ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the contribution that genetic comparisons make to study diverse experiences of precarious transformations along the sparse settlements that grow diffusely along economic corridors and the urban-rural hybridity that extends further beyond the planned infrastructure network. It mobilises genetic comparisons to better understand the role that investments in connective infrastructures play in extending a functionally articulated yet unevenly developed urban fabric to virtually the entire planet. The chapter shows how the methodological strategies of genetic comparisons advance such a peri-urban research programme along these three axes. In fact, the author's objective is to show that global urban studies have much to gain in mobilising genetic comparisons to ascertain why and how the design of infrastructure networks precipitates certain growth trajectories whilst precluding other alternatives to development.
