Technology and the City

Abstract

Urban Americans depend upon technological systems which com pose infrastructure of modern city: waterworks, sewers, transit services and networks, large port and airport facilities, communications networks, and energy sup plies (1). The word infrastructure itself was coined in late nineteenth-century France to refer to logistical support systems such as supply depots and railroads upon which military increasingly depended. An army's infrastructure may be composed of temporary or portable facilities; in contrast, urban infrastructure is usually per manent, life-cycle of any given component extending from a couple of decades to a century. Perhaps because proper functioning of urban infrastruc ture is taken for granted, its role in urban life has been overlooked by historians. Twenty years ago, Roy Lubove pointed out that the exist ing body of urban history offers a surfeit of narratives about cities and an abun dance of tales about life in cities; but it largely fails to explain city building process in relation to technology and so cial organization (2). During past two decades, how ever, scholars have produced some studies focusing on relationship between city and technology. The interest of his torical scholars in this subject area has more to do with changes in field of history itself than with concern for contemporary problems of infrastructure renewal, an issue which receives public attention only after a major blackout or bridge failure, or when a bonding or tax proposal is on ballot. This essay will call attention to changing patterns of topi cal choice and interpretive emphasis in this literature (3).