Bifurcated urban integration The selective dis- and re-assembly of infrastructures

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Vol. 56; no. 11; pp. 2207 - 2224
• Main Authors: Macrorie, Rachel, Marvin, Simon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England Sage Publications, Ltd 01.08.2019; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Bifurcations; Horizontal integration; Infrastructure; Integration; Interconnections; Scrutiny; Social privilege; Sociopolitical factors; Sustainability; Urban areas; Urban policy; Vertical integration; 飞地; nexus; 关系; metropolitan; systems; enclaves; 基础设施; integration; 整合; infrastructures; 系统; 大都市
• ISSN: 0042-0980; 1360-063X
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098018812728

Urban integration (UI) has emerged as the guiding maxim for enabling efficient resource flows and smart and connected cites. The last decade has led to renewed interest in exploiting interconnections to optimise city capacities in urban policy, practice and research. However, the imperative for integration across resources, infrastructures, sectors and disciplines remains largely unquestioned, and its socio-political and environmental implications receive little critical attention. This paper subjects the ideas and practices of UI to scrutiny. We argue that integration-in-practice (as opposed to integration-in-theory) is partial and selective in its objects of combination and outcomes. The key issue this raises is whether the promise of new metropolitan-wide imaginaries of horizontal integration gives way to more selective logics of vertical integration that privilege socially and spatially valued enclaves. Rather than challenge urban splintering, UI practices would therefore reinforce urban infrastructure divides. The paper argues that a subtle shift is taking place in the UI discourse that whilst promising resource sustainability and metropolitan inclusivity, re-prioritises and re-intensifies more selective infrastructural planning processes. We term this new emerging mode bifurcated urban integration (BUI). 城市整合（UI）已经成为实现高效资源流动和智能互连城市的指导准则。过去十年的历史导致人们重新开始利用互连来优化城市在政策、实践和研究方面的城市能力。然而，整合资源、基础设施、部门和学科的必要性基本上没有被质疑过，其社会政治和环境影响也几乎没有受到批判性的关注。本文对UI的思想和实践进行了详细审查。我们认为，实践中的整合（与理论中的整合相对）在其整合的对象和结果方面是有偏向性和有选择性。这引发的关键问题是，新的大都市范围内的横向整合想象是否会让位于更具选择性的垂直整合逻辑，这种逻辑对具有特别社会和空间价值的飞地赋予特权。因此，UI实践不会挑战城市隔离，而是会强化城市基础设施隔离。本文认为，UI话语正在发生微妙的转变，即在承诺资源可持续性和大都市包容性的同时，重新优先考虑并重新加强更具选择性的基础设施规划过程。我们称这种新兴的模式为“分叉城市整合（BUI）”。