Seminars (392-0-20)

Topic

Sociology of Infrastructure

Instructors

Salma Moustafa
Salma Moustafa is a PhD candidate in the department of Sociology. She is interested in issues that have to do with urban transformation and displacement, megaprojects and construction/demolition, citizenship and nationalism, and relationships between people, manmade structures, and the natural environment.

Meeting Info

2001 Sheridan GPC 1105: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

All around us, infrastructures are being built to replace, renew, or occupy space, for all sorts of purposes. Scholars have complicated the concept of infrastructure, relating it to intricate technological systems like electric power grids, broad arrays of mundane objects like faucets and doorknobs, grand construction projects like dams, highways, and stadiums, networks of human and non-human actors like the internet, or even naturally occurring ecologies that are integrated in human systems, like wetlands and coastal dunes. In short, infrastructure has come to mean anything that relates to the systems and resources that allow society to function and access its needs and services. As we try to parse out these meanings, we will take a critical development-oriented approach to understanding infrastructure. Critical development studies have tried to understand the uneven diffusion of capitalism across the globe, and are helpful in explaining how certain forms of knowledge about the world came to be so salient over others. We will delve into the social processes, motivations, dynamics, and consequences of the construction and demolition of infrastructure in urban, rural, and desert areas, globally. We will take into account the role of the environment and nature in how actors have historically approached infrastructure projects, as well as the assumptions made about people and places to justify construction and demolition in service of building better infrastructures.

As we articulate an approach to the sociology of infrastructure, we will tackle the following questions:
What counts as infrastructure?
How do infrastructural projects affect people and environments — and vice versa?
What kinds of infrastructures are needed for today's societies, and why?
Who are the experts on delivering infrastructural projects?
What happens when infrastructural projects fail or are left unfinished?
Who are the human and non-human actors that produce infrastructures?
How do infrastructures come to shape and be shaped by politics?
How do some people "resist" infrastructures?

We will take some creative and often experimental approaches to answering these questions in addition to our class readings, by involving other forms of digital and physical media, group activities, and reflective exercises. In some ways, this seminar is a sociological "lab" for understanding the concept of infrastructure theoretically as we explore real-life cases in depth. We will also dive into the methodological approaches for studying infrastructures, and assess the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, you should be able to—
1. understand, compare, and assess the various meanings of infrastructure;
2. formulate and respond to theoretical questions about knowledge, displacement, and development in terms of construction and demolition;
3. apply concepts and approaches discussed in class and readings to real life cases and contexts;
4. develop informed positions on different issues that pertain to global infrastructure practices;
5. understand the different ways that social scientists, in particular sociologists, have methodologically approached the study of infrastructure.

Teaching Method

Seminar

Evaluation Method

Two papers, presentation / exhibit, blog posts

Class Materials (Required)

All materials for this course will be made available on Canvas - no purchase necessary.

Class Attributes

Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl