„The project explores whether media representations normalize technical disruptions in rail and road traffic in favour of the road and thus to the detriment of the climate. It develops a praxeologically inspired proposal to document contemporary mobility crises in their multiple realities.“
„Verteilte Zurechenbarkeit. Die Bearbeitung von Störungen im Öffentlichen Verkehr“
Tobias Röhl
Campus, 2022
Tobias Röhl was honored for his habilitation thesis written at the CRC ( project A04) “Verteilte Zurechenbarkeit. Die Bearbeitung von Störungen im Öffentlichen Verkehr” (Campus, 2022) with the Research Prize Ethnography of the Section Sociology of Knowledge of the GSA (German Sociological Association). The award ceremony took place on June 21, 2024 at the 9th Fieldwork Days at TU Dortmund University. The awarded work examines complex disruption management in public transport and explores the question of how accountability is mediated in situations of disruption and is distributed between different actors – from drivers to the administration. Röhl shows that accountability in the event of disruptions cannot be reduced to individuals, but rather arises from the interaction of different actors and technical infrastructures. This “distributed accountability” is the result of a dynamic process in which roles and responsibilities are fluid and constantly renegotiated. The innovative organizational ethnographic study provides valuable insights into the interplay of technology and organization and provides starting points for a well-founded critique of public transport.
Disruptions to public transport are stressful. But where do you complain when the train breaks down? To the staff on site or directly to the company? An ethnographic look at the disruption management of public transport companies shows: Neither strategy is helpful on its own. Drawing on research on accountability and technical infrastructures, the organizational ethnographic study traces how questions of responsibility are technically mediated and shifted back and forth between different actors. This “distributed accountability” cannot be localized in single individuals, but can be found in the interplay of different actors, in the processes and practices of disruption management.
A detailed review of Tobias Röhl’s habilitation thesis „Verteilte Zurechenbarkeit. Die Bearbeitung von Störungen im Öffentlichen Verkehr“ by Hendrik Vollmer was published in 2024 in Soziologische Revue 47 (3): 377-380. ➞ See the review(German only)
About the research prize
In 2024, the Sociology of Knowledge Section of the German Sociological Association awarded the fifth “Ethnography Research Prize” for innovative and outstanding work in the field of ethnographic social research. The prize was endowed with 1,500 euros and awarded during the “Fieldwork Days”, which are usually held every two years. The 9th Fieldwork Days took place for the first time at TU Dortmund University in June 2024.
The “Research Prize Ethnography” is awarded to scientific publications (monographs or essays in German or English) that have been published in the three calendar years preceding the award ceremony. The prizewinner is selected by a jury consisting of five members of the Sociology of Knowledge Section of the German Sociological Association.
From 2016 to 2020, Tobias Röhl was a researcher in the project A04 – Normal Interruptions of Service. Structure and Change of Public Infrastructures“ at the Collaborative Research Centre 1187 „Media of Cooperation“. Since 2021 he is Professor of Digital Learning and Teaching at the Zurich University of Teacher Education and focuses on the digital transformation of school education. After studying sociology, media studies and linguistics at the University of Konstanz and Trinity College Dublin, he completed his doctorate at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Mainz in 2012 with a thesis on the significance of media and artifacts in the classroom. His habilitation (venia legendi: sociology), accepted at the University of Siegen in 2021, deals with the dynamics of attributability in public transport disruption management. Röhl is currently researching the digital transformation of school education with a particular focus on pedagogical professionalism in the context of artificial intelligence.
About the GSA
The German Sociological Association (GSA) is a non-profit organization whose main objectives are to discuss sociological problems, to promote scientific communication among its members and to contribute to the dissemination and deepening of sociological knowledge. The GSA participates in the clarification of technical and academic issues in sociology and maintains relations with sociology abroad.
The GSA is the association of academically qualified sociologists in Germany. It currently has around 3,500 members. Around four-fifths of all sociologists in Germany with a doctorate belong to it. Membership of the association is open to all persons who have proven themselves academically through their studies, research, teaching or publications in the field of sociology.
