2018
2018-06-14
10.17192/meta.2018.10.7586
urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0003-2018-192-75862
keine Angabe
In/visible Infrastructure: Thinking (along) with Martin Heidegger about Infrastructural Breakdowns in South Africa
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
public -Frei abrufbar
In this paper I will argue against the idea that infrastructures are normally invisible and only become visible in certain moments. This notion is problematic because it is based on the idea that in the Western world things work smoothly and normally, while in the rest of the world breakdown is assumed to be a normal state of affairs and makes infrastructures visible. Rather, I will instead focus on the more individual, less visible–although not invisible–micro-modes of infrastructural breakdowns. The approach envisaged will be theoretically grounded by thinking (along) with the work of Martin Heidegger with particular regard to his widely interpreted § 16 of Being and Time on tools and “tool-being.” In this text, Heidegger outlines three existential modes of concern, namely conspicuousness, obtrusiveness and obstinacy, which will be helpful for understanding infrastructures as conflictual terrains as well as for thinking through people’s reconfigurations of aspirations in general. In other words, Heidegger describes three different modes of possible breakdowns that interrupt the course of everyday life in such a way that one is compelled to reflect upon one’s subjectivities and, equally important, upon the things themselves. The article will thus focus on how these in/visibilities are mobilized and situated within ethnographic accounts which I am drawing from readings and fieldwork experiences in South Africa.
South Africa
infrastructure
breakdown
Martin Heidegger
in/visibility
South Africa
infrastructure
urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0003-2018-192-75862
Laurin
Baumgardt
Baumgardt, Laurin
Universitätsbibliothek Marburg
Publikationsserver der Universitätsbibliothek Marburg
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PeriodicalPart
Vol 10 (2018)
10
2018-06-14
2196-629X
2013
Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS)
Middle East - Topics + Arguments
Periodical
General history of Asia; Middle East
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Deutschhausstraße 9, 35037 Marburg
Marburg
Philipps-Universität Marburg
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urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-00030
Infrastructure
2018
application/pdf
urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0003-2018-1928
breakdown
In this paper I will argue against the idea that infrastructures are normally invisible and only become visible in certain moments. This notion is problematic because it is based on the idea that in the Western world things work smoothly and normally, while in the rest of the world breakdown is assumed to be a normal state of affairs and makes infrastructures visible. Rather, I will instead focus on the more individual, less visible–although not invisible–micro-modes of infrastructural breakdowns. The approach envisaged will be theoretically grounded by thinking (along) with the work of Martin Heidegger with particular regard to his widely interpreted § 16 of Being and Time on tools and “tool-being.” In this text, Heidegger outlines three existential modes of concern, namely conspicuousness, obtrusiveness and obstinacy, which will be helpful for understanding infrastructures as conflictual terrains as well as for thinking through people’s reconfigurations of aspirations in general. In other words, Heidegger describes three different modes of possible breakdowns that interrupt the course of everyday life in such a way that one is compelled to reflect upon one’s subjectivities and, equally important, upon the things themselves. The article will thus focus on how these in/visibilities are mobilized and situated within ethnographic accounts which I am drawing from readings and fieldwork experiences in South Africa.
2019-01-14
English
article
Martin Heidegger
2018-06-14
in/visibility
In/visible Infrastructure: Thinking (along) with Martin Heidegger about Infrastructural Breakdowns in South Africa
https://doi.org/10.17192/meta.2018.10.7586
2018-06-14
application/pdf
2018
PRESERVATION_MASTER
VIEW
PDF
PRESERVATION_MASTER
application/pdf
7640
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7640