There are a bundle of exciting new books on infrastructure that I’m looking forward to reading, starting with Navroz Dubash and Bronwen Morgan’s collection of case studies and thinking on infrastructure regulation Rise of the Regulatory State: Infrastructure and Development in Emerging Economies rich with empirical material and ideas.  After that I’m going back to Jensen and Winthereik’s Monitoring Movements in Development Aid: Recursive Partnerships and Infrastructures which brings a science and technology studies angle on the accountability movement in international development.  When I get a chance I’m hoping to have a look at Swato Chattopadhyay’s Unlearning the City: Infrastructure in a New Optical Field (I was pleased to see a chapter on ‘vehicle art’) and Andy Merrifield’s new Politics of the Encounter (so full of insight and ideas that it’s a real pleasure to read).

(The image – of work in progress – is the flyover fringed with construction sites coming up along National Highway 7 in Bangalore.  The airport placement reminds me of London’s Olympics in it’s ability to add real estate value to a vast swathe of the city.  You can read some of Kalpana Gopalan’s excellent work on the Bangalore Airport PPP here)