Gegenexpert*innen: Umwelt, Aktivismus und die regionalen Epistemologien des Widerstandes

With the demand for “counter-knowledge” in the social movements of the 1970s and 1980s, “counter-experts” became an integral part of politics. In the field of environmental activism, counter-experts were particularly well represented in regions and agglomerations with high levels of industrial pollution. This essay argues that awareness correlated with a mode of knowledge production that was typical for the environmental sciences in the twentieth century. The history of the environmental sciences throughout that period was shaped by regional epistemologies, often emerging in the context of large-scale infrastructural projects. Many counter-experts therefore had strong ties with the field of the environmental sciences. The article traces three influential counter-experts in the Frankfurt Main region by 1980: the pastor Kurt Oeser; scientific green activist Jutta Ditfurth; and the project of a “social natural science” related to the Darmstadt philosopher Gernot Böhme.ISSN:0036-6978ISSN:1420-914

Flughafen Kloten: Anatomie eines komplizierten Ortes

Flughäfen stehen für Mobilität, flows, Geschichtslosigkeit, Kommerz. Tatsächlich sind sie auf vielfältige Weise mit ihrer Umwelt verflochten, denn sie sind komplexe Gefüge, in denen sich Technik und Natur, Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Vergangenheit und Zukunft vermengen. Æther #1 untersucht einen solchen komplizierten Ort: den Flughafen Zürich-Kloten

Encounters in Borderlands: Borderlining Animals and Technology at Frankfurt Airport

Focusing on a global hub of aviation, Frankfurt Airport, this essay examines encounters between animals and technology in airport operation. In order to understand how airport practices constantly negotiate the borders with local environments or even produce new ones, we draw on Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of “borderlands.” Extending this notion from human to nonhuman inhabitants and passengers of airports opens up for novel possibilities to apprehend the affective dimension in the life-technology intersections at airports. In this sense, the airport is a site of multiple borderlands, producing intersections that include material and imaginative, sometimes violent, boundary drawing. We examine a broad set of multispecies borders and “borderlining” practices, their material cultures, and affective economies. What kind of local, historical legacies do airports struggle with and how do they cope with the underlying tensions of partially connected sites, sectors, and spaces? Throughout the essay, we historicize three encounters of the aviation infrastructure and its living environments and their affective economies: borderlining the airfield, borderlining the animal passenger, and borderlining the animal intruder. These examples highlight different modes of encounters, like clashes, coexistence, and care

Editorial

ISSN:2673-500

AEther: A research and writing workshop in Science and Technology Studies

The aim of this teaching project is to design and develop an innovative, internetbased science magazine in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS): www.aether.ethz.ch. Students have the opportunity to critically engage with the future of digital scientific publishing, both conceptually and practically.ISSN:2624-7984ISSN:2624-799

Publizieren im Umbruch: Ein Austausch zwischen dem intercom Verlag und infoclio.ch

ISSN:1420-435

Predictive information and explorative behavior of

autonomous robot