“… they can’t occupy the sun …”: Cementing heterogeneous energy configurations as disentanglement in imagining a Palestinian cement factory

Abstract

Geographies of infrastructure often overlook the importance of/the role of cement plants and their production networks as agents in political and ecological change. Cement provides a lens to understand the complex political and ecological networks associated with its production. Cement is a vital material for urban construction, and its production networks involve the flow of different materials to the cement plant. This article looks at the political ecology of cement by examining how cement production is part of a heterogeneous network of energy infrastructures. The article focuses on a case study of the planning and design process of the first cement factory in the Palestinian territories between 2014 and 2018. Drawing on theories from heterogeneous infrastructure configuration (HIC) in the global south, here we will see how Palestinian engineers have decided to adopt a diverse mixture of green energy infrastructure and technologies to emancipate Palestine from Israeli control over their energy resources. Here, a HIC approach can be extended to permeate colonial structures, where colonial structures are ongoing and present in every scale. In such a context, I argue that heterogeneity and a diversity of infrastructure technologies are chosen to be adaptable, resist disruption and offer a form of disentanglement from power structures. As the article shows, Palestinian experts have considered designing the cement plant and its energy supply network by assembling a heterogeneous energy supply system that will allow them to gain greater sovereignty over cement and its geographically spread socio-material configurations.