This article delves into the processes of territorial transformation by foregrounding the material dimension of infrastructure. The entry of the research is infrastructure network design and planning. We will trace the concepts of territorial transformation inscribed into the material layout of large technical systems by analyzing the discourse of engineers and policy makers involved in the conception of infrastructure networks. In so doing, the material politics of infrastructure networks will be studied: How did engineers and policy makers design infrastructure to generate a specific territorial transformation? Moreover, how did technological plans hold the idea that one could influence modernization processes by means of a territorial transformation instigated by infrastructure? The neutral status of technology is thus fundamentally challenged by showing that engineers, in association with policy makers, were essential actors in the planned transformation of the territory as they organized infrastructure networks according to specific ideas relating spatial and societal transformation. The article focuses on two decades after the independence of Belgium (1831), when engineers conceived comprehensive networks of rails, waterways, and roads. The material politics of two major public works initiatives will be analyzed: (1) the centrally positioned railway network that connected all industrial centers within the territory as well as with the markets of neighboring countries, positioning Belgium into Europe as international turntable, and (2) a network of roads and canals in peripheral, so-called unproductive, regions that had to integrate these regions within national borders, and indeed extend these borders, as well as buffer and govern the side-effects and risks generated by the accelerating industrialization in the central parts of the nation.

中文翻译：

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基础设施网络的物质政治基础设施设计和比利时的领土转型，1830-40 年代

本文通过突出基础设施的物质维度来深入研究领土转型的过程。研究的入口是基础设施网络设计和规划。我们将通过分析参与基础设施网络概念的工程师和政策制定者的话语，追溯铭刻在大型技术系统的物质布局中的领土转换概念。在此过程中，将研究基础设施网络的物质政治：工程师和政策制定者如何设计基础设施以产生特定的领土转变？而且，技术计划如何认为可以通过基础设施引发的领土转型来影响现代化进程？因此，技术的中立地位受到了根本性的挑战，表明工程师与政策制定者一起，是计划中的领土转型的重要参与者，因为他们根据与空间和社会转型相关的特定想法来组织基础设施网络。本文重点关注比利时独立后的二十年（1831 年），当时工程师构想了铁路、水路和公路的综合网络。将分析两个主要公共工程倡议的物质政治：