Research

Infrastructures are commonly associated with durable and physical background structures like roads or bridges, which are thought to provide the necessary underlying foundation for the functioning of society and the economy. Work at the department critically interrogates such built infrastructures but also information infrastructures, for instance, databases, standards, and classifications. As such, infrastructures enable or limit not only the circulation of people, objects, and ideas but also forms of knowledge production, measurement, and valuation. While infrastructures are typically taken for granted, remain invisible, and are perceived as neutral, they come to embody specific values and goals through practices of infrastructuring, such as designing, building, maintaining, and using. They also produce inclusions and exclusions of people and thus result in social inequalities. Research and teaching at the department address how infrastructures are produced through practices, decisions, and interpretations and which social, political, and material consequences infrastructures generate. We explore such questions in a diverse range of fields, including agriculture, medicine, digital bureaucracy, and large-scale scientific collaborations.