240517 SE The Social Life of (Rail)-Roads (P4) (2018S)

The seminar will explore the role of particular kinds of transportation infrastructures, namely roads and railroads, vis-a-vis human mobility and sociality, as well as the transport of goods and information. In recent years, there has been a growing body of anthropological literature about transportation infrastructure, primarily about roads, in the context of development and modernization, mobility, (in)accessibility and roadlessness. At the same time, other dimensions of human-infrastructure entanglements, such as identity building, social change and cultural interactions, have been understudied. This course is intended to explore and review such dimensions, as well as approaches that have been applied extensively in the anthropological study of roads and railroads.
Both instructors are involved in an international research project about a railroad line in East Siberia. While the seminar will refer to this project repeatedly, the seminar’s scope is in no way limited to the topic or the region. Thus, while the focus is on roads and railroads, comparative case studies of other transportation infrastructures might be brought into the discussion as well. Likewise, while the instructors are specialised in the social anthropology of the circumpolar North, the seminar will aim at a broader disciplinary and geographical perspective.