Infrastructure Thinking - Einzelansicht

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Infrastructure Thinking is imagined as a (virtual) space for considering how infrastructures give rise to particular forms of social and cultural life, at the same time as privileging some lives and erasing/displacing/decimating others (human and nonhuman).

What is infrastructure? In a (hilarious) video, John Oliver of Last Week Tonight has suggested that infrastructure is anything that can be blown up in a Hollywood movie. More specifically? Thinking about: pipelines, healthcare systems, internet access, media, megadams, electricity grids, shipping containers, parcel delivery networks, agriculture and food networks, levies, roads, railroads, clothing networks, museums, ...

We will read a selection of writings on infrastructure (more generally), as well as on more specific topics, such as energy (cultures), standards, as well as on some specific infrastructures. From these readings, we will develop a glossary of key terms for infrastructure thinking. The collaborative work on this glossary will be one of the key components of working together in this semester. Toward the end of the semester, we will develop interesting (and innovative) ways of presenting a particular infrastructure, accompanied by a short essay using the key words from our collaborative work, and develop a virtual exhibit of kinds to present to the group for discussion and comment, .

Theorists whose work we may consider include: Jane Bennett, Patricia Yaeger, La Paperson, Timothy Morton, Mimi Sheller, Ian Hodder, Keller Easterling, Akhil Gupta, ...

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This seminar will be offered in an asynchronous format (that is: not with face-to-face time). [There is no way I will be wanting to see you each week on Mondays 20:00-22:00, even if you are lovely.] There will be some contact time /zoom meetings in one or two check-in week(s), but otherwise students can complete the seminar on their own pace through the semester. Successful completion of the seminar for 3CP will involve the submission of a learning journal (involving notes and small activities, as well as a small project) (max. 4000 words); students requiring more CP will be given the opportunity to submit a term paper.