Infrastructure as a Keyword of Our Time: Law, Governance, Culture

Mariana Valverde’s current work in socio-legal studies focuses on urban issues, including municipal bylaws, public-private infrastructure partnerships, and ‘smart cities.’ She comes to Vancouver to meet with colleagues who are starting work on a three-university research project on universities as settler colonial landholders. Mariana will be presenting at the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies at Allard Hall Law School during her visit to UBC. This talk will provide an overview of a new book of hers, due to be published in early 2022, entitled Infrastructure: New Trajectories in Law. The book is concerned mainly with the governance of infrastructure partnerships, and with the financial and legal tools used for such partnerships, but also pays attention to the cultural meanings of different modes of transportation and other infrastructure.

Mariana Valverde is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Her recent books include: Chronotopes of Law: Scale, Jurisdiction, and Governance (2014), Michel Foucault (2015), (as editor and contributor) Smart Cities in Canada: Digital Dreams, Corporate Designs (2020), and (as editor) The Routledge Handbook of Law and Society (2021).

Richard V. Ericson (1948-2007), FRSC, was Professor of Criminology and Sociology and Director of the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto; Professor of Sociology and of Law, Distinguished University Professor, and founding Principal of Green College, at the University of British Columbia; and Professor of Criminology, Director of the Centre for Criminological Research, and Professorial Fellow of All Souls College, at the University of Oxford. The Richard V. Ericson Lecture Endowment was set up by his family, friends and colleagues.