Urban Geography

Following the infrastructures of empire: notes on cities, settler colonialism, and method

By Deborah Cowen

Deborah in his article following the infrastructure of empire presents an investigative argumentation of the early urban life i9n the contested colonial era and the events presented in her publication were through the contested period of colonial settler and infrastructural development. The whole process of infrastructural development was associated with the trespassing to nationalist’s narrative as the colonial government tried to make their way into the interior for more slaves to enrich their operations with human labor. She introduces her publication by explaining how the slave trades were set to receive a lump sum amount of money from the federal government as compensation due to the stop of slave trades in Europe. The most important issue addressed in the article that wouldn’t go without mention was the extraordinary powers of the developed urban in and as infrastructural developments were initiated all over across Europe, from Toronto, Canada to New York, USA, and to London UK. The article also gives description and railroad circulation across Canadian cities and beyond showing the explorations of the infrastructural development and how it held together with the desperate archives of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, genocides, racial labor regime, and the dispossession of indigenous lands.

Throughout the presentation, the themes and ideas depict the main branches of urban geography. This is supported by a vivid illustration of the expeditions and huddles infrastructural development faced most so in Canada and some parts of the United States. Again it presents in detail the influence of politics and politicians in infrastructural developments such as railroad construction in Canada. It adequately tackles the themes of racism, discrimination, brutality, and slavery during the colonial era. Interestingly she links her publication about past experiences, during the colonial period and still relates the happenings to the future scope of infrastructural developments not only in Canada or Europe but to the entire globe.

The article directly reflects the plight of the indigenous natives, the suffering they were put through as the then colonial government tried to unlawfully dispossess them of their land and habitat. These acts forced many to work for cheap labor in colonial firms as settlers.  The arguments are flowing from point to another, the section on to another section, giving a convincing justification of main points and ideas that are much relevant to the topics of course study. In the present context, methods and techniques used by colonial emperors to acquire land for infrastructural developments were not palatable as they were mired with violence and racism and discrimination, all which are not ethical and accepted by any standard. In conclusion, I tender my full support and thoughts as the ideas presented by Deborah in her article were ideal and very relevant to the module of urban geography.

Reference

Cowen, D. (2019). Following the infrastructures of empire: notes on cities, settler colonialism, and method. Urban Geography, 1-18.