University of Fribourg
Department of Social Sciences
Social Anthropology Unit
Bd. de Pérolles 90
CH-1700 Fribourg
Madlen Kobi


Assistant Professor
- Urban Anthropology and Political Ecology
- Architecture
- Circular Economy
- Waste Studies
- Material Culture
- Infrastructure
- China
Constructing, Creating, and Contesting Cityscapes. A Socio-Anthropological Approach to Urban Transformation in Southern Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China, Wiesbaden 2016
Contours of an Urban Architectural Anthropology: Built Environment, Climate Control and Socio-Material Practices in Winter in Chongqing (Southwest China), in: Social Anthropology 27 (2019), pp. 689-704
(ed., with Nadine Plachta) Roadsides 4 (2020): Architecture and/as Infrastructure
(ed., with Sascha Roesler and Lorenzo Stieger) Coping with Urban Climates. Comparative Perspectives on Architecture and Thermal Governance, Basel 2022
Urban Energy Landscape in Practice: Architecture, Infrastructure and the Material Culture of Cooling in Post-Reform Chongqing, China, in: Urban Studies 61 (2024), pp. 2979-2994
(with Dennis Zuev) The Spectacle of the Chinese City: Urban Atmospheres, the Built Environment and Everyday Practices, in: Visual Studies 39 (2024), pp. 8-23