PhD Student

• Critical infrastructures and society
• qualitative social research
• war and violence in cities

Functional Disruption of Critical Infrastructure due to Acts of War in Ukraine (Working Title)

With the strategic destruction and disruption of network-bound critical infrastructure, the vulnerability and criticality of the same became apparent, and thus their importance for urban social coexistence. With the attack of Russian troops on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the country entered a crisis. The social, political and economic relevance of the current, dynamic events in Ukraine is obvious, as they are accompanied by serious consequences not only in the country itself, but also globally. To name just a few: Gas shortages, price increases or global food supply crises. In order to contribute to the study of functional crises of infrastructure in the context of strategic violence in cities—using Ukraine as a case study—the following question will be addressed in the PhD project: What social and spatial impacts and dynamics does the failure of critical infrastructure due to acts of war in Ukraine produce? To answer the research question, the topics of the city, violence and infrastructures will be linked and explored from a sociological perspective. A mixed-methods approach combining qualitative interviews with experts and city residents as well as new digital methods of data collection will be used for the research. In this way social and spatial effects as well as the dynamic character of critical infrastructures as a result of their loss of function due to acts of war will be explored.