Contested Infrastructures: Tension, Inequity and Innovation in the Global Suburb

The article explores the suburban infrastructure reality at a global scale. It does so by acknowledging both the wide diversity of suburban forms across the world and the existence of common features that warrant the apprehension of suburbs as a unified object of study. Due to their rapid growth rate and an insufficient infrastructure development response, suburbs are perceived as more severely afflicted by infrastructure tensions than other urban sectors. They thus provide an ideal object of study to identify urban infrastructure shortcomings in the present age. At the same time, by virtue of their infrastructure difficulties and ongoing expansion, suburbs can be seen as a foremost source of infrastructure innovation.