Coming to terms with affective infrastructure

Abstract

Affective infrastructure has become an unremarkable feature of geographical research. By examining how ‘affective infrastructure’ has been mobilised within geography and political theory, and charting its distinguishing features – whether as metaphor, analogy, or material-technical system – I suggest that Bosworth's explication presents an opportunity for thinking about the role and development of concepts more broadly. Using the Tyne Bridge as an example of affective infrastructure, I reflect on the mechanisms through which a concept appears and ask whether affective infrastructure's ‘power’ comes from its circulation as a term or shorthand. In clarifying its analytical utility, I ask what implications there might be for affective infrastructure's spaces of connotation, and what is at stake when a concept appears.