Up to 5 hours per week, with the possibility of an increase from 2025
Initially limited to one year, with the possibility of extension
Employment on the basis of the German Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act
Your tasks:
Preparation and transcription of audiovisual data material
Assistance with research and investigation (including literature research and management, planning field visits)
Support in the organization of events (including the planning and practical implementation of conferences and workshops)
Assistance in the preparation of scientific publications (e.g. proofreading, formatting work)
Your profile:
Ideally, knowledge in the field of conversation-analytical transcription according to GAT2 and corresponding software (Folker, Exmaralda Audacity or similar) or willingness to familiarize yourself with it
Enrollment in a (preferably linguistic) Bachelor’s degree program at a German university
Interest in working in an academic environment
Confident scope/independent work with MS Office
Very good knowledge of English
Structured work, enjoy teamwork, initiative and a sense of responsibility
Disruption and normalization share a remarkably stable relationship (Wynne 1988; Potthast 2021a). At the same time, the patterns of a normalizing management of technical malfunctions, e.g. with regard to its temporal structure, are quite diverse. In order to embed the rather microanalytical findings of the first and second term into a macrohistorical context of discussion, the third term of the subproject ties in with research on “large technical systems” (LTS). Reference is frequently made to this research in order to draw attention to the irreducibly socio-technical character of infrastructural services provided. However, a fundamental historiographical ambition inherent to this research approach is neglected: The development of infrastructures can be attributed in an essential way to a dynamic interplay of “size” and “systemicity.” By examining the role played by patterns of normalization in this context, this comparative study seeks to help shed light on the question of why a shift of traffic from road to rail has so stubbornly failed to materialize. For comparative purposes, therefore, the project’s focus on public transport is expanded to include private motorized transport. Can a comparative evaluation provide new insights into why a modal split that is less harmful to the climate has so persistently failed to occur? How do patterns of normalization contribute to this inertia?
Historically and territorially limited to Germany between 1990 and 2023, the subproject will pursue the thesis that, in the development of rail transport, a dominant way of managing disruptions has prevailed, and this has led primarily to a systemic upward transformation. In contrast, a variable way of managing disruptions can be identified in the development of road transport that is, for the most part, advantageous to its large scale (momentum), but does not translate into a systemic increase in self-reflection. To substantiate this thesis, the subproject reconstructs how the daily press reports on mobility crises during the period mentioned above. A mobility crisis is defined as a situation in which two or more of the following mobility practices clash together: changes of residence (chosen, forced), long-distance travel (work-related, tourism), everyday work-related mobility (commuting), everyday leisure and supply mobility. The decisive factor for this analysis is how patterns of normalization take effect in relation to the relevant threads.
This subproject works out a comparative case study of the development of LTS and offers a proposal for a praxeological reorientation of LTS research by way of considering the multiplicity of disruptions and the patterns of their normalization. In the scope of the SFB, it develops a historically contoured contribution to the question of the scalability of cooperation and, through the praxeological perspective on LTS research, provides new stimuli for controversy analysis. The recategorization of mobility crises has to assert itself against an established routine (cost-benefit analysis) and prove itself practically in the course of a progressively validated report format (for disruptions and their normalization).
Potthast, J. 2021. “Innovation und Katastrophe”. In Handbuch Innovationsforschung, edited by B.Blättel-Mink, I. Schulz-Schaeffer und A. Windeler, 363-380. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Wynne, B. 1988. “Unruly technology: Practical rules, impractical discourses and public understanding”. Social Studies of Science 18 (1): 147-167.
As a result of the Russian war of aggression Large-scale technical systems (LTS ) have forcefully returned to the political and media agenda. With a simultaneously more comparative and consistently praxeological orientation, the project intervenes in the interdisciplinary research context named after LTS, based on findings on the distributed handling of disruptions (2016-2023).
The project investigates how (long) interruptions to rail and road traffic strain the feeling of normality.
It develops a reporting format for multiple disruptions across all modes of transport.
Based on a regional mobility crisis, it will be examined whether this reporting format proves itself as a medium of cooperation.
Three focal points characterize the progress of the investigation:
A process analysis provides information on how disruptions are normalized as a media event - and how differences in size and system architecture between rail and road traffic are consolidated.
Gegenläufig dazu erfolgt eine Forminvestition in ein beide Verkehrsträger übergreifendes Berichtsformat.
The extent to which the revised reporting format provides information about interlinked mobility crises is finally reflected in the course of a location-sensitive investigation.
Public transport disruptions are nerve-wracking. But where do you complain when the train is cancelled? To the staff on the spot or directly to the company? An ethnographic look at the disruption management of public transport companies shows: Neither strategy is helpful on its own. Drawing on research on accountability and technical infrastructures, the organizational ethnographic study traces how questions of accountability are technically mediated and shifted back and forth between different actors. This "distributed accountability" cannot be located in single individuals, but is found in the interplay of different actors, in the processes and practices of incident management.
