Infrastructure
The Asphalted Planet (Prof. Dr. Simone M. Müller)
Potholes are my starting point for a global environmental microhistory of broken roads during the age of automobility. I use them to study how people negotiated slow, yet reoccurring changes in infrastructure that are induced both by changes in weather and, increasingly over the course of the twentieth century, in climate. Alongside fissures, cracks, undercuts or landslides, potholes are central to my study of road corridors from across the world that are in need of care (and repair) in response to a changing environment. I find them in permafrost roads of the Arctic North—such as the ALCAN—in dust roads of the Trans-African highway—such as the Zimbabwe’s A1—in coastal highways—such as those encircling islands of and coasts along the Pacific rim, and in urban pathways—as in the potholes of Philadelphia.
Introducing verticality as an analytical perspective for Latour’s critical zone, I read road corridors as a semi-permeable membrane between above and below ground as well as an enviro-technical system linking the (historical) present with an anticipated future. Asphalt Skin. Caring for broken Roads in the Anthropocene is a way of zooming-in from the planetary gaze of the Anthropocene to understand and extrapolate the fundamental changes in human-environment relationships through a situated setting.
A River, Wild and Untamed (Dr. Andreas Mentrup-Womelsdorf)
The Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, and Niagara Falls all bear witness to the determination of large-scale energy companies in the United States and Canada to shape the landscape in the 20th century. In contrast, however, to the hydropower projects on mighty rivers like the Mississippi, the Yukon River appears wild and untamed. Not a single dam on the scale of the Hoover Dam blocks the salmon’s path on the Yukon from the Bering Strait to the spawning grounds in the upper reaches—or is this an illusion?
This research project examines plans from the late 1940s through the 1960s that envisioned the structural and technical “diversion” of the Yukon River all the way to the desert regions of the southern United States, or the construction of gigantic dam complexes for the purposes of energy and industrial production. What impact did these plans—all of which remained unrealized—have on the actual construction of dams in the region? How are these plans connected to foreign, economic, and environmental policies in the U.S. and Canada? I examine these infrastructure projects in relation to resource extraction and a shifting understanding of the state, economy, and society in the late 1950s. In the 1960s, “wilderness” became just as much a resource as gold, silver, copper, asbestos, fish, or trophies, which had been extracted in the region since the late 19th century.
Unbuilding (Dr. Maximilian Mai Pieper)
In my postdoc, I aim to investigate societal processes of “unbuilding” – a term that encapsulates processes of unbuilding infrastructures but also institutions or individual behavioral patterns. What unifies these diverse arenas is the peculiar shift from the modernist outlook towards a fundamentally open future with the potential to be better than the past towards an understanding of future as something that is blocked through the path dependencies of what has been built in the present – be that the expected emissions of coal power plants running for another decade, the perceived slowness of democratic institutions or the internalized productivity demands of a society built around work. What I am interested in here is not only the understanding of the future being blocked by the sediments of the past but more importantly how unbuilding plays out as a counter strategy to such a blocked future and is enacted through material infrastructure, institutions and individual practice.
The process of unbuilding fundamentally challenges modernist understandings of continued progress and linear time. It opens up questions on the possibility of reversing ecological damage while also shining a light on conflicts and power dynamics that generally tend to be overlooked. The key questions will be: Can the past be unbuilt? To what extent? And who has the resources to do so.
From City Waste to Zero Waste (Regina Bichler, MS)
In the 21st century, “Zero Waste” has become a popular motto of municipal waste reduction campaigns around the world. This is not only a contested concept, but also the declared goal of an increasing number of German cities, like Kiel and Munich. Yet although they have elaborated local policy roadmaps for Zero Waste, it is unclear how to reach their targets—especially if citizens are supposed to shoulder the main burden by adapting their consumption and disposal practices. International examples with comparable measures and long-term success remain rare.
The dissertational research project “From city waste to Zero Waste” explores municipal waste reduction strategies with the help of two case studies from Japan: the early Zero Waste town Kamikatsu, established already in 2003, and the touristic destination Kyoto City, which ranks among the Japanese cities with the lowest waste emissions. With the framework of practice theory, the project analyzes from a sociological perspective how these municipalities that succeeded in long-term waste reduction have transformed their residents’ social practices. Furthermore, it aims to identify the local as well as structural difficulties that people and organisations committed to waste reduction experienced in their anti-waste activities.
