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Instructors: Prof. Dr. phil. Mikael Hard; Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jochen Monstadt; Bérénice Bon
Event type:
Lecture
Org-unit: Dept. 02 - Institute of History
Displayed in timetable as:
VL TG 1
Subject:
Crediting for:
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | -
Official Course Description:
The growing vulnerability of urban societies through their complex technical networks is a controversial topic—both in the Global North and the South. In African cities, e.g., service provision is often characterized by regular interruptions, breakdowns and failures of centralized networks. While various studies of African cities have pointed to the inequalities in accessing networked services and the creative answers that their shortcomings have provoked, there have been few attempts to discuss what we—from a global perspective—might learn from these investigations when it comes to our ability to prevent and to prepare ourselves for infrastructural breakdowns and failures. Generally speaking, urban infrastructure systems reveal surprising similarities to socio-technical characteristics that are usually promoted in the debate on critical infrastructures and urban resilience, namely a shift toward more diverse, flexible, adaptive and redundant systems. Against this background, the interdisciplinary lecture series addresses the vulnerability and resilience of urban infrastructures in African cities. Which failures and crises do urban infrastructures in Africa show? How is the prevention of and preparedness for urban infrastructure failures being organized? What insights does resilience thinking bring to the understanding of the dynamics of urban change in Africa in terms of planning, governance and socio-spatial inclusion or exclusion?
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