Richard Rottenburg

Richard RottenburgNetwork Member

Richard Rottenburg is Professor of Science and Technology Studies at WiSER at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (SA). At his former university in Halle (Germany), he founded the research network LOST, which focuses on the social study of law, organization, science and technology. Among his publications he is best known for his 2002 monograph on the construction of objectivity in heterogeneous trading zones within the global arena of development aid, which was published in English by MIT Press in 2009.

Current position
Professor
University affiliation
WiSER, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research

Research

Trained as an anthropologist in West Berlin in the 1970s, Richard conducted his first fieldwork in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan between 1978 and 1983, where he lived for three years in a Moro village on Mount Lebu. In 1991, he published a monograph on aspects of the monetization of the subsistence economy of the Moro community of Lebu. The outbreak of the civil war forced him to interrupt his work in Sudan until 2003.

After other disturbing, but promising experiences during the beginning of the final phase of apartheid in South Africa between 1984 and 1987, Richard became more deeply involved in issues of modernization and development, with a special focus on organization, technology, and future making. In the early 1990s, he turned to Science and Technology Studies (STS) and introduced this then new field to German anthropology. As a result of his new engagement, he published a monograph in 2002 on the construction of objectivity in a heterogeneous trading zone in Tanzania embedded in the global arena of development aid (published in English by MIT Press in 2009).

Since then, Richard’s work has foregrounded the development of material-semiotic orders and their (de)institutionalization. In this broad context, his research has specifically problematized practices of evidence production and their relation to infrastructures that solidify and circulate, or challenge and block, what goes as a matter of concern and for whom. At the horizon of his investigations, he asks how practices of evidence production and practices of making the future are intertwined. Methodologically, he seeks to contribute to a post-foundational understanding of empirical work conceived not as representation but as translation. In this vein, he is currently editing a series of volumes on “Translating Technology in Africa” with Brill Publishers.

Richard’s personal challenge is to finally return to the draft of his second Sudan volume, on the sustenance of life on Mount Lebu, which has been sitting in his drawer since 1991.

