ABSTRACT

The lecture will introduce the concept of infrastructure as both a phenomenon that can be observed through materially organized practices and as an analytical category for observing phenomena. We will then explore specific versions of infrastructures, such as "knowledge infrastructures," understood as established networks of people, artifacts, and institutions for generating, sharing, and maintaining specific knowledge about the human and natural world. The lecture will focus on knowledge infrastructures involved in climate sciences, tracing their evolution from the 20th century to the present day and their connection to the digitization of knowledge. How do we investigate knowledge infrastructures? What kind of knowledge is produced and materialized from these infrastructures? What forms of knowledge are embedded in them and made explicit? What happens when a knowledge infrastructure reaches a breaking point? What is the relationship between knowledge infrastructures and temporality?

References

Edwards, Paul N. (2013) A vast machine: computer models, climate data, and the politics of global warming, Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England, The MIT PressFirst paperback edition.