Informal Economies and Material Politics at the End of Life of Communication Networks in Sweden. Higher Seminar in Media and Communication Studies with Julia Velkova, Linköping University

Large scale communication infrastructures, such as roads, railways, telephone, satellite, and fibre optic cable networks have had a central role in shaping understandings of modern living, connectivity, and power. But as analogue networks have switched to digital, and new digital communication infrastructures continue to be rolled out, many ‘older’ networks have been pushed into a state of devaluation, irrelevance, dismantling or decay. Older transnational fibre optic cables are being retired; satellite debris cluster in orbit and undersea; and telephone landline networks are being taken down. These processes are historically not new and can be traced back at least to the abandoned roads and aqueducts of the Roman empire. Yet, their societal and cultural significance remain surprisingly neglected and undertheorized.
In this higher seminar I will present preliminary theoretical and empiric ideas around the societal dimensions, politics and issues that emerge when large communication networks come to ‘die’. This work is part of my 5-year ProFutura Fellowship project on the end of life of large scale communication infrastructure (to begin in summer 2023), where my main empiric focus is on the ongoing dismantling of the copper landline network in Sweden. After 122 years of continuous operation, the network is taken down, a process that began in 2012 and raised heated debates and controversies in the media. In this seminar I present the overarching perspectives that will inform my project, as well as questions and reflections that have arised from preliminary fieldwork so far.

Bio: Julia Velkova is associate professor of media and communication studies at the Department of Thematic Studies - Technology and Social Change, Linköping University. Her work in the past years has focused on the interrelations between data infrastructures and energy politics in a Nordic context; software cultures; and the temporalities and material politics, including labor, of media infrastructure.

It will be possible to participate in the seminar both live on campus or digitally via Zoom (see attached link). For more information, please email Saga Hansén (contact below)