Urban peripheries under the sign of logistics - ethnography of spatial and lifeworld transformations in the logistics city of Kassel

Bachelor's and Master's project
Carsten Keller / Moritz Merten

As a central economic sector in contemporary capitalism, the logistics industry is changing the image of cities, especially on the outskirts. Large logistics locations, such as those that have settled in Kassel, not least due to its central location in Germany, are also creating new forms of employment. These include a large number of simple job profiles. In this way, the "logistics revolution" is transforming the spatial and lifeworld coordinates of urban society.

In the project, we used the example of Kassel to investigate the question of how urban peripheries are being transformed by logistics. The image of the periphery was also captured in the literal sense with the help of ethnographic photography. In addition, the lives of those who find employment in the booming logistics sector were examined. Specifically, the following questions were investigated: Has a new service proletariat emerged in the shadow of the increasingly digitalized economy? How do order pickers and warehouse workers appropriate urban society? In addition to excursions to logistics locations and an examination of the "logistics revolution", qualitative interviews were conducted with logistics workers. A cooperation with the "Institute d'Urbanisme de Paris" made it possible to gain comparative insights into the situation in France.

The results of the project were summarized by the students in a reader.