ABSTRACT
For urban geographers, the largely hidden and taken-for-granted technological infrastructures and networks that exist within (and between) cities raise a range of challenging social, political and economic questions. This chapter examines “the shifting meanings of urban technological networks” in European cities. It describes how the first water towers, purification plants, dams and reservoirs were often prominent features in the urban landscape, by focusing initially on the development of water supply and sewerage systems in the mid-nineteenth century. By focusing on water supply, the chapter illuminates the vital but often hidden interplay between, on the one hand, the economic and functional role of urban networks and infrastructures and, on the other hand, the social, cultural and political significance of these taken-for-granted technologies. The technological control of water remains a crucial factor both in the process of urbanization and in the experience of the city.
