Events

This conference is jointly organized by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology – Halle, University of Heidelberg, and National University of Singapore. This event is funded by the German Research Council (DFG) through the Shaping Asia Initiative.

Asia is seeing the implementation of infrastructural forms that appear strikingly similar across sites, from roads over seawalls or plantations to digital surveillance technology. As dis/similar forms, these and other infrastructures not only appear to shape local or national politics, they also play a critical role in scaffolding contemporary Asia as a whole, likely shaping its emergent futures. Against this background, this conference explores the use of comparison for grappling with infrastructures. Based on ethnographic research on infrastructures spread across Asia, we aim at exploring the use of comparison for analyzing actual making of infrastructures, for theorizing the development of infrastructural forms and for rethinking Asia.

1. This conference aims at shedding new light on the actual making of infrastructures by discussing how specific infrastructures fare in different contexts. What kinds of negotiations or improvisations do we see across localized efforts of implementing, say, border infrastructures? To what degree is the way infrastructures work in given localities shaped by national or supranational ‘sociotechnological imaginaries’ (Jasanoff and Kim 2013)? How does the implementation of complex and porous infrastructures impact what Asia is becoming as differently situated actors navigate economic restructuring and ecological crises?
2. Zooming in on how infrastructures fare as they hit the ground also allows vistas into the ongoing development of new infrastructural forms. What do we learn about the creation of newness as we think across sites of implementation of dis/similar infrastructures? What does ethnographic attention to the ways by which concrete infrastructures spread across sites, regions or nations allow us to say about visions of incremental improvement and ruination, about leapfrogging and recursive experiences of failing and learning?
3. Exploring infrastructures spread across Asia allows unique vantage points for rethinking Asia. What kind of visions of Asia do particular infrastructures entail? How do infrastructural interventions contribute to experiences that might or might not count as Asian? To what extent do infrastructures scaffold Asia’s futures, and refract it differently in scattered locations and contexts?

Keynote Speakers:
Associate Professor Mikkel Bunkenborg, University of Copenhagen
Professor Michael Schnegg, University of Hamburg

For more information on the Shaping Asia Initiative, please visit http://shapingasia.net/.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

The two-day conference will be structured around keynotes, panels and experimental engagements with Singapore’s urban environment.

We invite proposals for empirically grounded presentations exploring infrastructures across Asia (duration of 20 minutes). This could involve comparing across field sites situated within areas or nations, as well as across the region. We welcome submissions from researchers at all career stages and disciplinary backgrounds, exploring the use of comparison for analyzing the actual making of infrastructures, for theorizing the development of infrastructural forms and for rethinking Asia.  We are particularly interested in receiving proposals from scholars based in Asia.

Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract (maximum 300 words), and a brief personal biography (about 200 words) for submission by 30 April 2026. Please submit your proposal to harms@eth.mpg.de, using the form available on the website. Authors of selected proposals will be notified in mid May 2026.

This conference will be held in person. Full or partial airfare funding will be offered to overseas participants, as well as three nights of accommodation in Singapore. Please indicate your need for funding support in the proposal form.

CONFERENCE CONVENORS

Prof Ursula RAO
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology – Halle

Dr Arne HARMS
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology – Halle

Prof Anja SENZ
University of Heidelberg

Assoc Prof Jiat-Hwee CHANG
Asia Research Institute & Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore