Megaprojects and the transition to post-growth infrastructure

It seems impossible to sufficiently decouple economic growth from the drivers of ecological breakdown. Thus, it is essential to address the ecological cost of growth oriented infrastructural systems and effect a transition to post-growth infrastructures. Megaprojects provide outsized examples of the problem. Yet, infrastructure also offers a means of conceptualizing how states might achieve transition whilst retaining its emancipatory benefits. In keeping with the aims of this special issue this paper develops a framework of the key relationships driving infrastructural expansion and its material consequences through two case studies of UK megaprojects. It shows conventional critiques of rent-seeking behaviour offer only a partial account. Structural factors, core/periphery relations and technocratic governance also determine the potential to envisage post-growth alternatives.