Course detail

Urban STS: technology, Infrastructure and the City

FA-TIC-ZEAcad. year: 2025/2026

This course is an advanced seminar on city as a result of interaction and co-evolution of not only human, but also non-human actors – technical artifacts, non-human species, urban planning principles and solutions, etc. It gives sociological knowledge and tools to analyze multiplicities of socio-technical processes as contested and negotiated by a variety of stakeholders – technical corporations, urban administrations, non-governmental organizations, citizens, etc.

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

3

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Andrei Vazyanau, Ph.D.

Department

European Humanities University ()

Aims

  • Understanding of difference between approaches of urban history, critical urban studies, and urban STS
  • Understanding of Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach
  • To learn to apply STS conceptual frameworks to students’ own analysis of city-technology relations
  • To get acquainted with tendencies and cases of citizens’ participation in technoscientific issues.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

  • Participation in seminar and forum discussions (40 %, during the semester)
  • Essay (25 %, in the mid semester)
  • Final essay (35%, at the end of the semester)
  • Failure to meet deadlines – minus 1 mark for each week of delay

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Aibar, E., Bijker, W. E. (1997). Constructing a City: The Cerdà Plan for the Extension of (EN)
Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of planners, 35(4), 216-224. (EN)
Barcelona. Science, technology & human values, 22(1), 3-30. (EN)
Bruhèze, A.A., Oldenziel, R. (2011). Contested Spaces: Bicycle Lanes in Urban Europe, 1900-1995. Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, 1(2), 29-49. (EN)
Callon, M., Burchell, G., Lascoumes, P., Brathe Y. (2001). Acting in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technological Democracy, MIT Press (Chapters 1, and 7) (EN)
Callon, M. (1989). Society in the Making: The Study of Technology as a Tool for Sociological Analysis. In Bijker, W.E., Hughes, T.P., Pinch, T. (Eds.), The Social Construction of Technological Systems. New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (Fourth printing, 1993) (pp. 83-101). Cambridge MA: MIT Press. (EN)
Coutard, O., Guy, S. (2007). STS and the City: Politics and Practices of Hope. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 32(6), 713-734. (EN)
Ertiö, T. P. (2015). Participatory Apps for Urban Planning - Space for Improvement. Planning Practice & Research, 30(3), 303-321. (EN)
Farias, I. (2010). Introduction: decentering the object of urban studies. In Farias, I., Bender, T. (Eds.). (2010). Urban Assemblages: How Actor-Network Theory Changes Urban Studies. London and New York: Routledge. (EN)
Graham, S., Marvin, S. (2001). Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition. London and New York: Routledge (Introduction). (EN)
Hommels, A. (2005). Studying Obduracy in the City: Toward a Productive Fusion between Technology Studies and Urban Studies. Science, technology & human values, 30(3), 323-351. (EN)
Hård, M., & Misa, T. J. (2008). Introduction. In Hård, M., & Misa, T. J (Eds.). Urban Machinery: Inside Modern European Cities (pp. 1-20). Cambridge MA: MIT Press. (EN)
Hughes, Th. (1998). Technological Momentum. In Johnson, D. G., & Wetmore, J. M. (Eds). Technology and society building our sociotechnical future (2009) (pp. 141-150). Cambridge MA.: MIT Press. (EN)
Hughes, Th. (2012). The Evolution of Large Technological Systems. In, W.E. Bijker, T.P. Hughes & T. Pinch (Eds.), The Social Construction of Technological Systems. New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (pp. 51-82). Cambridge MA.: MIT Press. (EN)
Law, J. (1992). Notes on the Theory of the Actor-Network: Ordering, Strategy, and Heterogeneity. Systems Practice, 5, 379-393. (EN)
Moss, T. (2014). Socio-technical change and the politics of urban infrastructure: managing energy in Berlin between dictatorship and democracy. Urban Studies, 51(7), 1432-1448. (EN)
Pineda A. V. (2010). How do we co-produce urban transport systems and the city? The case of Transmilenio and Bogotá. In Farias, I., Bender, T. (Eds.). (2010). Urban Assemblages: How ActorNetwork Theory Changes Urban Studies. London and New York: Routledge. (EN)
Pinch T. J., Bijker W.E. (2012). The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit Each Other. In Bijker, W.E., Hughes, T.P., Pinch, T. (Eds.), The Social Construction of Technological Systems. New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (Fourth printing, 1993) (pp. 17-50). Cambridge MA: MIT Press. (EN)
Söderström, O., Paasche, T., Klauser, F. (2014). Smart cities as corporate storytelling. City, 18(3), 307-320. (EN)
Vanolo, A. 2014. “Smartmentality: The Smart City as Disciplinary Strategy”. Urban Studies, 51 (5): 883–898. (EN)
Winner, L. (1980). Do Artifacts Have Politics?. Daedalus, 109(1), 121-136. (EN)

Recommended reading

Not applicable.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme NE_INUS Master's 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

7 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Andrei Vazyanau, Ph.D.

Syllabus

1. Introduction to the Studies on Science, Technology, and Society. Key principles [1 hour
2. Bringing the city into the focus of the Science and Technology Studies [1 hour]
3. Social construction of urban technology [1 hour]
4. Large Technical Systems in the City [1 hour]
5. Urban assemblages. Actor-Network Theory and urban studies [1 hour]
6. Smart cities in STS perspective [1 hour]
7. Public participation in urban planning and governance [1 hour]

Seminar

9 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Andrei Vazyanau, Ph.D.

Syllabus

2. Bringing the city into the focus of the Science and Technology Studies [2 hours]
3. Social construction of urban technology [2 hour]
4. Large Technical Systems in the City [1 hour]
5. Urban assemblages. Actor-Network Theory and urban studies [2 hours]
6. Smart cities in STS perspective [1 hour]
7. Public participation in urban planning and governance [1 hour]