article
Suspensión: espacio, tiempo y política en la historia interminable de un proyecto de infraestructura en el piedemonte Andino-Amazónico colombiano
Fecha
2021-08-14Autor
Uribe, Simón
Institución
Resumen
In this article I investigate the tensions, uncertainties and expectations that emerge in the indefinite space-time that elapses between the conception and materialization of a highway megaproject in the Andean-Amazonian foothills of Colombia. I emphasize the condition of suspension as an inherent state of the infrastructure that disrupts its teleological sense and configures a material and affective space in which coexist, in a permanent state of tension and antagonism, the present, the past and the future of a border territory. The analysis presented in the text derives from the ethnographic and photographic monitoring of the project for a period of ten years (2008-2019). Through regular field visits, I document the temporal and material transitions of the infrastructure, as well as the reactions, speculations and daily practices associated with these transitions. By describing different events and conflicts around this road project, I show how the notion of suspension allows for the construction of a different narrative of infrastructures, which accounts for their uncertain trajectories and multiple dimensions. In this sense, I conclude that suspension is not, as it is usually conceived, a freezing point that interrupts a linear and chronological movement, but constitutes an inherent and active condition of infrastructure that reveals the unstable and conflicting relationship between the different elements that compose it. From a historical and ethnographic perspective focused on materiality, the article contributes to the understanding of infrastructure as a process rather than as a product, as well as to the understanding of the different human and non-human actors involved in its cycle of construction and decomposition.