Michael Guggenheim

Research Interests:

My work thus far has been defined by different yet connected themes relating to the relationship between experts and lay people, the role of objects for this relationship and on methodical and theoretical innovation derived from the combination of science studies with sociological theory. I am currently directing an ERC-funded project „Organising Disaster: Civil Protection and the Population“, which looks at how disaster experts conceive of the population. Previously, I have worked on change of use of buildings and how materiality and use interrelate. Before that I studied environmental experts. I also work with my colleagues Bernd Kräftner and Judith Kröll on an approach that we call “incubation” that combines sociology, STS and art. Currently we are working on a project „In the Event of... Anticipatory and Participatory Politics of Emergency Provision“. Previously, I was a co-curator of „die wahr/falsch inc.“, an exhibition on science and the public in Vienna.

Projects

Michael Guggenheim: Organizing Disaster: Civil Protection and the Population

When disasters hit, the state sends specialised organisations to cope with the situation. These organisations are often hierarchical and they have great powers to re-organize the population, to tell people where to go, to give or withhold both material and other forms of help. Disaster situations are thus in many ways pre-structured by the programmes of these organisations and how they conceptualize the population. 

Michael Guggenheim seeks to analyze in his project „Organizing Disaster: Civil Protection and the Population“ the encounter between civil protection as state organisation and the population. What happens when civil protection encounters the population in case of disasters? How does civil protection conceive of the population and how does it influence what happens in case of disasters? Is the population seen as uniform or as composed of different groups? How are these groups addressed? Does civil protection simply attempt to restore a previous state or change society into a given direction? How does the population conceive of civil protection in turn? 

By drawing on Science and Technology Studies civil protection is analysed as a knowledge-based, organised attempt to order society with the help of various technologies. The project seeks to answer the above questions by combining document analysis of civil protection manuals, participant observation of civil protection trainings and qualitative interviews in the aftermath of flood-disasters. The empirical fields are England, Switzerland and India, to allow for comparison of different forms of centralization and professionalization of civil protection organisations.

Source of funding: European Research Council (ERC) starting grant
Total sum: ca. 1 Mio Euro

personal homepage
http://www.migug.net