On 25th and 26th of January I had the pleasure to attend the inaugural workshop of the new research group “Understanding the Transformations of world politics: Ordering Principles and Infrastructures of Communication” (UTOPIC).

The group is hosted by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZIF) at the University of Bielefeld and is a collaboration between scholars based in sociology, history and international relations. Led by Mathias Albert, Heidi Tworek, and Tobias Werron, the group comprises of eight scholars.

Together we will explore how world politics is shaped by the rise and fall of ordering principles and the evolution of infrastructures of communication. In offering new theorizing of global orders, UTOPIC will challenge received notions of a liberal world order, and reveal the complexity and multiplicity of world politics across time.

I will be feeding core insights of our work on ocean infrastructures into the group’s discussion.