1

Technopolitics:
Infrastructure, Technology, Power
NINT 5402/CRN 6982
Spring 2014

Mondays, 6-7:50pm
Location: 63 Fifth Ave, #617

Antina von Schnitzler
Graduate Program in International Affairs
The New School
72 Fifth Avenue, Office 606
Email: vonschna@newschool.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3-5pm and by appointment

From railroads to communication networks, water pipes and electricity wires, technologies
of security and extraction, infrastructures and technologies have been central to mediating
modernity. This course explores infrastructure and technology as integral to particular
assemblages of power and to the constitution of new political terrains. Rather than neutral
means towards more substantive ends, we will approach infrastructures as networked
systems that both shape and are shaped by social life and as such, can open up a broader set
of questions in relation to power, subjectivity and politics. The course begins by examining
the historical relationship between infrastructure, technology and power via studies of
colonial infrastructures, Cold War technopolitics and the centrality of infrastructure and
technology in projects of development and modernization. We will then explore
contemporary questions in relation to infrastructures, such as the technopolitics of oil,
technologies of piracy, and infrastructures of security and preparedness. Finally, the course
will examine infrastructure failure, including both the ordinary break-downs of
infrastructure in cities of the global south and often dramatic infrastructure failures in the
aftermath of disasters or war. Readings will be interdisciplinary, drawing primarily on science
and technology studies, anthropology, political theory and geography.

Course Requirements and Evaluation:
1) Participation (20%): Active and consistent participation in class is the most important
requirement of this class. The class will in large part be discussion-based, so it is essential
that you come to class having read all of the material closely and taken notes on it.
2) Online Postings (20%): Each student is asked to post short commentaries and questions
for discussion on Canvas by midnight before the relevant class. These can be questions of
clarification, critical comments or reflections on the arguments raised in the readings. These can
in turn form the basis of your participation in class.
3) Introducing discussion (10%): Each week one or two students will introduce the
discussion by providing us with discussion points or questions. Presenters should also have
read carefully over fellow students questions on the class website and bring them into the
discussion. Where useful, presenters can also come up with contemporary examples of
infrastructures or technologies that may be elucidated via the readings.
4) Final Paper (50%): Over the course of the semester students will work on a final
research paper on a topic of their choice. These projects are designed to enable you to
2

connect the material discussed in class to your individual interests. The research question
should emerge from the theoretical questions discussed in class. The grade for the project is
made up of three assignments:
A proposal for the paper that clearly details the argument to be made, the
theoretical questions you will address, a description of the sources you will draw on
and a list of relevant literature (approximately 2 double-spaced pages, plus
bibliography) due Thursday, March 31, 5pm via email.
A 10-15 minute presentation of the project in class to be held during the last two
sessions (May 5 & May 12).
The final paper, approximately 15-20 double-spaced pages long, in hard copy &
electronically, due Thursday, May 15, 5pm. Note though that you will have to have
a full draft of the paper written by May 5 in order to present it in class.

Late Papers: Deadlines are strict and extensions or incompletes will be granted only in
exceptional circumstances.
Plagiarism: Any instance of plagiarism will result in a failing grade. Please familiarize
yourself with the University policy on plagiarism, available at
http://www.newschool.edu/admin/writingcenter/documents/AvoidPlagiarism.pdf
Missing classes: Please make sure you come to class prepared and on time. Consistent
attendance and active, engaged participation are the most important requirement of this
class. Please send me a short email in advance of class if you have to miss a session and
make sure you cover the reading for that week.
Reading: All texts will be made available on Canvas.

COURSE SCHEDULE:
(Please note that I may make changes to the syllabus during the semester, so it is best not to
print out too far in advance)

WEEK 1 (January 27): Introduction and Overview

WEEK 2 (February 3): Technopolitics: Conduits, Symbols, Actants
Lewis Mumford, Authoritarian and Democratic Technics, Technology and Culture Vol. 5,
No. 1 (Winter, 1964), 1-8.
Langdon Winner (1980) Do Artifacts have Politics? Daedalus 109: 121-136.
Wiebke Bijker Why and how Technology Matters

Background reading (optional, but highly recommended):
W. E. Bijker, T. Hughes and T. J. Pinch (eds). 1987. The Social Construction of
Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, Cambridge:
MIT Press (esp. Chapters 1-3)

WEEK 3 (February 10): Rethinking Expertise
Michel Callon (1987) Society in the Making: The Study of Technology as a Tool for
Sociological Analysis in W. E. Bijker, T. Hughes and T. J. Pinch (eds). 1987. The
Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of
Technology, Cambridge: MIT Press.
3

Madeleine Akrich De-scribing Technologies in Bijker, Wiebe E. and John Law
(eds). 1992. Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change (pp. 205-
258)
Marianne de Laet and Annemarie Mol. 2000. The Zimbabwe Bush Pump: Mechanics
of a Fluid Technology in Social Studies of Science 30 (2), pp. 225-263

Recommended: Timothy Mitchell (2002) Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity.
Berkeley: University of California Press (Introduction, Ch. 1 Can The Mosquito Speak)

NO CLASS FEB. 17 Presidents Day

WEEK 4 (February 24): Infrastructure, Modernity, Biopolitics
Paul N. Edwards Infrastructure and Modernity: Force, Time, and Social
Organisation in the History of Socio-Technical Systems In: Misa, Thomas, Brey,
Philip and Andrew Feenberg (2004) Modernity and Technology (pp. 185-225)
Graham and Marvin. 2001 Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructure, technological
mobilities & the urban condition. London: Routledge, (pp. 1-89)

Recommended:
Michel Foucault (1978) Right of Death and Power over Life in History of Sexuality
Volume I, (pp. 135-150)
Thomas Osborne. 1997. Security and Vitality: drains, liberalism and power in the
nineteenth century In: Foucault and Political Reason, pp. 99-122


WEEK 5 (March 3): Colonial Genealogies
Brian Larkin (2008) Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria,
Chapter 1
Paul Edwards and Gabrielle Hecht (2010) History and the Technopolitics of
Identity: The Case of Apartheid South Africa in Journal of Southern African
Studies 36 (3)
Colin McFarlane (2008) Governing the contaminated city : infrastructure and
sanitation in colonial and postcolonial Bombay., International journal of urban and
regional research., 32 (2). pp. 415-435.


WEEK 6 (March 10): The Technopolitics of Extraction
Timothy Mitchell (2011) Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil Economy
and Society 38 (3)
Gabrielle Hecht (2009) Africa and the Nuclear World: Labor, Occupational Health
and the transnational Production of Uranium in Comparative Studies in Society and
History
Hannah Appel (2012) Walls and white elephants: Oil extraction, responsibility, and
infrastructural violence in Equatorial Guinea in Ethnography 13 (4)


4

WEEK 7 (March 17): Beyond the Social I: Crisis, Liberalization & Splintering
Urbanism
Graham and Marvin (2001) Splintering Urbanism (second half, chapters tba).
Jamie Monson (2006) Defending the Peoples Railway in the Era of Liberalization: Tazara in
Southern Tanzania in Africa 76 (1)
-- Discussion of Students paper topics in class


NO CLASS March 24 Spring Break


WEEK 8 (March 31): Informal Infrastructures & Everyday Break-down
Brian Larkin (2008) Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria,
Part II, Degraded Images, Distorted Sound: Nigerian Video and the Infrastructure
of Piracy Conclusion in (optional: Chapter 6).
AbdouMaliq Simone. 2005. People As Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in
Johannesburg in Public Culture16(3): pp. 407-429
Stephen Graham (2012) Disrupted Cities: Infrastructure Disruption as the Achilles
Heel of Urbanized Societies


PAPER ABSTRACTS DUE April 3, via email


WEEK 9 (April 7): Beyond the Social II: Humanitarian infrastructures
Redfield, Peter. 2012. "Bioexpectations: Life Technologies as Humanitarian Goods."
Public Culture 24 (1): 157-184.
Julia Elyachar. 2012. Next Practices: Knowledge, Infrastructure, and Public Goods
at the Bottom of the Pyramid in Public Culture 24 (1), pp.109-126
Jamie Cross (2013) The 100th object: Solar lighting technology and humanitarian
goods in Journal of Material Culture 18 (4)


WEEK 10 (April 14): New Modalities of Provisioning
Stephen Collier (2011) Post-Soviet Social: Neo-liberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics,
Princeton: Princeton University Press (selected chapters)
Andrew Lakoff (2007) Preparing for the Next Emergency in Public Culture 19 (2


WEEK 11 (April 21): Smart Infrastructures & Technologies
Orit Halpern et al (2013) Test-bed Urbanism in Public Culture
Further readings TBA.




5

WEEK 12 (April 28): Rethinking Technopolitics
Braun and Whatmore (2009) Political Matter: Technoscience, Democracy, And Public Life.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (selected chapters)
Marres, Noortje. 2011. The costs of public involvement Everyday devices of carbon
accounting and the materialization of participation. Economy and Society, 40(4),
pp. 510-533.
Anand, Nikhil 2012 Pressure: The PoliTechnics of Water Supply in Mumbai.
Cultural Anthropology 26(4):542-564.
Recommended:
Cultural Anthropology, Special Online Issue on Infrastructure , December 2012

WEEK 13 (May 5): Student Project Presentations

WEEK 14 (May 12): Student Project Presentations


Final Papers Due Thursday, May 15, 5pm, by email and hard copy, my mailbox at 72
Fifth Ave, 6
th
Floor.