The Techno-Political Dynamics of Information Infrastructure Development: Interpreting Two Cases of Puzzling Evidence

Abstract. This paper describes a preliminary analysis of the role of power in the development of two large-scale information infrastructures. Grounded in these empirical studies, the paper suggests that such large-scale infrastructure efforts encapsulate a specific techno-political dynamics that by necessity involve the need to juggle a variety of changing alliances, to give and take, exercise power more or less openly, and to inscribe ways of disciplining different users ’ patterns of use. Consequently, in contrast to much written in the IS literature on the issue of power, this paper argues that power is not necessarily negative, stable, and zero-sum, but rather performed, dialectic, distributed, implicit, and inscribed. The paper concludes by sketching some ideas for conceptualizing the role of power in the development and use of information infrastructures and such ‘mega-projects ’ in general