Citation
(2011), "Shaping Urban Infrastructure: Intermediaries and the Governance of Sociotechnical Networks", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 22 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/meq.2011.08322bae.005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Shaping Urban Infrastructure: Intermediaries and the Governance of Sociotechnical Networks
Shaping Urban Infrastructure: Intermediaries and the Governance of Sociotechnical Networks
Article Type: Books and resources From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 22, Issue 2
Edited by Simon Guy, Simon Marvin, Will Medd and Timothy Moss,Earthscan,London,December 2010,ISBN 9781849710688,240 pp.,£65.00
This book emphasizes that cities can only exist because of the highly developed systems which underlie them, ensuring that energy, clean water, and so forth are moved efficiently from producer to user, and that waste is removed. The urgent need to ensure that the provision of these services is more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable means that these systems are in a state of transition: from centralized to decentralized energy; from passive to smart infrastructure; from toll-free to road pricing. Such transitions are widely studied in the context of the influence of service providers, users, and regulators. Until now, however, relatively little attention has been given to the growing role of intermediaries in these systems.
These consist of institutions and organizations acting in-between production and consumption, for example: NGOs who develop green energy labelling schemes in collaboration with producers and regulators to guide the user; consultants who advise businesses on how to save resources; and travel agents who match users with providers. Such intermediaries are in a position to shape the direction that technological transitions take, and ultimately the sustainability of urban networks. This book presents an authoritative collection of research and analysis of the subject, showing how intermediaries emerge, the role that they play in key sectors – including energy, water, waste and building – and what impact they have on the governance of urban socio-technical networks.