Biography

Nina's work centres on the complex and dynamic relationships between infrastructures, innovation, and shifting geopolitical landscapes. Her research employs qualitative, empirical methods to develop a grounded understanding of the interplay between global politics and technological transformations. Particularly, her work focuses on outer space governance, exploring topics such as cooperation, militarization, and environmental justice, as well as the nexus between security infrastructures, (digital) technologies and innovation discourses.

In 2022, Nina Klimburg-Witjes was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her project "FUTURESPACE" The project uses the European Ariane 6 rocket as a case study to investigate the complex connections between large-scale infrastructures, European integration practices, and envisioned space futures in the new space race. Methodologically, Nina and her team will conduct an interdisciplinary ethnography, linking social science and aerospace engineering to explore the material, political, and imaginative dimensions of space infrastructures and their politics.

Nina is an active member of the international STS community. She regularly organizes panels at leading STS conferences and participates in various international academic networks and societies. She holds elected positions on the Council of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Austrian Academy of Science (ÖAW) Young Academy, co-founded the international network for the Social Studies of Outer Space (SSOS) and is a member of the International Network on Security and Technology in Outer Space.

Nina Klimburg-Witjes received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from the Technical University of Munich in 2017 (MCTS) and was co-leader of the research group "Science, Technology and Security" of the Engineering Responsibility Lab. She was a visiting researcher at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna, a research fellow at the Austrian Research Foundation for International Development (OEFSE) as well as the Austrian Institute for International Policy (OIIP), and a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at the Albert Ludwig University Freiburg.

Main Research Interests

Imaginaries and Politics Outer Space
Infrastructures of In/Security
Technology, innovation and Securitization
Social studies of outer space and future visions of Earth-Space relations,
Science, technology and international relations
Fieldwork in contexts of secrecy

Current Research Projects

FutureSpace: Making the Ariane Rocket: Negotiating relations between European integration and the future of Europe in space.

Completed Research Projects

Europas Forschungsinfrastrukturen – Akteure der Integration (FWF; 01/2019 – 06/2023)

Recent Publications

Island Imaginaries. Introduction to a special section

Author(s): Mascha Gugganig, Nina Klimburg-Witjes
Abstract: Colonial empires, scientists, philanthropists and Hollywood studios have long sustained an image of islands as remote places with unique ecologies and cultures, experimental labs, or loci of escapism. The climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic have contributed to a predominant view of islands as both exceptional spaces and testbeds to be scaled up onto continental or planetary levels. Likewise, the metaphor of the island is foundational to Western thought yet has been less explored in the context of scientific processes and technology development. Bringing together science and technology studies (STS) with critical Island Studies and related fields, this special section expands upon the spatial dimension of sociotechnical imaginaries to consider islands and their imaginations as both preexisting and channeling visions of science and technology. The introduced concept of Island Imaginaries captures the mutual constitution of island visions and their materialization in scientific, technological and technocratic endeavors that are imagined and pursued by scientific communities, policymakers, and other social collectives. Such an approach explores the co-constitutive dynamic of islands as sites for the foundation of technoscientific knowledge regimes, and the concomitant rendering of islands as conducive places for discovery and experimentation. The special section offers empirical case studies with insights into islands as synecdoche for larger wholes (the Earth), as experimental and exceptional sites for trialing business creation and political orders (in Singapore, and for Asia), and as variously interpreted laboratory paradise (of Hawai‘i). Further research themes for STS are suggested in the Conclusion.
Organisation(s): Department of Science and Technology Studies
External organisation(s): University of Ottawa, Technische Universität München
Journal: Science as Culture
Volume: 30
Pages: 321-341
No. of pages: 21
ISSN: 0950-5431
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2021.1939294
Publication date: 2021
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 506017 Science and technology policy, 504017 Cultural anthropology, 509025 Technology studies
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Health(social science), Cultural Studies, Biotechnology, Biomedical Engineering, History and Philosophy of Science, Sociology and Political Science
Portal url: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/island-imaginaries-introduction-to-a-special-section(d98e7fce-719f-4e2b-9fa9-6f0e406f362f).html