Aims & Scope

The IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society publishes research papers on the interactions among technology, science, and society; on the impact of such interactions on individuals and society; and on the ethical, professional and social responsibility in the practice of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The publication also provides a forum for open discussion of resulting issues.

Special Issue on Imagining Tomorrow’s Infrastructure
Submission Date: 2025-03-29

Description

Current infrastructure has served billions of people around the world and has achieved efficiencies and economies of scale [1] [2]. Most of it was built using assumptions of perpetual growth and demographic and socio-economic stability but once in place it has also generated vulnerabilities [3] [4] [5] and a need to protect against the exploitation of those vulnerabilities [6] [7] [8] [9]. The relevance of some foundational assumptions is decreasing, and further changes may be expected [10] [11].  The precise scope of what counts as ‘infrastructure’ varies by jurisdiction and ideology, yielding almost arbitrary distinctions between it and other equally essential services (banking and finance, health services, communications, logistics and food distribution, etc.) that are left to be provided by the marketplace.  There is similar variation in whether public or private actors provide infrastructure services [10] [12].  Paradoxical, we have seen a deterioration of mental health in an era when the infrastructure required for the provision of basic physical needs has seldom been better, and similarly we have seen a pandemic of loneliness in an era when the infrastructural means of communications have never been better [13] [14]. Finally, although the phrase “revolutionary technology” has been overused, technological changes have generated new design opportunities [15] that may yield more robust performance of infrastructural systems.

Noting that many of the original drivers for infrastructure development have changed and worrisome vulnerabilities and interdependencies have emerged, it is timely to assess the future of infrastructure systems [8] [9] [16] [17]. Assessments should consider the diversity of economic conditions, network effects, and broader environmental [18] and cultural changes [19] [20]. Some adaptations to the scope of “infrastructure”, may be needed. Sewage treatment, roads/rails and bridges, power transmission [10], potable water provision [21] and administrative accommodation have been traditionally considered as essential infrastructure, but financial services, healthcare and communications may claim to be equally foundational. Basic needs must not be forgotten but long-term changes to the definition of “basic needs” served by infrastructure warrant consideration [22] [23]. Less centralised and more mobile human populations (whether voluntary migrants or refugees) create specific infrastructure-planning challenges [24] [25] that deserve assessment of issues including unequal access, variations in the timing of demand, and a desire for greater interoperability.

Family members and local social networks once informally satisfied many human needs such as friendship, child-support, medical treatment, and care of the elderly. Now many people look for these services [26] in the marketplace or from infrastructure providers [27]. Changing patterns of mobility (and provision for those living with disability) and opportunities for remote working have disrupted historical approaches in surprising ways. In a society whose demographics and means of economic production are changing fundamentally there are challenges in building infrastructure that offers improved ability to meet real human needs [28]. Efforts to augment physical infrastructures with sensors and autonomous intelligence are underway [29] [30], leaving open questions about their economic, social and ethical implications.

Let’s apply our research to identifying/evaluating the social changes that would be required to support radically changed infrastructure. Let’s imagine which infrastructure investments will retain value if disruptive technologies such as telemedicine, local energy storage, or local food and medicine synthesis mature? Let’s consider whether it is feasible to predict the advent of disruptive infrastructural technologies – and finally let us consider how infrastructure systems can make graceful transitions to future scopes and future configurations.

Important dates

    Submissions open: Now
    Submissions close: 29 Mar 2025
    Author latest notifications of acceptance: Jun 2025
    Subsequent review rounds: Jun-Sep 2025
    Final receipt of final files 01 Oct 2025
    Publication of special issue (tentative): 01 Dec 2025

Please note, TTS subscribes to a pre-print model of access. Once your paper is accepted it will appear online freely available with DOI until it is placed in the relevant issue.

Topics

Acceptable types of paper may include:

    Interdisciplinary considerations connecting technical perspectives on future critical infrastructure to socio-cultural and political-economic theories
    Papers approaching critical infrastructure as a social construct shaped by socio-historical contexts, competing discourses and visions of the future
    Examinations of theoretical concepts and broader sociocultural ideas for approaching the future critical infrastructures problem
    Investigations that describe and explain change in infrastructure systems. Reviews of literature on one or more of the proposed themes

Special issue submissions may be focused upon, but not need not be limited to, the following topics:

    Resilient and robust infrastructure
    New and changing infrastructure scope
    (Re)distributed infrastructure
    Connectedness and meeting real human needs
    Supporting a next-generation infrastructure
    Disruptive infrastructural technology
    Sociotechnical and economic transition options
    ”future proof” infrastructure approaches

Submissions that fall outside the above scope, will be referred to general issues of TTS.

How to Submit

For article formats, templates, and submission information, see https://technologyandsociety.org/transactions/tts-author-information/.

Submit your papers through https://ieee.atyponrex.com/dashboard/?journalCode=TTS

Review and publication process

Papers will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Papers accepted for full review will be reviewed by anonymous reviewers with a target turnaround of 8weeks for a first review decision. To be considered for the special issue, revisions of papers that are accepted with changes need to be submitted before the listed dates. Should they require further cycles of revision, they will be included in a future regular issue of the Transactions, pending a decision by the Co-Editors-in-Chief.

Guest Editors

    Dr Lindsay J. Robertson, Massey University* [lindsay@tech-vantage.com]
    Dr Lucy Resnyansky, Defence Science and Technology Group, Australia [resnyansky@defence.gov.au]
    Professor Clinton J. Andrews, Rutgers University* [cja1@rutgers.edu]