InfoStrom: Learning information infrastructures for crisis management in case of medium to large electrical power breakdowns

One of the most important infrastructures in modern industrialized societies is the electricity network. Due to its fundamental role for many aspects of our everyday life, power infrastructures manifest a strong dependence between power suppliers and customers. Customers take the infrastructure for granted; it appears mostly invisible to them as long as it works, but in the case of breakdowns in power supply customers become aware of the dependence on electricity. They join professional actors in the recovery and coping work with regard to the electricity breakdown: Maintenance workers of the power provider, police, firefighters, red cross, etc. These institutions are professionalized for dealing with such situations, but the people affected by a power outage also need to be considered as actors

Constructivism and the Traditions of the „Historik“

The present article undertakes a systematic exposition of three divergent domains, ranging from core topics of radical constructivism up to current options of the historical sciences. In the first part, a constructivist explication of various concepts is performed which centres around notions like memory, remembering, time or communication. In a second step, a brief review is presented on major perspectives with respect to the philosophy of history, starting from the unexpectedly modern views within the enlightenment period and leading to the objective approaches of German historicism and, finally, to the current postobjectivist traditions. In a final section, two radically different options for contemporary historical sciences are outlined, namely, first, a literary departure of historiography and, second, a new orientation of the historical sciences as a theory of large-scale dynamical systems.  The present article undertakes a systematic exposition of three divergent domains, ranging from core topics of radical constructivism up to current options of the historical sciences. In the first part, a constructivist explication of various concepts is performed which centres around notions like memory, remembering, time or communication. In a second step, a brief review is presented on major perspectives with respect to the philosophy of history, starting from the unexpectedly modern views within the enlightenment period and leading to the objective approaches of German historicism and, finally, to the current postobjectivist traditions. In a final section, two radically different options for contemporary historical sciences are outlined, namely, first, a literary departure of historiography and, second, a new orientation of the historical sciences as a theory of large-scale dynamical systems

Konstruktion und Rekonstruktion - Zum Verhältnis von Systemtheorie und objektiver Hermeneutik

Bora A. Konstruktion und Rekonstruktion - Zum Verhältnis von Systemtheorie und objektiver Hermeneutik. In: Rusch G, Schmidt SJ, eds. Konstruktivismus und Sozialtheorie. Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft. Vol 1099. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp; 1994: 360

Die Bedeutung einer konstruktivistischen Theorie sozialen Handelns für die Medienforschung

Sutter T, Charlton M. Die Bedeutung einer konstruktivistischen Theorie sozialen Handelns für die Medienforschung. In: Rusch G, Schmidt SJ, eds. Konstruktivismus in der Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. DELFIN 1997. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp; 1999: 79-113