The Informationalized Infrastructural Ideal. (Under the Direction of Dr
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ABSTRACT OSWALD, KATHLEEN FRAZER. Smarter, Better, Faster, Stronger: The Informationalized Infrastructural Ideal. (Under the direction of Dr. Jeremy Packer). As the public and private sector spend and invest billions of dollars maintaining, repairing, securing, constructing, and informationalizing infrastructure, scholars of communication continue to neglect the central role of infrastructure in shaping contemporary mediascapes. This neglect stems from a number of tendencies in the field of communication, including a move away from the transmission model of communication, a separation in thinking about the communication of information and the communication of people and objects, and a tendency to think about technologies in terms of their historical development, mediation, effects, uses or potentials rather than to understand technologies as cultural forms subject to alternative arrangements. While these academic biases make the study of communication, mobility, and technology challenging, my work takes an interdisciplinary approach that recognizes and works to move past historical divisions in the disciplines in the interest of exploring the ways in which informationalization is changing communication, culture, and mediascapes. I locate informationalization—adding a data layer to processes through instrumentation, interconnection and intelligence—at the center of changing articulations of communication, transportation, information and housing infrastructure. I take as central a double reorganization of infrastructure under two competing logics: a utopian view that positions the informationalization of networks as “smart” and can be traced across a variety of popular, industry and government discourses as a compelling argument for connection; and a logic that positions infrastructure as “critical,” which while intensified by post 9/11 sensibilities, has clear origins in earlier beliefs about the dystopian potentials of connection, including computer crime and cyberwarfare. I first develop a set of working definitions for a variety of terms as they relate to informationalization. I then explore specific contexts of informationalization, examining utopian discourses of connection as “smart” in a growing market for electrically powered automobility, dystopian discourses of informationalization in terms of critical infrastructure and cyberwar, and finally to disconnection, examining the grid and “grid away from the grid” life assurance solutions. Through these cases, I work to understand informationalization as an apparatus that rearticulates infrastructure according to a new infrastructural ideal and an associated politics of security that are coextensive with both utopian and dystopian discourses of informationalization. I ultimately argue that communication and mobilities scholars must look to processes of informationalization with a particular emphasis on those infrastructures that are designated both “smart” and “critical” in order to reveal the ways in which smart infrastructure can mean more than informationalized infrastructure, and to discern to what and to whom critical infrastructure is critical. It is my hope that this project will serve as a starting point for productive and meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration concerning a process that promises to radically alter the way that we access and use communication, transportation, housing, services and infrastructures. © Copyright 2011 by Kathleen Frazer Oswald All Rights Reserved Smarter, Better, Faster, Stronger: The Informationalized Infrastructural Ideal by Kathleen Frazer Oswald A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media Raleigh, North Carolina 2011 APPROVED BY: _________________________________ ________________________________ Jeremy Packer, Ph.D. Stephen B. Crofts Wiley, Ph.D. Chair of Advisory Committee _________________________________ ________________________________ Melissa Johnson, Ph.D. Rebecca Walsh, Ph.D. DEDICATION To Jordan, my Best Friend This would not have been possible without your love and support. And Mom and Dad Who never stopped believing in me. ii BIOGRAPHY Kathleen Frazer Oswald is a communication scholar with research areas in communication technology, communication policy and regulation, and mobilities studies. Her dissertation looks to the informationalization of infrastructure with a particular focus on smart and critical infrastructure, arguing that an examination of the cultural implications of informationalization is critical in developing an understanding of mediascapes, mobilities, and communication. She has co-published two pieces with her dissertation adviser Dr. Jeremy Packer on mobile communication technologies and the work of Raymond Williams. Before coming to North Carolina State University to pursue a PhD in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media, she completed an M.A. in Communication at Villanova University, defending a thesis titled “Hacking subject, subjecting hacking: Crisis in technoculture” (2006) under the direction of Gordon Coonfield. Prior to her graduate studies, Oswald attended West Chester University in her hometown of West Chester, PA, graduating with a B.A. in Communication Studies (and a minor in Latin) in 2004. Oswald has presented at regional, national, and international conferences on topics that range from broadband as social space to cyberwarfare, and teaches courses in communication law, critical analysis of media, public relations and organizational communication. Prior to teaching, she worked in the field of public relations as an account executive serving clients in a range of industries from biotech to manufacturing, and also at West Chester University as a PR Coordinator. She was Board Secretary and Lead PR Volunteer at Chester County InterLink (ccil.org), one of the first (and last remaining) freenets in the country. iii AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout the course of this project, I have learned that one does not simply write a dissertation: one rather goes on a journey through knowledge with mentors, colleagues, friends and family that results in a new way of thinking about things. Here I would like to acknowledge those who have made this journey possible. I would first like to thank my committee for supporting my research at the intersection of communication, technology, and mobility. In addition to chairing my dissertation committee, Jeremy Packer has been a great teacher and mentor: the two pieces that we co-authored have gone a long way toward helping me find my confidence as a scholar, and for that I am deeply appreciative. Melissa Johnson’s focus on definitional work has helped me to find the words I needed to start a conversation about informationalization and infrastructure. Rebecca Walsh provided an outside perspective that served as a constant reminder that this project had relevance across disciplines. The early and constant encouragement of Steve Wiley was instrumental in this project: without it, this dissertation would likely have been about something else. Steve’s thoughtful feedback has always challenged me to think in broader terms, and I am a better scholar for it. I could not have asked for a better committee. Thank you all for your feedback, encouragement, and support. Shayne Pepper, Ruffin Bailey, Nathaniel Poor, Kate Maddalena and Kathy Oswald Sr.; there are many words that make up a dissertation, and you have helped me to make sure I am using the right ones. Your proofreading support has been a major part of making this dissertation a reality. iv I am indebted to the students and faculty who have made North Carolina State University a place I am proud to call home. Victoria Gallagher and Carolyn R. Miller, thank you for all of your hard work founding the CRDM program; I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I had gone anywhere else. Deanna Dannels and Susan Miller-Cochran, you have prepared me to be the best teacher I can be. To my students: the opportunity to teach has been a gift, and I thank you for the opportunity to learn together. To my cohort and classmates: thank you for helping to make seminars productive thinking spaces. To all of my CRDM colleagues: though we have not all had classes together, I have become friends with many of you and am proud to count myself among you – an impressive bunch! A special thanks to CRDM Alumni Christian Casper and Anna Turnage who have been great sources of advice and inspiration. Dan Sutko, Jordan Frith, Seth Mulliken and Fernanda Duarte, I look forward to working with you in the years to come as our paths intersect in mobilities studies. NCSU Masters alumni Adam Richard Rottinghaus, Dan Kim, and Kevin Flannigan deserve special mention for intense theoretical discussions and ridiculously good times; you will always be Wolfpack to me! I also want to acknowledge my professors at Villanova University—particularly my M.A. adviser Gordon Coonfield and committee members Bryan Crable and Maurice Hall— who were instrumental in helping me to discover that I had a home in academia: I am forever indebted to you. I also want to thank Villanova M.A. alumni with whom I have had great conversations about communication, technology, space, and other fantastic things—George Boone, Brett Lyszak, and Nathan Taylor—may our paths continue to cross. v A number of friends and colleagues have been especially important to me during my time in North Carolina. Dawn Shepherd, you are