Making infrastructural work visible in Latvian research institutions

The objective of the paper is to examine how the infrastructural labor performed by scholars at Latvia's research institutions is made visible through engagement with technologies, broadly understood. In the paper, I rely on the ethnographic data collected in Latvia in March-December 2020. During this time, I conducted semi-structured interviews, both in person and online, with researchers and administrators at Latvian research institutions, as well as government officials overseeing Latvia's  My paper shows that scholars at Latvian research institutions perform invisible infrastructural labor to fill the gaps and ruptures in existing research infrastructures. Focusing on the experiences of international scholars in Latvia as well as their "local" colleagues, I show how engagement with particular technologies, such as bureaucratic documents and websites, renders visible the infrastructural work performed by researchers on daily basis. In line with the literature on the inequalities, insecurities and uncertainties embedded in the contemporary knowledge regimes across the globe, my paper suggests that, even though the amount and consequences of infrastructural work performed by researchers increase, this labor remains unvalued by research performance indicators.