Universität Wien

290039 PS Current approaches on infrastructure in spatial research and beyond (2020W)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 29 - Geographie
Continuous assessment of course work

auf Englisch
Moodle

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. 20 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Update 4.11.: All sessions will be held as online-classes.

Update 7.10.: Except the session on 25.11.2020 and 27.01.2021, all other sessions will be held as online-classes.

Note! This course will be held as mixture of online- & offline-classes

Mittwoch 07.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409 >> physical meeting in lecture room (given the current situation)
Mittwoch 14.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409 >> physical meeting in lecture room (given the current situation)
Weekly lectures from 21.10. until 18.11.2020 will be held as online-meetings (synchronized) via Moodle
Mittwoch 25.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409 >> physical meeting in lecture room (given the current situation)
Weekly lectures from 2.12.2020 until 20.1.2021 will be held as online-meetings (synchronized) via Moodle
Mittwoch 27.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409 >> physical meeting in lecture room (given the current situation)

  • Wednesday 07.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 14.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 21.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 28.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 04.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 11.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 18.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 25.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 02.12. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 09.12. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 16.12. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 13.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 20.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409
  • Wednesday 27.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Digital
    Hörsaal 4C Geographie NIG 4.OG C0409

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Please note: The course description might has to be adapted and the seminar will be moved to online-only teaching in case of short-dated overall changes.

** This seminar is an English-language course including readings, written assignments and discussions.
Course units will be held both in-class as well as online (regularly each week)

Infrastructures, including technical, social and even informal support infrastructure, are of major importance for the development of regions, cities and neighbourhoods. In the past, they have served as a traditional research topic in geography. For example, traditional debates in geography focus on matters of accessibility through transport infrastructure or ICT that are of importance for regional competitiveness. Also, questions with regard to how to secure or re-build social and technical infrastructures in shrinking regions have been part of academic and planning debates. Nevertheless, these debates demonstrate a rather essentialist perspective as they often see infrastructures as being “simply there”. In recent years, scientific discourses emerged arguing against this essentialist perspective by rather revealing the complex practices of power and deliberation that are accompanying infrastructure projects but also the functioning of infrastructures for everyday life. These discourses are interdiscplinary stemming from debates such as (critical) geography, anthropology or STS and open new perspectives for planning and development issues.

The aim of this course is to gain an overview as well as a deeper understanding of these current academic discourses on “infrastructure” from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this course, you will
- Develop knowledge on “infrastructure” through in-depth literature analysis deriving from different disciplines.
- Learn to critically reflect on these discourses, to embed these discourses into disciplinary paradigms and to link different approaches to receive a deeper insight into the topic.
- Contribute to a comprehensive understanding of infrastructure from a socio-spatial geographic perspective.
- Assess one “infrastructure example” based on theory-based criteria and its impact on multi-spatial scales.

After the course, participants should be able to reflect upon as well as critically examine practical issues on infrastructure planning and urban/regional development in accordance with scientific debates. This will be achieved by reading and discussing texts provided by the lecturers as well as analysing examples from planning practice. Students’ active presentation, input and feedback will be central to the course.

Assessment and permitted materials

1) Reading of texts and active participation / moderation during in-class discussions (30%)
2) In-class presentation of one selected text (30%)
3) Term paper (40%)

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Regular attendance (= min. 80% of all sessions) throughout the semester (offline and online), regular participation in discussions, in-class presentation and submission of term paper in due time. In order to receive a passing grade, you need at least 60% of 100 points in total. (100-90%: 1; 89-80%: 2, 79-70%: 3, 69-60%: 4)

Examination topics

No final exam. Examination consists of regular participation in in-class (offline and online) discussions, in-class presentation & moderation and the submission of a term paper (based on the topic of the in-class presentation).

Reading list

Preparatory reading (must be read before the start of the seminar):
Latham, A., J. Layton (2019): Social infrastructure and the public life of cities: Studying urban sociality and public spaces. In: Geography Compass. 13 (7). Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12444.
Larkin, B. (2013), The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure, In: Annual Review of Anthropology 2013 (42), pp. 327-343.

Association in the course directory

(MG-S4-PI.f) (MG-S5-PI.f) (MG-W3-PI) (MR3-PI) (MA UF GW 02-4)

Last modified: Fr 12.05.2023 00:22