GlobalPrayers
2013/ 2014

Birke Otto

Global Prayer’s Spaces and Practices of Knowledge Production

Birke Otto is a scholar of cultural studies with an emphasis on urban research and the sociology of organizations. She works as a postdoc on new urban infrastructures for the research initiative Low-Budget Urbanity at the HafenCity Universität Hamburg. Preceding her work in Hamburg, she held a position as research associate in the Department of Economic and Social Geography at the European University Viadrina and completed her doctorate at the University of Essex on cooperation and knowledge production in international organizations in the water sector. She is co-editor of the online journal ephemera – theory and politics in organisation.

Global Prayer’s Spaces and Practices of Knowledge Production

In the framework of her project Global Prayer’s Spaces and Practices of Knowledge Production, Birke Otto will examine the spaces and practices of transdisciplinary, transregional, transinstitutional knowledge production using  the example of the perennial research program Global Prayers. Global Prayers brings together artists, academic researchers, journalists, and curators from various countries, disciplines, and institutions around their common interest in researching religiosity in the city. By accompanying, observing, and questioning the Global Prayers participants, Birke Otto will explore the practical and theoretical-analytical challenges and possibilities of collaborative research projects and the resulting forms of knowledge about the city and religion.