The nexus between large-scale innovation projects and relational infrastructures: A longitudinal approach to anticipatory practices in the infrastructuring of Yachay, the City of Knowledge of Ecuador

Grand-scale infrastructures are increasing globally, especially urban infrastructures, many of which are led by immense statal investment and governmental motivations. Yet, there is a gap in the literature regarding how this tendency connects to anticipatory practices and current modes of power, and how to study these infrastructures over time to understand the complex sociopolitical and ecological factors at stake. Through a biography of artifacts and practices (BOAP) approach, this paper explores the anticipatory practices entangled in “Yachay, the City of Knowledge”: an infrastructural project entwined in a national narrative of technological prowess, nation-state building, and revolution for Ecuador. The concept of relational infrastructures is used to complement the current literature on infrastructures and anticipatory practices, and to make sense of the power dynamics involved in Yachay´s operation. Three moments in the life of Yachay are analyzed in detail. This analysis aims to illuminate the temporal and political complexity of the infrastructuring processes, connecting policy instruments, personal trajectories, and wider political mobilization of futures and pasts in the form of anticipatory practices. This paper introduces the concept of relational infrastructures as an important element of anticipatory practices that helps sustain these practices and connects them to longer-term sociopolitical dynamics. We argue that the notion of relational infrastructures captures a key and as-yet-unexplored component of the dynamics of technoscientific projects in the literature. The article also offers a potential categorization of anticipatory practices within innovation and policy-oriented sociotechnical projects, differentiating between exo-oriented and intro-oriented practices, according to the audience. Yachay aimed to transform Ecuador’s trajectories, promising a bright future. Relational infrastructures were activated and supported the rise of Yachay. Specific relational infrastructures were foundations for anticipatory practices. Based on direction, anticipatory practices can be intro-oriented or exo-oriented. Relational infrastructures reveal long-term bonds of projects and social ties.