Contribution short abstract:

My contribution takes an infrastructural approach to environmental history to illustrate ways of engaging wider publics with historical knowledge. I draw on my recent films, a ‘walkshop’ and a digital tour on Berlin’s infrastructure history and an ongoing project on usable infrastructure pasts.

Contribution long abstract:

I would like to enrich the roundtable with recent experiences in engaging diverse publics in my research on Berlin’s infrastructure history and ongoing work that systematizes ways of mobilizing ‘usable pasts’ to inform debates on sustainable futures. Whilst writing my book "Remaking Berlin. A History of the City through Infrastructure, 1920-2020", I was involved in the production of a series of short films about my research that take viewers to intriguing sites of infrastructure history where they meet infrastructure specialists and hear my reflections from an academic perspective (https://lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/das_unsichtbare_berlin?nav_id=8405). I also co-convened a workshop of practitioners and politicians to explicitly discuss the relevance of my findings on Berlin’s infrastructure history for contemporary challenges to the city’s sustainable development. Since the book’s publication, I have organized a ‘walkshop’ for the general public that takes people to sites of urban technology to explain their political and environmental relevance in the past, but also for the future. This tour has since gone digital, comprising aerial and 360-degree photography, historical images and audio inputs by myself (https://www.36o.de/remaking-berlin/). Currently, I am working on a DFG-funded project, entitled “Past-proofing Infrastructure Futures: Usable Histories of Urban Technology Today”, that unpacks the concept of usable infrastructure pasts and employs diverse modes of co-productive engagement. These include representing infrastructure in museums, sensitizing utility staff to the value of history and holding workshops on usable infrastructure pasts with local policy makers and infrastructure managers.