BTU overview
Faculty 5
Chair of Technoscience Studies Universitätsprofessorin Dr. rer. nat. habil. Astrid Schwarz

Supervision Offers for Theses Topics for Bachelor and Master Theses

On this page, you will find several topics and suggestions for your Bachelor’s or Master’s theses if you are interested in writing it at the Chair of Technoscience Studies. In case you have any questions, feel free to ask the person, who is providing the specific topic, for more information.

You could also come up with own ideas for your final paper. Please take a look at the pages of Prof. Schwarz or the assistant professors to acquaint yourself with their respective fields of interest.

Vom Kohleausstieg zum Wasserstoffeinstieg – Soziotechnisches Experimentieren und Imaginationen From Coal Phase-Out to Hydrogen Phase-In—Sociotechnical Experimentation and Imagination

  • Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Im Rahmen des Kohleausstiegs sind in der Lausitz eine Reihe von Initiativen entstanden, die sich mit Techniken der Dekarbonisierung beschäftigen. Dazu gehört auch das Reallabor im Industriepark Schwarze Pumpe (bei Spremberg). Das Referenzkraftwerk wird im Sinne eines Prototyps für ein Wasserstoff-Speicherkraftwerk entwickelt, Ziel ist, grünen Wasserstoff für die Nutzung in den Sektoren Verkehr, Industrie und Wärme zu erzeugen. Das Format Reallabor soll kritisch reflektiert werden und der Prototyp als technisches Objekt im sich rasch verändernden Diskursfeld von Politik, Wissenschaft und Technik verortet werden. Es kann hier um die Analyse von Zukunftsnarrativen oder/und sogenannten soziotechnischen Imaginationen gehen oder um das Eigenleben technowissenschaftlicher Objekte.

As part of the coal phase-out, a number of initiatives have emerged in Lusatia that deal with decarbonization techniques. These include the real laboratory at the Schwarze Pumpe industrial park (near Spremberg). The reference power plant is being developed in the sense of a prototype for a hydrogen storage power plant; the aim is to produce green hydrogen for use in the transport, industry and heat sectors. The format of the real laboratory is to be critically reflected and the prototype is to be located as a technical object in the rapidly changing field of discourse of politics, science and technology. This can be about the analysis of future narratives or/and so-called socio-technical imaginaries or about the intrinsic life of technoscientific objects.

Aquatische Infrastrukturen in der Lausitz – aus der Perspektive eines technowissenschaftlichen Apparatus Aquatic Infrastructures in the Lausitz—From the Perspective of a Technoscientific Apparatus

  • Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Aus der Kohlebaulandschaft Lausitz entsteht seit einigen Jahrzehnten die größte künstliche Seenlandschaft Deutschlands. Welche konkreten Infrastrukturen sind hier bereits realisiert, welche aktuellen Schwierigkeiten treten auf, auch in der Vermittlung mit historischen Infrastrukturen (Stichwort Staudämme), welche Rolle spielt das Wasserdefizit und wie kann die Begrifflichkeit vom technowissenschaftlichen Apparatus genutzt werden, um diese radikale Veränderung in Landschaft und soziotechnischen Bedingungen angemessen zu beschreiben.

For several decades, the largest artificial lake landscape in Germany has been emerging from the coal mining landscape of Lusatia. Which concrete infrastructures have already been realized here, which current difficulties arise, also in the mediation with historical infrastructures (keyword dams), which role does the water deficit play and how can the concept ‘technoscientific apparatus’ be used to adequately describe this radical change in landscape and socio-technical conditions.

Transformation der historischen Gartenkultur in der Lausitz – Obst- und Weinbau seit dem 18. Jahrhundert Transformation of the Historical Garden Culture in Lusatia—Fruit Growing and Viticulture Since the 18th Century

  • Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Wein aus dem Lausitzer Tagebau? Obstexport aus der Lausitz nach Berlin und Schweden? Beides ist richtig, beides lässt sich belegen mit Quellen die bis mindestens ins 18. Jahrhundert zurückreichen. Es geht hier um die gärtnerische Technisierung der Lausitz und die damit verbundenen Kulturtechniken. Vergeben werden Themen zur historischen Aufarbeitung der Gartenkultur in der Lausitz, speziell in Stadt und Region Spremberg. Verschiedene Bearbeitungszeiträume sind möglich, der Fokus liegt auf der Epoche der Industrialisierung bis heute. Forschungsgegenstand ist die Untersuchung der Entwicklung von Nutzgärten, des Obst- und Weinbaus, sowie der stadtnahen Kulturlandschaft und die damit einhergehenden gärtnerischen Praxen und Kulturtechniken. Archivarbeit in Spremberg, Meißen und Dresden ist vorgesehen.

Wine from Lusatian open-cast mining? Fruit export from Lusatia to Berlin and Sweden? Both are correct, both can be proven with sources that go back at least to the 18th century. This is about the horticultural mechanization of Lusatia and the associated cultural techniques. Topics for the historical processing of the garden culture in the Lausitz, particularly in city and region Spremberg are assigned. Different periods of time are possible, the focus is on the epoch of industrialization until today. The object of research is the investigation of the development of urban gardening, viticulture and orcharding, as well as the cultural landscape close to the city and the accompanying horticultural practices and cultural techniques. Archival work in Spremberg, Meissen and Dresden is planned.

Geschichte der Technik- und Wissenschaftsforschung an der BTU (mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Allgemeinen Technikwissenschaft) History of Technology and Science Research at the BTU (with Special Consideration of the Technoscience Studies)

  • Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz

Die Technik- und Wissenschaftsforschung ist im universitären Fächerkanon in Deutschland gegenüber dem angelsächsischen Bereich erst mit einiger Verspätung angekommen. An der BTU Cottbus gab es bereits in den 1990er Jahren Bestrebungen, in enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, eine geistes- und sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung über Technik zu etablieren. Diese Aktivitäten waren sowohl institutionell wie inhaltlich sichtbar und schlugen sich nieder etwa in Gründungen von Instituten (Zentrum für Technik und Gesellschaft), Studiengängen (Kultur und Technik) und Professuren (Technikphilosophie, Technikgeschichte, Allgemeine Technikwissenschaft). Das Projekt ist mittelfristig angelegt und besteht in mehreren Teilprojekten, etwa dem Aufbau eines Archivs und einer Webseite, einer Institutionengeschichte, der Frage, wie Allgemeine Technikwissenschaft in der DDR betrieben wurde, usw. Für den Anfang suchen wir Interessierte zum Aufbau der Webseite und des Archivs (vor allem digital).

Research on technology and science has arrived in the university subject canon in Germany only with some delay compared to the Anglo-Saxon area. At the BTU Cottbus, there were already efforts in the 1990s to establish research on technology in the humanities and social sciences in close cooperation with the Association of German Engineers. These activities were visible both institutionally and in terms of content and were reflected, for example, in the founding of institutes (Center for Technology and Society), a study program (Culture and Technology) and professorships (philosophy of technology, history of technology, general science of technology). The project is medium-term and consists of several sub-projects, such as the development of an archive and a website, a history of institutions, the question of how technoscience studies were conducted in the GDR, etc.. For the beginning we are looking for interested people to build the website and the archive (especially digital).

Practices of Environmental Management Praktiken des Umweltmanagements

How do environmental managers do, whatever it is they do?

Using participant observation methods to study real-world practices of workers in environmental management, governance and administration.

How are tools and instruments of environmental management employed in practice?

Which technological an human resources are needed in that practice? Using ethnographic methods to study the practical requirements, premises, commitments and implications of these tools or instruments.

Extractivism, Conflict, Transformation Extraktivismus, Konflikt, Transformation

How are extractivist projects (especially mining) contested?

Using qualitative social research methods to study voices, arguments and other forms of expression of interests of conflicting actors.

How are natures and environments known, by which actor groups, in extracivist projects?

Using interviews, action research and/or participant observation, this study analyses the understandings and knowledges of natural and environmental objects by actors/groups, such as indigenous groups, miners, administrators.

Digital Society, Politics and Science Digitale Gesellschaft, Politik und Wissenschaft

How is privacy practiced online?

Using autoethnographic methods, the study analyses digital practices by users of computers (incl. smart phones).

How are scientific practices shaped by databases?

Using ethnographic study of laboratory work places, the study follows scientists and how databases take part in structuring their work.

Analytical Developments in Science and Technology Studies (STS) Analytische Entwicklungen in Technik- und Wissenschaftsforschung

These are literature-based studies of specific segments of STS readings.

  • How are data and numbers analysed?
  • How do postcolonial analytics develop?
  • How is Pierre Bourdieu’s work used analytically?
  • How is Helen Verran’s work used analytically?

Digitising Natural Heritage Objects in Museums Digitalisierung von Naturerbe-Objekten in Museen

How does digitalisation shape the way museums relate to their natural heritage? Asking this question invites engagement with studies of the ways nature and natural objects are imagined and constructed. It involves analysis of how particular techno-organisational choices in digitising heritage objects matter. Insofar as such digitisation is not (yet) implemented, the very promissory character of the imaginaries matter. With this supervision project, Associate Professor Dr. Ingmar Lippert likes to offer support in the theoretically informed analysis of material and semiotic practices as well as infrastructures that are mobilised in processes of digitising natural history objects in museums. Theoretically, this project sits between Museum Studies and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Thesis projects could generate empirical data drawing on interviews, ethnographic observation, or science, policy or technical documents.

Associate Professor Dr. Ingmar Lippert Ingmar Lippert can offer on average biweekly virtual supervision meetings that build on your status updates on your project progress.

Energy Poverty Policy in the European Union Energy Poverty Policy in der Europäischen Union

This project would employ qualitative social science methods to analyse the range of policy approaches to energy poverty (also called fuel poverty) in current EU member states. Method-wise, the project would involve learning and employing approaches in discourse analysis; theory-wise, the project would involve engaging with environmental and energy sociologies; empirically, the project would engage with with key policy texts by EU member state (specifically, the National Energy and Climate Plans). To explore the expected conversation, please dive into these two papers:

If you are interested in such a project, please send an email to Associate Professor Dr. Ingmar Lippert with responses to these three questions: a) Why are you interested in energy poverty? b) What challenges do you expect for conducting a discourse analysis? c) What experiences do you have with social scientific theories and/or methods?

Associate Professor Dr. Ingmar Lippert Ingmar Lippert can offer on average biweekly virtual supervision meetings that build on your status updates on your project progress.