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. Published

    Media Genealogy: Back to the Present of Digital Cultures

    Apprich, C. & Bachmann, G., 23.06.2017, Digitisation: Theories and Concepts for Empirical Cultural Research. Koch, G. (ed.). London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, p. 293 - 306 14 p.

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

  2. Published

    Media Organize: A Companion to Technological Objects

    Conrad, L. (Editor), Beyes, T. (Editor), Beverungen, A. (Editor), Pias, C. (Editor), Denny, S. (Editor) & Steinbrügge, B. (Editor), 2021, Hamburg: Kunstverein in Hamburg. 196 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologiesConference proceedingsTransfer

  3. Published

    Mediatisierte Online-Kommunikation: Forschungspraktische Verwobenheit von Medientechnologie, Erhebungssituation und kontextsensitivem Auswertungsverfahren

    Sander, N. & Schulz, M., 2014, Die qualitative Analyse internetbasierter Daten: Methodische Herausforderungen und Potenziale von Online-Medien. Schirmer, D., Sander, N. & Wenninger, A. (eds.). Wiesbaden: Springer VS, p. 161-198 38 p.

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

  4. Published

    Medienästhetik und implizites Wissen: 1964/1991/2011

    Leeker, M., 30.01.2017, Handbuch Schweigendes Wissen : Erziehung, Bildung und Sozialisation und Lernen. Kraus, A., Budde, J., Hietzge, M. & Wulf, C. (eds.). 1 ed. Basel: Beltz Juventa Verlag, p. 448-461 14 p.

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

  5. Published

    Medien Atmosphären: Zur Remediation von Sozialität

    Bachmann, G. & Beyes, T., 2013, Remediate: An den Rändern von Film, Netz und Archiv / At the borders of film, internet and archives. Doulis, M. & Ott, P. (eds.). 1 ed. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, p. 131-152 21 p. (Merz Akademie).

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

  6. Published

    Medien des Immediaten: Elektrizität, Telegraphie, McLuhan

    Sprenger, F., 2012, Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos . 514 p. (Kaleidogramme; vol. 87)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesMonographsResearchpeer-review

  7. Published

    Mediengenealogie: Zurück in die Gegenwart digitaler Kulturen

    Apprich, C. & Bachmann, G., 2017, Digitalisierung: Theorien und Konzepte für die empirische Kulturforschung. Koch, G. (ed.). Konstanz, München: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, p. 405-426 22 p.

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

  8. Published

    Medienpraxislehre in der Medienwissenschaft. Empirie und Exploration

    Heinicker, P., Beverungen, A., Hoffstiepel, P., Ojala, M. & Wulff, A., 01.09.2023, In: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft. 15, 29-2, p. 149-158 10 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesEducationpeer-review

  9. Published

    Medientheater/Theatermedien

    Leeker, M., 2001, Maschinen, Medien, Performances: Theater an der Schnittstelle zu digitalen Welten : Dokumentation und Ergebnisse der Sommerakademie "Theater und Neue Medien, Interaktion und Wirklichkeit" zur Weiterbildung von Theaterkünstlern in Praxis und Theorie des Umgangs mit Digitalen Techniken im Theater, Hellerau 1999. Leeker, M. (ed.). Berlin: Alexander Verlag, p. 374 - 404 31 p.

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

  10. Published

    Medien und Performances: Konzeptionelle Aspekte einer angewandten Medienwissenschaft in der Theaterpädagogik

    Leeker, M., 2003, Entwicklungen und Perspektiven der Spiel- und Theaterpädagogik: Festschrift für Hans-Wolfgang Nickel. Hentschel, U. & Nickel, H.-W. (eds.). Berlin: Schibri-Verlag, p. 263 - 281 19 p.

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