Budka, P., Schweitzer, P., & Povoroznyuk, O. (Eds.). (2026). Ethnographies of infrastructure [Special issue]. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 55(1).

Summary

Philipp Budka, Peter Schweitzer, and Olga Povoroznyuk have published a special issue titled “Ethnographies of Infrastructure” in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (Vol. 55, No. 1). The issue showcases research on infrastructure as a social, political, and everyday phenomenon.

In the opening article, Schweitzer, Povoroznyuk, and Budka introduce an ethnographic framework that highlights how infrastructures are embedded in daily life, shaped by power relations, and oriented toward imagined futures. Together with Alexandra Meyer, Katrin Schmid, and Nikita Strelkovskii, they also co-authored an article examining how infrastructural futures are actively produced and negotiated in the present, with a strong focus on Arctic contexts.

Further contributions extend this engagement with infrastructure across different regions. Alexandra Meyer, with Ria-Maria Adams and Sophie Elixhauser, examines Arctic airports as critical yet ambivalent infrastructures of connection. Olga Povoroznyuk contributes a comparative analysis of expanding seaport projects in Alaska, Norway, and Russia, while Katrin Schmid analyzes how global e-commerce platforms are transforming food supply and everyday life in Nunavut, Canada. Broadening the geographical scope, Andrea Freddi, Lucaz González, and Felipe Cecchi explore conflicts over road construction and environmental conservation in the Chilean North Patagonian frontier, treating the environment itself as a form of infrastructure.

The full special issue is available at https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/jcec/55/1