Vol. 10; no. 2-3; pp. 270 - 282
Main Author Swanson, Heather Anne
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berghahn Books, Inc 01.12.2020
Subjects
Book publishing
Infrastructure (Economics)
Railroads
United States
United Kingdom
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Summary:As the introduction to this special issue points out, railroads are a relatively new object of attention for anthropologists. My response dives more substantially into the question of why they are such compelling sites in this present moment. What does the growing interest in railroads—exemplified by this collection of articles—tell us about current anthropological concerns, as well as about how the discipline might further contribute to wider debates about the politics of infrastructures? The first half of this response considers railroads within academic trajectories, while the second half examines them in relation to wider environmental conversations, especially ongoing public debates about climate-friendly transit.
ISSN:2045-4813
2045-4813
2045-4821
DOI:10.3167/TRANS.2020.1002318