Dark Infrastructures and Ecological Kinship in the ANThropocene

This paper argues that Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is deeply rooted in the dynamics of the Anthropocene, and it introduces the concept of dark infrastructures as an ecologically responsible alternative to the network/Anthropocene conundrum. ANT's pragmatist network- ideology promotes a symmetrical politics by tracing the material interactions of hybrid entities in agrilogical fields. In contrast, the intensity of the human-induced ecological crisis tolerates no such symmetries or fields and necessitates the exploration of alternative kinship practices. This paper speculates on ANT and the network as extractive forces of epistemological illumination that colonize unknown ecologies as networks-to-be. It posits that the network’s illumination effects violently disrupt the rhythms of social and material biodiversity. In times of ecological calamity, the concept of dark infrastructures allows for intimate, extra-networked, and dividual relations of kinship in more-than-human worlds.