B8907 - Knowledge, Infrastructures and Climate (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will learn the main concepts and approaches related to the material and social aspects of knowledge and the role of knowledge infrastructures in society. Students will be able to understand how knowledge is organized and maintained in practice and how actors are enabled or not, exploring various settings where specific regimes of truth or ignorance are constituted and shaped. In particular, students will develop a basic understanding of climate knowledge and its historical origins, learning how it is connected with climate politics and economy, as well as how climate disinformation is produced.

Course contents

The course follows a transdisciplinary approach and is centered on the study of the material and social dimension of knowledge. This is the meaning of the concept of "knowledge infrastructures," understood as consolidated networks of people, artifacts and institutions for the generation, sharing, and maintenance of specific knowledge about the human and natural world.

• What are knowledge infrastructures?
• What kind of knowledge is produced and materialized from infrastructures?
• What type of actors do they mobilize?
• What technopolitical orders do they make durable?
• How to repair or mantain knowledge infrastructures?
• What happens when a knowledge infrastructure reaches a breaking point?
• What is the relationship between infrastructures, knowledge, non-knowledge, and digitization?

During the course we will observe knowledge infrastructures at work in different fields related to climate, including scientific knowledge, local knowledge, health, work, migration, energy.

Focus: knowledge infrastructures of ice and fire

In this edition, part of the course will be dedicated to the natures, politics and cultures of the cryosphere and pyrosphere and to the knowledge infrastructures built to govern and understand them.

Why ice? First, because we will see less and less of it. Second, because ice represents an "interscalar vehicle": ice allows us to follow the tangle of practices, knowledge, and relationships straddling politics, economy, society, science, technology, between the human and the non-human, life and death, putting us in contact with the deep past and future of the planet.

Why fire? Because it is everywhere. From the progressive rise in the planet's average temperatures to fires that devastate increasingly extensive territories, to energy policies based on fossil fuels and investments in nuclear fusion, to wars, fire - in its technoscientific, social, economical and political forms - is a defining element of the Anthropocene. Like ice, fire crosses the boundaries between local and global, between matter and power, past and future, questioning us about the contradictions of "carbon democracies" and about issues of energy and climate justice.

Readings/Bibliography

REQUIRED READINGS:

Study of the following articles and specified chapters from the following texts is mandatory:

• Bowker, Geoffrey C. and Star, Susan Leigh (1999) Sorting things out: classification and its consequences, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. (CHAPTER 1)
• Edwards, Paul N. (2013) A vast machine: computer models, climate data, and the politics of global warming, Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England, The MIT Press. (CHAPTERS 1, 8, 9, 10)
• Hecht, Gabrielle (2018) Interscalar Vehicles for an African Anthropocene: On Waste, Temporality, and Violence, in "Cultural Anthropology", 33 (1), pp. 109–141.
• Velkova, Julia (2021) Thermopolitics of data: cloud infrastructures and energy futures, in "Cultural Studies", 35 (4–5), pp. 663–683.
• Lemke, Thomas (2024) Anticipating and suspending: the chronopolitics of cryopreservation, in "BioSocieties", 19 (4), pp. 556–573.
• Mitchell, Timothy (2011) Carbon democracy: political power in the age of oil, London, New York, Verso. (CHAPTERS 1, 7)

Study of one text of choice from the following is mandatory:

• Conway, Erik M. and Oreskes, Naomi (2014) Merchants of doubt, London, Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Cruikshank, Julie (2005) Do glaciers listen? Local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination, University of British Columbia Press.
• Denis, Jérôme and Pontille, David (2025) The care of things ethics and politics of maintenance, Cambridge, polity.
• Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste (2024) More and More and More, Penguin Random House UK.
• Hecht, Gabrielle (2023) Residual Governance: How South Africa Foretells Planetary Futures, Duke University Press

Teaching methods

The course will be conducted through lectures, encouraging discussion and interaction during the class using audiovisual materials and texts shared in Virtuale. This can be done through raising hands during the lecture or at the end, as well as through group exercises. After the lecture, interaction will also be possible through the forum active on virtuale.unibo.it.

There may be guest lecturers invited during the course to speak on specific topics. Additionally, if there are seminars and conferences relevant to our subjects taking place at the department, you will be invited to attend, but it will be optional.

During the course, particularly on Wednesdays, the lessons will have a laboratory-style approach with group and/or individual exercises and presentations, as well as instructions on essay writing.

Finally, it's possible that some lessons of the course may beintegrated by events taking place outside of regular class hours in the form of film screenings organized as part of the course, in movie theaters.

Assessment methods

Given the learning objectives, the assessment aims to evaluate:

• the student's degree of knowledge of the indicated texts;
• the understanding of the problem of knowledge in its social and material complexity;
• the ability to present the topics of the course in an orderly and clear manner, orally or in writing depending on the chosen format;
• the critical capacity that the student is able to exercise on the proposed topics.

Active participation is encouraged and will be duly taken into account in the overall assessment.

The assessment of learning is consistent with the knowledge and skills to be acquired and consists of two compulsory components, a written paper and an oral exam, both marked out of thirty. Both components must be passed in order to pass the exam. The paper must be submitted before the exam session; the oral exam takes place on the exam date and covers both the discussion of the paper and the exam syllabus. The exercises and the interim presentation at the end of the course receive formative feedback and do not constitute a separate assessment.

