Infrastructure in times of exception: Unravelling the discourses, governance reforms and politics in ‘Building Back Better’ from COVID-19

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments quickly announced major infrastructure stimulus packages and reforms to speed up delivery. Despite significant differences between countries, clear trends emerged. Using case studies of Australia, Aotearoa-New Zealand and the UK, we explain how these approaches comprise a form of 'infrastructuralism' that both elevates the criticality of infrastructure at the same time as taking the politics out of infrastructure planning. We argue that the promises of Building Back Better did not constitute the radical rupture from earlier practices initially promised and that in future crises we need to ask ‘what infrastructure, for whom and where?’