Publications

  • Rottenburg, Richard, Faeeza Ballim, and Bronwyn Kotzen (eds.) (2024) "Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 1: Metrics." Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV. → https://brill.com/display/title/65031
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2024) "Introduction" in Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 1: Metrics , edited by Richard Rottenburg, Faeeza Ballim, and Bronwyn Kotzen, 1-23. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV. → https://brill.com/display/book/9789004678354/BP000010.xml
  • Rottenburg, Richard, Enrico Ille, and Siri Lamoureaux (2021) "Nuba." in Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE , edited by Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, and Everett Rowson. Leiden: Brill. → http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_40350
  • Lamoureaux, Siri, and Richard Rottenburg (2021) "Doing postcolonial gender: An approach to justifying rights, resources and recognition." in Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society 4 (1). Thematic Cluster: Justifying Gender. → https://doi.org/10.1080/25729861.2021.1984040
  • Lamoureaux, Siri, and Richard Rottenburg (eds.) (2021) "Thematic Cluster: Justifying Gender." in Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society 4 (1).
  • Rottenburg, Richard, Oulimata Gueye, Julien McHardy, and Phillip Ziegler (eds.) (2021) "Digital Imaginaries: African Positions Beyond Binaries." Bielefeld & Berlin: Kerber. → https://zkm.de/de/publikation/digital-imaginaries-afrikanische-positionen-jenseits-des-binaeren
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2021) "Changing Codes in Search for Liminal Pathways." in Digital Imaginaries: African Positions Beyond Binaries , edited by Richard Rottenburg, Oulimata Gueye, Julien McHardy and Phillip Ziegler, 286-319. Bielefeld & Berlin: Kerber.
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2020) "Ein Übungsbericht und eine Frage an Matthias Kaufmann." in Denken und Handeln. Perspektiven der praktischen Philosophie und der Sprachphilosophie , edited by Andrej Krause and Danaë Simmermacher, 123-141. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.
  • Moradi, Fazil, and Richard Rottenburg (eds.) (2019) "Tele-evidence: On the Translatability of Modernity's Violence." in Critical Studies 4 (Special Issue).
  • Moradi, Fazil, and Richard Rottenburg (2019) "Tele-evidence: On the Translatability of Modernity's Violence." in Critical Studies 4: 5-23.
  • Farman, Abou, and Richard Rottenburg (2019) "Measures of future health, from the nonhuman to the planetary: An introductory essay." in Medicine Anthropology Theory 6 (3): 1–28. → https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.6.3.659
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2018) "Name und Benanntes: (Un)disziplinierte Verschiebungen." in What’s in a name: Wofür steht die Umbenennung der ehemaligen Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde in eine Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie?https://blog.uni-koeln.de/gssc-whatsinaname/2018/07/10/name-und-benanntes-undisziplinierte-verschiebungen/
  • Beisel, Uli, Sandra Calkins, and Richard Rottenburg (2018) "Divining, testing, and the problem of accountability." in HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 8 (1/2): 109–113. → http://lost-research-group.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Beisel-2018.pdf
  • Calkins, Sandra and Richard Rottenburg (2017) "Evidence, infrastructure and worth." in Infrastructures and Social Complexity: A Companion , edited by Penny Harvey, Casper Bruun Jensen, and Atsuro Morita, 253-265. London: Routledge.
  • Behrends, Andrea, Sung-Joon Park, and Richard Rottenburg (2016) "Replik auf Röhl." in Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie 35 (2): 313-317.
  • Riedke, Eva and Richard Rottenburg (2016) "Introduction." in The ordering power of narratives, Working Paper of the DFG Priority Programme 1448, Nr. 21, pp 5-16 , edited by Eva Riedke. → http://lost-research-group.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SPP1448_WP21_Riedke.pdf
  • Calkins, Sandra, Enrico Ille, and Richard Rottenburg (eds.) (2015) "Emerging orders in the Sudans." Bamenda and Buea: Langaa.
  • Rottenburg, Richard, Sally Engle Merry, Sung-Joon Park, and Johanna Mugler (eds.) (2015) "A world of indicators: The making of governmental knowledge through quantification." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Calkins, Sandra, Enrico Ille, Siri Lamoureaux, and Richard Rottenburg (2015) "Rethinking Institutional Orders in Sudan Studies: The Case of Land Access in Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur." in Canadian Journal of African Studies 49 (1): 175-195. → https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2014.963135
  • Calkins, Sandra, Enrico Ille, and Richard Rottenburg (2015) "Emergence and contestation of orders in the Sudans." in Emerging orders in the Sudans , edited by Sandra Calkins, Enrico Ille and Richard Rottenburg, 1-22. Bamenda and Buea: Langaa.
  • Ille, Enrico, Guma Kunda Komey, and Richard Rottenburg (2015) "Tragic entanglements: Vicious circles and acts of violence in South Kordofan." in Sudan's killing fields: Political violence and fragmentation , edited by Laura Nyantung Beny and Sondra Hale, 117-137. Trenton: Red Sea Press.
  • Rottenburg, Richard, and Sally Engle Merry (2015) "Introduction. A world of indicators: The making of governmental knowledge through quantification." in A world of indicators: The making of governmental knowledge through quantification , edited by Richard Rottenburg, Sally Engle Merry, Sung-Joon Park and Johanna Mugler, 1-33. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Behrends, Andrea, Sung-Joon Park, and Richard Rottenburg (eds.) (2014) "Travelling models in African conflict management: Translating technologies of social ordering." Leiden: Brill.
  • Gertel, Jörg, Richard Rottenburg, and Sandra Calkins (eds.) (2014) "Disrupting territories: Land, commodification and conflict in Sudan." Woodbridge: James Currey.
  • Behrends, Andrea, Sung-Joon Park, and Richard Rottenburg (2014) "Travelling models: Introducing an analytical concept to globalisation studies." in Travelling models in African conflict management: Translating technologies of social ordering , edited by Andrea Behrends, Sung-Joon Park and Richard Rottenburg, 1-42. Leiden: Brill.
  • Calkins, Sandra, and Richard Rottenburg (2014) "Getting credit for what you write? Conventions and techniques of citation in German Anthropology." in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 139: 99-130.
  • Calkins, Sandra, Richard Rottenburg, and Jörg Gertel (2014) "Disrupting territories: Commodification and its concequences." in Disrupting territories: Land, commodification and conflict in Sudan , edited by Jörg Gertel, Richard Rottenburg and Sandra Calkins, 1-30. Woodbridge: James Currey.
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2014) "Experimental engagements and metacodes." in Common Knowledge 20 (3): 540-548.
  • Kaufmann, Matthias, and Richard Rottenburg (2013) "Translation and cultural identity." in Homelands in translation: Summer school in Naples , edited by Michele Bernardini, Stefania De Lucia and Camilla Miglio. Civiltà del Mediterraneo, N.S, 229-348. Naples: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura.
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2013) "Ethnologie und Kritik." in Ethnologie im 21. Jahrhundert , edited by Thomas Bierschenk, Matthias Krings and Carola Lentz, 55-76. Berlin: Reimer.
  • Geissler, Paul Wenzel, Richard Rottenburg, and Julia Zenker (eds.) (2012) "Rethinking biomedicine and governance in Africa." Bielefeld: Transcript.
  • Geissler, Paul Wenzel, Richard Rottenburg, and Julia Zenker (2012) "21st century African biopolitics: Fuzzy fringes, cracks and undersides, neglected backwaters, and returning politics." in Rethinking biomedicine and governance in Africa , edited by Paul Wenzel Geissler, Richard Rottenburg and Julia Zenker, 7-19. Bielefeld: Transcript.
  • Schramm, Katharina, David Skinner, and Richard Rottenburg (eds.) (2011) "Identity Politics and the New Genetics: Re/Creating Categories of Difference and Belonging." Oxford: Berghahn.
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2011) "Sozialexperiment als neue Figuration von Wissenschaft, Politik und Markt im postkolonialen Afrika." in Globalisierung Süd , edited by Axel T. Paul, Alejandro Pelfini and Boike Rehbein, 156-183. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
  • Schramm, Katharina, David Skinner, and Richard Rottenburg (2011) "Introduction. Ideas in Motion: Making Sense of Identity and the New Genetics." in Identity Politics and the New Genetics: Re/Creating Categories of Difference and Belonging , edited by Katharina Schramm, David Skinner and Richard Rottenburg, 1-29. Oxford: Berghahn.
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2009) "Far-fetched facts: A parable of development aid." Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Rottenburg, Richard (2009) "Social and public experiments and new figurations of science and politics in Africa." in Postcolonial Studies 12 (4): 423-440.