Temporalities of Assembling Transport Systems: Presences and Absences in a Planning Process

Abstract

Presences and absences, both in material and discursive shapes, provide insights into the social and political dimensions of infrastructures and their planning and implementation process. Taking the case of a transport system in Dar es Salaam (DART), this article illustrates how the bus system exists in a constant (re‑)making by its (non‑)human actors. Due to translations of ideals, social interactions, and negotiations of power and by the presences and absences of material components and appearances, behaviours and discourses DART’s objects temporarily have different shapes. The text concludes with the idea that the various forms of presence and absence – expressed in different scripts – shape the assembling of this technological system.