Centre for Digital Cultures

Organisational unit: Institute

Organisation profile

Contemporary culture is characterized by the ubiquity of digital media technologies and infrastructures, which are constantly configuring our techniques for processing, storing, and transmitting data. As a result, our everyday practices of connecting, relating, reading, writing, perceiving, sharing, competing, and communicating are undergoing significant changes. At the same time, these technologies are closely tied to major societal challenges such as climate change, global conflicts, digital divides and social unjustness. In this dynamic context, the Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC) directly addresses the emergence of new and complex qualities of vernacular socio-technical life. This involves the development of advanced theory and innovative study programmes. We are concerned with the question of how we can understand and shape digital cultures today​​​​​​​.

Main research areas

The digital shift re-shapes the cultural sectors, and, indeed, everyday life, politics, law, and economics. the Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC), affiliated to Leuphana University of Lüneburg, examines this shift through a range of interdisciplinary methodologies, including media, cultural and social studies, through knowledge creation and transfer, as well as by developing experimental and interventionist media practices. Established in 2012, as one of the first research centres in Europe to research the emergence of digital cultures, the CDC continues to produce cutting-edge research on socio-technical regimes of inclusion and exclusion. Since its inception, the CDC has built an innovative network and research environment, where academic institutions, practitioners, and civil society stakeholders engage with new concepts, formats, and applications within digital cultures.

Current Research Areas

  • Climate Futures
  • (B)Orders, Identities and Belonging in the Digital Age
  • Cities, Infrastructures, Logistics, Platforms 
  1. 2015
  2. Published

    Fort da. Ein Zirkular über bewegte Bücher: Fragen von Claus Pias. Antworten von Andreas Bernard, Timon Beyes, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Christian Kracht, Thomas Macho, Eckhart Nickel, Joseph Vogl und Sigrid Weigel

    Pias, C., Bernard, A., Beyes, T., Gumbrecht, H. U., Kracht, C., Macho, T., Nickel, E., Vogl, J. & Weigel, S., 2015, Das bewegte Buch: ein Katalog der gelesenen Bücher; mit 104 Beispielen aus dem Deutschen Literaturarchiv Marbach. Gfrereis, H. & Pias, C. (eds.). Marbach: Deutsche Schillergesellschaft e.V., p. 68-87 20 p. (Marbacher Magazin; vol. 150/151/152).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  3. Published

    Herausforderungen und Potentiale bei online geführten Gruppendiskussionen

    Sander, N. & Schulz, M., 2015, In: Soziologie. 44, 3, p. 186 - 202 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  4. Published

    Herausforderungen und Potenziale von Online-Medien für die qualitative Forschung: Eine Einführung

    Schirmer, D., Sander, N. & Wenninger, A., 2015, Die qualitative Analyse internetbasierter Daten: Methodische Herausforderungen und Potenziale von Online-Medien. Schirmer, D., Sander, N. & Wenninger, A. (eds.). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, p. 7-32 26 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearchpeer-review

  5. Published

    Insensible and Inexplicable: On the two Meanings of Occult

    Sprenger, F., 2015, In: Communication +1. 4, 1, 24 p., 2.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  6. Published

    Internet der Dinge: Über smarte Objekte, intelligente Umgebungen und die technische Durchdringung der Welt

    Engemann, C. (Editor) & Sprenger, F. (Editor), 2015, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. 400 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch

  7. Published

    La vie, la nature, la technique

    Hörl, E. H. & Gorz, A., 2015, Le fil rouge de l’écologie: Entretiens inédites en francais, édition établie et présentée par Willy Gianinazzi. Gorz, A. (ed.). Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, p. 19-81 53 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksOtherResearch

  8. Published

    Les Adieux

    Hörl, E. H. (Contributor), 2015, Le fil rouge de l’écologie: Entretiens inédites en francais, édition établie et présentée par Willy Gianinazzi. Gorz, A. (ed.). Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, p. 103-106 4 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksOtherResearch

  9. Published

    Liquid Democracy and the Futures of Governance

    Ramos, J., 2015, The Future Internet: Alternative Visions. Winter, J. & Ono, R. (eds.). Cham: Springer, p. 173-191 19 p. (Public Administration and Information Technology; vol. 17).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  10. Published

    Politik der Mikroentscheidungen: Edward Snowden, Netzneutralität und die Architekturen des Internets

    Sprenger, F., 2015, Lüneburg: meson press. 130 p. (Digital Cultures Series)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesMonographsResearch

  11. Published

    Réfléxivité et Système. Le débat sur l'ordre et L'auto-organisation dans les années 1970

    Hörl, E. H. (Editor) & Esposito, E. (Editor), 2015, Paris: Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme. (Trivium - Deutsch-französische Zeitschrift für Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften; vol. 20/2015)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesSpecial Journal issueResearch