In between city and country: the historical development of the Flemish electricity grid within the co-evolution of multiple territorial arrangements

This paper studies the relation between the historical urbanisation process in the region of Flanders and the development of utility networks. As a case study it discusses the way in which the development of electricity networks has been historically inscribed within a distributed urbanism. Particular stages of the emergence and development of the Flemish electricity grid are framed within the logics behind three territorialisation strategies at play in the Flemish urban landscape. First, the legacy of a constellation of interconnected, but autonomous towns is still perceptible. Second, there is the contribution of the Belgian nation state to the formation of the metropolitan area of Brussels. Third there is the continued commitment of the Belgian nation state to the geographical distribution and dispersal of development. The historical development of the electricity grid adheres to varying degrees to these contrasting territorial logics. The result is an electricity grid in the form of a hybrid patchwork. It consists of linked networks, each searching for an equilibrium of the diverging territorialisations adapted to its own context. This gives rise to a sometimes problematic ambiguity about the scale on which the electricity grid is organised. Furthermore, this case study seems to suggest that the Flemish urban condition can be framed by these territorialisation processes working on the different scales of the city and of the region / nation, but that the Flemish urban condition can only be understood as their contingent and co-evolving outcome