Decommissioning as Meaning Catalyst: Community Narratives of Time, Memory, and Power in China’s Infrastructure Transition

Governments in many countries worldwide are pursuing determined policies of science, technology, and infrastructure modernization. By examining the closure of the Fujiapo Coach Bus Station in Wuhan, China, this study sheds light on the socio-cultural effects of large-scale infrastructure decommissioning caused by modernization. A qualitative analysis of 26,163 comments from the internet platform Douyin, as well as 26 interviews, is used to deeply understand interpretative contests contained in respondents’ narratives about the decommissioned infrastructure and suggest an extended application of Bijker’s interpretive flexibility framework of social construction of technology (SCOT) as an analytical framework. By theorizing infrastructure transitional disconnectivity as a dynamic catalyst that reactivates interpretive contests through the three dimensions of temporal compression, memory capitalization, and power reconfiguration, this research demonstrates how experiences of infrastructure disconnectivity events expand the interpretive flexibility’s closure assumption, drawing implications about the necessity of socio-cultural considerations for balanced strategies when navigating infrastructure transitions.