This course explores how Science and Technology Studies (STS) theories, concepts, and methods have been brought to bear on the city as a complex and dynamic object of study, and as an important site of socio-technical, cultural, and political life. A key assumption guiding our collective exploration pertains to the co-productionist relationship between technoscience and the city: science and technology shape the city but the city also shapes science and technology. Keeping this mutually constitutive relationship in mind, students will be exposed to a range of empirical phenomena: the “smart city”, Google Maps as a spatial infrastructure, the built environment, climate change, AI urbanism, and queer urban life. By the end of the course, students should have gained an enhanced understanding of the intricate interdependencies of science, technology and the city. The seminar will be held in English and consists of 14 sessions, including: one introductory session, 12 text-based sessions, as well as one guest lecture.
- Trainer/in: Nicolas Zehner