FAZ Interview von Uwe Ebbinghaus mit Tobias Röhl (01.08.2022) "Wir bitten, dies zu entschuldigen..." zum Artikel
WDR 5 Interview von Thomas Koch mit Tobias Röhl (29.08.2022) "Die Entschuldigungen der Deutschen Bahn" zum Beitrag
Forthcoming
Potthast, Jörg. 2025. “Lost and Found, Followed by a Discussion On Critique With Deutsche Bahn”. In A Book of Exercises in STS. On Futures and Designs of Collective Life, edited by Sung-Joon Park and Richard Rottenburg. Manchester: Mattering Press.
Potthast, Jörg. 2025. “Innovation and Desaster”. In Handbook of Innovation: Perspectives from the Social Sciences, edited by Birgit Blättel-Mink and Ingo und Windeler Schulz-Schaeffer. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
2024
Potthast, Jörg. 2024. “Mobilitätskrisen und Große Technische Systeme”. In Handbuch Sozialwissenschaftliche Verkehrs- und Mobilitätsforschung, edited by Weert Canzler, Juliane Haus, Andreas Knie, and Lisa Ruhrort. Wiesbaden: VS Springer.
2023
Laser, Stefan. 2023. “Obsoleszenz statt Transformation im Schienenverkehr. Über die Rolle der Bahn in der ökologischen Verkehrswende, eine Grüne Welle auf der Schiene und Hoffnungen in eine Kupplungsrevolution”. Working Paper Series Media of Cooperation 25. http://dx.doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/10201.
Laser, Stefan. 2023. “Verschwendung handhaben. Über Energie, Ressourceneinsatz und infrastrukturelles Erfahrungswissen in der Recycling- und Schienenindustrie”. In Nachhaltig(e) Werte schaffen. Arbeit und Technik in der sozial-ökologischen Transformation, edited by Thomas Barth, Melanie Jaeger-Erben, Georg Jochum, and Stephan Lorenz, 156-79. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. ISBN: 978-3-7799-7007-1. http://www.beltz.de/de/nc/verlagsgruppe-beltz/gesamtprogramm.html?isbn=978-3-7799-7007-1.
Potthast, Jörg. 2023. “Socio-Material Practices in Irritating Situations”. In Materiality of Cooperation, edited by Sebastian Gießmann, Tobias Röhl, and Ronja Trischler, 287-306. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39468-4_13.
Potthast, Jörg. 2021. “Lost and Found: Transforming Assistance at Digital Deutsche Bahn”. Working Paper Series Media of Cooperation 19. http://dx.doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/9952.
Potthast, Jörg. 2021. “Innovation und Katastrophe”. In Handbuch Innovationsforschung, edited by Birgit Blättel-Mink, Ingo Schulz-Schaeffer, and Arnold Windeler. Wiesbaden: VS Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-17671-6_27-1.
2020
Coletta, Claudio, Tobias Röhl, and Susann Wagenknecht. 2020. “On time: temporal and normative orderings of mobilities”. In Mobilities, 15:635-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2020.1805958.
Röhl, Tobias. 2020. “From structure to infrastructuring? On transport infrastructures and socio-material ordering”. In Material Mobilities, edited by Ole B. Jensen, Claus Lassen, and Ida Lange, 16-31. New York: Routledge.
2019
Gießmann, Sebastian, Tobias Röhl, and Ronja Trischler, eds. 2019. Materialität der Kooperation. Medien der Kooperation. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-20805-9.
Korn, Matthias, Wolfgang Reißmann, Tobias Röhl, and David Sittler. 2019. “Infrastructuring Publics: A Research Perspective”. In Infrastructuring Publics, edited by Matthias Korn, Wolfgang Reißmann, Tobias Röhl, and David Sittler, 11-47. Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-20725-0_2.
Korn, Matthias, Wolfgang Reißmann, Tobias Röhl, and David Sittler. 2019. Publics of Infrastructures – Infrastructures of Publics. Media of Cooperation. Wiesbaden: Springer. https://www.springer.com/de/book/9783658207243.
Potthast, Jörg. 2019. “Medienpraktiken in irritierenden Situationen”. In Materialität der Kooperation, edited by Sebastian Gießmann, Tobias Röhl, and Ronja Trischler. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-20805-9_14.
Röhl, Tobias. 2019. “Making failure public. Communicating breakdowns of public infrastructures”. In Infrastructuring Publics, edited by Matthias Korn, Wolfgang Reißmann, Tobias Röhl, and David Sittler. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-20725-0_10.
2017
Potthast, Jörg. 2017. “Reflexionen zur Ökologie sichtbarer und unsichtbarer Arbeit”. In Susan Leigh Star. Grenzobjekte und Medienforschung, edited by Sebastian Gießmann and Nadine Taha, 313-22. Bielefeld: transcript. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839431269-013.