• Transforming Infrastructure – Cultural Perspectives

    The interdisciplinary research initiative “Transforming Infrastructure: Cultural Perspectives” investigates both the cultural dimensions of infrastructure and the infrastructures of culture. Conceiving of infrastructure as the support systems of human sociality, the initiative addresses pressing questions regarding infrastructure’s relevance in times of global, technological, cultural, and climatic transformation.

    Three complementing research axes provide the means to investigate the cultural dimensions of infrastructure: Literary studies and Philosophy impart insight into concomitant imaginaries; Sociology, Anthropology, and Media studies identify associated practices; while History leads analyses related to processes.

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Current news

Old photo of the formerly new port la Joliette as well as pont transbordeur above the old port of Marseille.

Mediterranean networks, clans and Marseille

For portions of today's society, technological and infrastructural progress such as AI-guided transportation routes and automated subways is indispensable. For others, these developments are unsettling or even frightening. In the past, new infrastructures have often had unforeseeable political, economic and cultural consequences. What impact do they continue to have today?

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'All which it inherit shall dissolve': Ecodramaturgy and the cultural infrastructure of Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

At the invitation of the research initiative and core topic of the Centre of Cultural Inquiry, "Transforming Infrastructure: Cultural Perspectives", Elizabeth Freestone, theatre director and climate activist, will speak about her 2023 production of Shakespeare's The Tempest for the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of a seminar on "Resetting Shakespeare". Anyone interested is cordially invited!

Rohre und Bagger

ZKF Public Talk: Cultural Infrastructure Studies

For the past two years, the research initiative „Transforming Infrastructures. Cultural Perspectives” has engaged with the field of infrastructure research. The talk will give an overview on what has been achieved so far and discuss the prospects of this research initiative.

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