Universität Wien

233044 SE Technoborders, mobility, and othering: insights from STS (2024W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 23 - Soziologie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle
Tu 26.11. 09:00-11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 08.10. 09:00 - 11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 15.10. 09:00 - 11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 22.10. 09:00 - 11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 29.10. 09:00 - 11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 05.11. 09:00 - 11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 12.11. 09:00 - 11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 19.11. 09:00 - 11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 10.12. 08:00 - 12:30 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This seminar introduces its participants to the growing insights of STS and its intersection with current critical border/migration scholarship. In the study of the dyad borders-mobility we reflect on the production of cultural difference and its relation to technologies of border control. The seminar explores three questions: 1. What are the challenges and contributions of STS to the study of mobility and migration management infrastructures? 2. How do migration infrastructures and policies shape everyday life? 3. How do different actors (civil servants, people on the move, state representatives, civil society, activists, and so on) experience, translate and/or challenge the sociotechnical aspects of border(ing) regimes. After reframing borders and mobility as relational arrangements, we examine how certain aspects of control, surveillance and state projects are also the outcome of border(ing) regimes and migration control procedures. A section of the course explores how people on the move use digital technologies and other mundane material arrangements to challenge containment posed by migration management infrastructures. As an arrival point, we draw on STS research examining the racializing aspects of border and surveillance technologies. The course also gives students the tools to critically examine the role of expertise and technology in migration policies, and the possibility for STS scholars to explore new forms of understanding sociomateriality and mobility.

Students will build personal reflections by analysing timely case studies. They will also work in groups to develop a mini-research project from a pool of options about migration management, borders, state policies or experiences of social movements.

Assessment and permitted materials

To pass the seminar, students are expected to complete the following tasks:

● Active participation in seminars, group work and in situ forums. Students should be prepared to present and discuss key points from the obligatory readings. Thereby, two students will present the obligatory readings at the beginning of each session. This also includes the presentation of a text of their own choice in the last session of the seminar.

● Develop, as part of a group (of 3 students), a research proposal choosing a theme from a pool of options offered by the lecturer. Drawing on the materials of the seminars, every group must develop a concise, clear and feasible research mini-proposal specifying the research questions, theoretical framework, methods, ethical considerations, potential participants and potential sources of information. This research mini-proposal must be presented in the last session. A 3700-4000 words summary of the proposal must be presented in the seminar and then submitted via Moodle.

● Submit a single 3200-3500-word individual assignment which must contain two parts:
Part I: (1600-1800 words) a personal reflection using the contents of the course narrating any personal or well-known (from a friend or relative) experience of migration and/or border control. The questions guiding this first part are: How does an STS understanding of borders and mobility change/enrich/affect/reduce this experience? What aspects become more/less explicit?
Part II: (1600-1700 words) Choosing a film from the pool list provided by the lecturer and conducting a well-informed analysis of it condensing at least two of the sessions of the seminar. The use and relevance of references and in both parts of the assignment is a crucial aspect of its assessment.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Examination topics

n.a.

Reading list

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 19.09.2024 11:26