1. Written paper

The written paper applies the analytical tools of the course to the analysis of empirical cases relating to the cryosphere and the pyrosphere through the lens of knowledge infrastructures, and must include: the formulation of the research question and the description of the case addressed; the analysis of the literature and of the corpus of sources; the description of the ways in which the material organisation of knowledge develops; the analysis of the spatial and temporal scales mobilised; the consideration of possible breakdowns, processes of invisibilisation, and practices of repair and maintenance; a reasoned conclusion. The group work carried out during the exercises has a preparatory function: the paper submitted for assessment is individual.

The paper must be submitted via Virtuale at least 10 days before the exam session for which the student registers. Those who need their paper to be marked by a specific deadline (for example in view of graduation) are asked to indicate this upon submission, in any case allowing at least 20 days for marking.

Writing and editorial guidelines. The guidelines to be followed regarding citations, notes and the structure of the paper are available at this link. [https://corsi.unibo.it/laurea/Filosofia/prova-finale/nuove-norme-redazionali-cds-in-filosofia-6.pdf/@@download/file/Nuove%20norme%20redazionali%20CdS%20in%20filosofia%20%286%29.pdf]

2. Individual oral exam

All oral exams begin with the presentation of a topic chosen by the student from within the syllabus: students should be prepared to speak for about 15 minutes, and may make use of notes, the texts and any other useful resource. The chosen topic accounts for approximately two thirds of the oral exam. This will be followed by one or two questions on other aspects of the syllabus: a concept or an author, a comparative question between approaches, the application of an analytical tool to the case of the cryosphere or the pyrosphere or to another case addressed in the syllabus, and the discussion of the paper submitted. Students may be asked to read and comment on a passage.

Aids

During the oral exam the use of support materials is allowed, and students may keep their own paper at hand during the discussion. Due account will be taken of the linguistic difficulties of Erasmus students or of students whose first language is not Italian; upon request, the paper may be written in English.

Assessment criteria and distinction between attending and non-attending students

Students who attend at least 75% of the classes are considered attending students.

Attending students

• Individual paper of 2,000–2,500 words: 40% of the final mark.
• Individual oral exam: 60% of the final mark.

Non-attending students

• Individual paper of 3,000–3,500 words, based on a broader corpus and with an independent reconstruction of the context: 50% of the final mark.
• Individual oral exam, also including the discussion of an additional supplementary reading chosen from those indicated in the bibliography: 50% of the final mark.

The parameters assessed in the paper and the components of the mark are the following:

• Understanding of the texts considered (knowledge of the content, ability to grasp their most relevant information and their deeper meaning): up to 11 points out of thirty.
• Correctness of the writing (spelling, syntax, punctuation, command of disciplinary and general vocabulary): up to 6 points out of thirty.
• Clarity, thematic relevance, scope and organic quality of the presentation (good articulation of the paper, ability to communicate information in a complete and clear way, without digressing): up to 5 points out of thirty.
• Logical consistency, quality and rigour of the argumentation: up to 4 points out of thirty.
• Originality of ideas and personal reflection (grasping the critical points of the texts, formulating objections, developing the insights present in the texts): up to 4 points out of thirty.
• Participation in classroom and online discussions: up to 1 point out of thirty.

Clarity, correctness of expression and originality of reflection are also assessed in the oral exam, according to analogous parameters.

Exam sessions

During the academic year 2026/2027, exam sessions are scheduled in the following months: May, June, July, September, October.

Registration for the exam takes place via AlmaEsami, within the established deadlines. Submission of the paper on Virtuale must comply with the 10-day deadline indicated above.

Use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in exams

As regards the assessment of learning, a limited, declared and non-substantial use of AI is allowed for support activities (summaries, rephrasing). Substantial use for carrying out parts of the exam is not permitted.

In particular, for the paper the following are allowed, unless otherwise indicated in the assignment: the preliminary generation of keywords or research questions; linguistic support and translation; formal revision of the text; the initial organisation of materials already identified and verified by the student.

Any such use must be declared in a short transparency note attached to the paper, specifying: the tool used; the purpose; the parts of the process involved; the way in which results, quotations and references have been verified.

In line with the University Policy for an ethical and responsible use of generative AI in teaching and research, responsibility for the content remains entirely with the student, who must be able to account for it (principles of centrality of the human being, honesty and transparency, accountability, accuracy, respect for rights, society and the environment).

It is not acceptable to present non-existent sources, unverified data or substantially automatically generated parts as the autonomous result of one's own work. Personal data, confidential materials or third-party content that cannot be lawfully used must not be entered into generative AI systems. The oral exam contributes to verifying the personal understanding and command of the content produced.

Students with disabilities and specific learning disorders

Students with disabilities or specific learning disorders are entitled to special adjustments according to their condition, subject to assessment by the University Service for Students with Disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders. Please do not contact the teacher directly, but contact the Service for an appointment. It will be the Service's responsibility to determine which adjustments are appropriate.

Further information is available at http://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Students are advised to contact the University office in good time. Any adjustments must in any case be submitted, 15 days in advance, to the approval of the teacher, who will assess their appropriateness also in relation to the learning objectives of the course.

Teaching tools

A complementary module on the university's e-learning platform (virtuale.unibo.it) is linked to the course. Through the platform, a discussion forum will be activated. The site will also be used for the distribution of additional materials and the notification of events or calendar changes. Those who wish to take this exam must enroll on Virtuale.

The slides presented during the lectures will be made available through this site.

Office hours

See the website of Claudio Coletta