DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.4| GERBER: IM RAHMEN DER MÖGLICHKEITEN_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 14Social concepts oforder and orientation are renderedmaterially in infrastructures whilestructuring oureveryday lives,permeated asthey are by genderand sex.ment.‘Diverse Infrastructures? Gender, Queer&the Foundations of Society’ was the topic of lectures, workshops and guided tours from 6 to 8 September 2023.The programme reflected the many differentaspects from which research into infrastructure isconducted, including(technological) history, science and technology studies(STS), cultural andsocial anthropology, media theory, postcolonialtheory, architecture and urban planning. The focus was on infrastructures as socio-technologicalsystems and immaterial networks linking people,materialities, places, institutions and services. Astransport routes, water and energy supply systemsor communication networks, they create durablestructures, but also path dependencies. In manyinstances, they provide the basis for social functionalities(e.g. mobility, exchanges, communications), enabling or impeding them in others whileensuring that society, the economy and politics areable to operate. Embedded as they are in socialstructures, they replicate social realities.Infrastructures are something which, in a technicalmuseum for example, are ever-present and yet invisible. They are present in exhibitions as featured topics such as mobility, energy, media or everyday life.As institutions, museums provide the infrastructurefor knowledge and exchange as well as the preservation, documentation and mediation of exhibits andnarratives. But they also determine the way visitorsare able to access such resources – e.g. through onsite or digital mediation – and to what extent theydo so – keyword: accessibility. As such, they have thepower to enable or impede social involvement andrepresentation.As an active link within a network of society, culture,education and science, the Technisches MuseumWien organised its Vienna Workshop on Gender andSexuality in STEM Collections, the third such instalSocial concepts of order and orientation are rendered materially in infrastructures while structuringour everyday lives, permeated as they are by genderand sex. Gender determination therefore entails access of a different kind to those infrastructures. Noteveryone benefits equally from investments in transport and supply networks, and not everyone has thesame needs or makes use of these networks in thesame way. While the conceptual formulation of newinfrastructures is tantamount to sounding out futurepossibilities, the processes themselves are shapedby power relations and inequality. This is evident in,among others, the fact that gender and sexual diversity rarely play a role in the development of infrastructure.This second edition ofinsightOutserves to make accessible a large and diverse portion of the contribu-
