Past-Proofing Infrastructure Futures: Usable Histories of Urban Technology Today

• Applicant: Professor Timothy Moss, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 527675722

In increasingly urgent debates about climate, environmental and societal crises, talk of the future is drowning out consideration of the past. The value of history as a compass for societal orientation is being all-too-readily overlooked. The proposed research project uses the case of infrastructure to demonstrate how history can be used as an experiential resource to help navigate the multiple crises we are facing today. It contends that the valid call to future-proof infrastructure systems needs to draw on a sound, critical and inclusive understanding of the past if it is to be effective: a process characterized here as ‘past-proofing’ infrastructure futures. The project combines three strands of scholarship – on usable pasts, on the history of technology and on urban infrastructures as historically mediated sociotechnical entanglements – to produce a conceptually grounded, methodologically innovative and empirically rich analysis of usable histories of urban technology, drawing on usable past initiatives worldwide for inspiration. The overarching purpose of this project is to generate knowledge on how the past can be mobilized, critically and productively, to help shape transformative pathways for urban infrastructure systems of energy and water, using Berlin as an empirical case study and site for knowledge dissemination. The project pursues four core objectives: first, to develop a robust, nuanced and inclusive understanding of the concept and practice of usable pasts, based on a wide-ranging review of academic literature, projects and networks, second, to analyse and refine methods for elucidating and disseminating usable pasts, third, to co-generate usable infrastructure histories for Berlin in close partnership with infrastructure professionals, policymakers and knowledge intermediaries and fourth, to initiate and consolidate a global research network on usable pasts. The work programme, comprising six work packages (WP), embeds empirical research on Berlin’s urban technology history (WP3) within the broader context of research on usable pasts (WP1) and an analysis of existing usable past projects and networks from around the world (WP2) so as to explore and test applications for usable pasts with local stakeholders (WP4), derive generic findings for scholarship on the history of technology and urban and infrastructure studies (WP5) and establish an international research network on usable pasts capable of sustaining scholarship beyond the project lifetime (WP6). The project team will interact continuously with practitioner partners (utilities and museums in Berlin) to ensure the project’s feasibility in delivering truly usable pasts to providers, policymakers and users of urban infrastructure services.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants