Sociology of construction sites. Transformative processes in everyday life

• Applicant: Dr. Christine Neubert
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551316156

The ethnographic research project examines road construction sites as a common and transformative practice in everyday life. Following on from cultural studies explorations of major construction sites as symbols of social change, social science studies on construction sites as places of work and infrastructure, and engineering perspectives on construction sites as the result of a planning process, the project pursues a praxeological-ethnomethodological research approach that analyzes how exactly construction measures are implemented in roads. Road construction sites are considered as a situation in cities that, on the one hand, can strongly affect the everyday lives of human and non-human participants and, on the other hand, is linked to the environment in its processes and practices and materially impacts on it. The built environment and everyday practices are changing. The project aims to theorize the transformation of everyday spaces in relation to the temporalities of the construction site, its various phases of preparation, installation, implementation and acceptance. The project thus examines road construction sites as an everyday site of transformative processes and contributes to thinking construction work and processes of structural change and the adaptation of everyday practices together and to highlighting mutual interdependencies and demarcations as a significant social practice, especially in densely populated areas.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Norway, Switzerland
• Cooperation Partners: Lars Frers; Professor Dr. Tobias Röhl