Tobias Röhl received the Research Prize Ethnography of the Sociology of Knowledge Section of the German Sociological Association (GSA)
„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.
➞More about the research prize (German only)
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.
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.