What do the water works of Mumbai have to do with the making of the citizen in independent India? How is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor related to precarious livelihood of fishing communities in the Indus Delta? In what way is a 19th century irrigation system connected to transformations in land and labour regimes?
This course is about the entanglement of infrastructure, (everyday) politics, and governmentality. It is interested in understanding the contemporary neoliberal regimes of infrastructure development as part of a longer historical phenomenon of modernity. Taking its lead from the anthropological turn in the study of infrastructure, it examines infrastructure as “dense, social, material and political formations” (Appel, Anand & Gupta 2018) through case studies located in South Asian history from the colonial period till today.
The course will focus on three lines of inquiry: First, to look at infrastructure -- pipes and roads, ports and electricity grids, sewage systems and great bridges – as manifestations of (neo)liberal and modernist discourses/imaginaries of improvement, development, or progress. These have historically been premised on certain temporalities related to aspiration, promise and control. Second, to study infrastructure governmentalities through the exclusions, contestations and resistance they produce. And third, to concentrate on the impact on ecology and the more-than-human history of infrastructure.
The first part of the seminar will provide an introduction to key theoretical and methodological literature in the study of infrastructure, in particular approaches from social history and anthropology of infrastructure. In the second part we will engage with research on infrastructure in the South Asian context. The seminar will engage with academic literature on the topic as well as with primary material. Guest lecturers will be invited to discuss their research projects on topics related to infrastructure. Students are welcome to apply the learnings from this course to topics on South Asia and beyond in their in-class assignments and/or final papers (MAP)
The language of instruction is English. Students may submit assignments in German or English
Anand, A., Gupta, G. & Appel, H. (Eds) The Promise of Infrastructure. Duke University Press, 2018
Gemäß StO Anlage 3
Teilnahmeleistungen: Short Presentation + 3 Response Papers
Kursbewertung gemäß StO Anlage 3
Prüfungsform: Hausarbeit (15-20 Seiten)
30.09.2025
Die Veranstaltung wurde 2 mal im Vorlesungsverzeichnis SoSe 2025 gefunden:
