Infrastructures and/as Environments: Practices and Ecologies of Circulation
In this Episode
In the final episode of our three-part series on the circulation of small forms, we follow Sebastian Gießmann’s reflections on infrastructures and circulation through a series of his own works and translations, as well as some systematic considerations on infrastructures, circulatory movements, media ecologies, networks, their inherent practical dimension, and possible challenges in their theorization. Important references include Bruno Latour and Susan Leigh Star, among others – helping Gießmann to think with, and sometimes against infrastructures, as he explains it in his lecture.
Sebastian Gießmann is a cultural and media studies researcher at the University of Siegen, where he currently works as a principal investigator in the special collaborative research center “Media of Cooperation”. Together with historian Valérie Schafer he reconstructs a media history of the development of new web and internet technologies since 1989. His research interests focus on the interconnection of cultural techniques, mediality, economy, practice and knowledge. Particularly important in regard to his talk is his 2024 publication The Connectivity of Things: Network Cultures since 1832, which came out as part of the MIT Press Infrastructures series. His most recent publication is entitled Das Kreditkarten-Buch: Geschichte und Theorie des digitalen Bezahlens and is available via Kulturverlag Kadmos.
Sebastian Gießmann is furthermore a board member of journals such as “Memory, Mind & Media” (Cambridge University Press), “Technographies” (Open Humanities Press), and co-editor of the book series “Locating Media” (transcript-Verlag).
Recommended citation:
“Infrastructures and/as Environments: Practices and Ecologies of Circulation”. Lecture by Sebastian Gießmann, in: microform. Der Podcast des Graduiertenkollegs Literatur- und Wissensgeschichte kleiner Formen, available at: www.kleine-formen.de/infrastructures-and-as-environments/, Berlin 2026 [Datum des letzten Abrufs].
Image:
CERN data center, 2022. Photography Sebastian Gießmann, CC BY-SA.
References:
Bowker, Geoffrey C. “Information Mythology: The World of/as Information”, in: Information Acumen. The Understanding and Use of Knowledge in Modern Business, edited by Lisa Bud-Frierman. Comparative and International Business Series: Modern Histories. London; New York: Routledge, 1994, 231–247.
Bowker, Geoffrey C., and Susan Leigh Star. Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Infrastructures. Cambridge, MA; London: MIT Press, 1999.
Bowker, Geoffrey C., Stefan Timmermanns, Adele E. Clarke, and Ellen Balka, eds. Boundary Objects and Beyond: Working with Leigh Star. Cambridge, MA; London: MIT Press, 2015.
de Laet, Marianne, and Annemarie Mol. “The Zimbabwe Bush Pump: Mechanics of a Fluid Technology.” Social Studies of Science 30, no. 2 (2000): 225–263.
Gießmann, Sebastian. The Connectivity of Things: Network Cultures since 1832. Infrastructures. Cambridge, MA; London: MIT Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12547.001.0001.
Gießmann, Sebastian. Das Kreditkarten-Buch: Geschichte und Theorie des digitalen Bezahlens. Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2026.
Goodwin, Charles. Co-Operative Action. Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive, and Computational Perspectives. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Kittler, Friedrich. Grammophon, Film, Typewriter. Berlin: Brinkmann und Bose, 1986.
Latour, Bruno. “What Is Iconoclash? Or Is There a World Beyond the Image Wars?” In Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art, edited by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel. Karlsruhe; Cambridge, MA; London: ZKM; MIT Press, 2002, 14–37.
Martus, Steffen, and Carlos Spoerhase. Geistesarbeit. Eine Praxeologie der Geisteswissenschaften. stw 2379. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2022.
Maye, Harun. “Die Grenzobjekte der Literatur: ‘Unveränderlich mobile Elemente’ in einer literaturwissenschaftlichen Netzwerkanalyse.” Zeitschrift für Germanistik 29, no. 1 (2019): 47–64. https://doi.org/doi:10.3726/92164_47.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Le Visible et l’Invisible, suivi de notes de travail. Edited by Claude Lefort. Gallimard, 1968.
Peters, John Durham. The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.
Richter, Steffen. Infrastruktur: Ein Schlüsselkonzept der Moderne und die deutsche Literatur 1848–1914. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2018.
Schatzki, Theodore. “Practice Theory as Flat Ontology.” In Practice Theory and Research. Exploring the Dynamics of Social Life, edited by Geert Spaargaaren, Don Weenink, and Machiel Lamers. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2016, 28–42.
Star, Susan Leigh. “The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving.” In Distributed Artificial Intelligence, II, edited by Les Gasser and Michael N. Huhns. Research Notes in Artificial Intelligence. London: Pitman; San Mateo, CF: Morgan Kaufmann, 1989, 37–54.
Star, Susan Leigh. “The Politics of Formal Representations: Wizards, Gurus, and Organizational Complexity.” In Ecologies of Knowledge: Work and Politics in Science and Technology, edited by Susan Leigh Star. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, 88–118.
Star, Susan Leigh. “The Ethnography of Infrastructure.” American Behavioral Scientist 43, no. 3 (1999): 377–391.
Star, Susan Leigh. Grenzobjekte und Medienforschung. Edited by Sebastian Gießmann and Nadine Taha. Locating Media | Situierte Medien 10. Bielefeld: transcript, 2017. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/media/pdf/04/26/71/oa9783839431269.pdf.
Star, Susan Leigh, and James R. Griesemer. “Institutional Ecology, ‘Translations’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907–39.” Social Studies of Science 19, no. 3 (1989): 387–420.
Star, Susan Leigh, and Karen Ruhleder. “Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces.” Information Systems Research 7, no. 1 (1996): 111–134.
Star, Susan Leigh, and Martha Lampland. “Reckoning with Standards.” In Standards and Their Stories: How Quantifying, Classifying, and Formalizing Practices Shape Everyday Life, edited by Martha Lampland and Susan Leigh Star. Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press, 2009, 3–33.
van Laak, Dirk. “Der Begriff Infrastruktur und was er vor seiner Erfindung besagte.” Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte 41 (1999): 280–299.
Credits
Moderation
Marie van Bömmel and Johann Gartlinger
Editor
Johann Gartlinger
Mastering
Johann Gartlinger
Script
Johann Gartlinger
Music
“Karl’s Pultz” by Blue Dot Sessions
Jingle
Michael Hoeldke (composition) and Cathrin Bonhoff (voice)