SPP 1448 Knowledge Transfer Project - Curriculum Development

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Richard Rottenburg
• Subject Area: African, American and Oceania Studies ; Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2016 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 317654185

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

The knowledge transfer project Curriculum Development emerged from the DFG Special Priority Programme "Creativity and Adaptation in Africa" (SPP 1448) and pursued two aims through two interconnected components. The first supported the development of an e-learning tool at an African university as part of a practice-oriented implementation phase. At the same time, the intervention itself became the subject of critical inquiry. This gave rise to the second component, which fostered further research in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) on the African continent and culminated in a substantial publication initiative. The first component thus combined the practical translation of circulating technologies with their critical examination. It developed a software solution tailored to local conditions, enabling access to online knowledge resources and thereby transforming the traditional seminar format. STS literature was rendered more accessible and simultaneously embedded in a technical framework that exemplified the project’s intellectual goals through applied learning. This dual process was documented and critically reflected upon, generating insights for the methodological advancement of the overall approach. The outcome was both a functioning elearning tool and theoretical and methodological contributions concerning the localisation of such tools in specific settings. The second component aimed to encourage students and faculty at African universities to critically engage with the emergence of new sociotechnical assemblages through processes of translation. This resulted in academic writing and publishing initiatives that further anchored the project’s objectives within the scholarly landscape.

Publications

• "'Give work, not aid': Digitale Fabrikarbeit in Norduganda." In Berliner Blätter: Ethnographische und ethnologische Beiträge zum Thema: „Digitale Arbeitskulturen: Rahmungen, Effekte, Herausforderungen", 82. Panama Verlag
  Umlauf, René
  
• Introduction. Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 1: Metrics, 1-23. BRILL.
  Rottenburg, Richard
  
• ‘Graduates-as-a-Service’: Running a Data Factory in Northern Uganda. Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 1: Metrics, 79-95. BRILL.
  Umlauf, René
  
• On Technicisation: How to Create a Zone of Decolonial Translation?. Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 2: Technicisation, 1-52. BRILL.
  Rottenburg, Richard & Riedke, Eva
  
• Project Time, Lifetime, and Extra Time: Technicisation of Mass HIV Treatment Programmes and the Acceleration of Pharmacy in Uganda. Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 2: Technicisation, 171-192. BRILL.
  Park, Sung-Joon
  
• Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 1: Metrics. BRILL.
  Rottenburg, Richard; Ballim, Faeeza & Kotzen, Bronwyn
  
• Translating Technology in Africa. Volume 2: Technicisation. BRILL.
  Rottenburg, Richard & Riedke, Eva