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

    Nostalgia is not what it used to be: Serial Nostalgia and Nostalgic Series

    Wentz, D. & Niemeyer, K., 2014, Media and Nostalgia: Yearning for the Past, the Present and the Future. Niemeyer, K. (ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 129-138 10 p.

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

  2. Published

    Novel thought: Towards a literary study of organization

    Beyes, T., Costas, J. & Ortmann, G., 01.12.2019, In: Organization Studies. 40, 12, p. 1787-1803 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  3. Published

    Objektaffekte: Die Rolle der Künstler/innen im sozialen Netzwerk

    Wuggenig, U., 2012, Das Kunstfeld: Eine Studie über Akteure und Institutionen der zeitgenössischen Kunst am Beispiel von Zürich, Wien, Hamburg und Paris. Munder, H. & Wuggenig, U. (eds.). Zürich: JRP Ringier Verlag, p. 231-249 19 p.

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

  4. Published

    Objekttheater begegnet digitalen Welten: Von einem mechanischen zu einem bio-elektronischen Weltbild

    Leeker, M., 1997, In: Das andere Theater. 7, 26, p. 16-20 5 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

  5. Published

    Öffentlichkeit und öffentliche Meinung: Die soziologische Perspektive

    Wuggenig, U., 1993, Konzepte von Öffentlichkeit: 3. Lüneburger Kolloquium zur Medienwissenschaft. Faulstich, W. (ed.). Bardowick: Wissenschaftler-Verlag, p. 16-29 14 p. (IfAM-Arbeitsberichte; vol. 11).

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

  6. Published

    Ökologien des Machens: Zur allgemein-ökologischen Kritik der Welterzeugung bei Tim Ingold

    Hörl, E. H., 2016, +ultra. gestaltung schafft wissen. Doll, N., Bredekamp, H. & Schäffner, W. (eds.). 1 ed. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, p. 49-58 10 p.

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

  7. Published

    On Knowing Too Much: Technologists´Discourses Around Online Anonymity

    Bialski, P., 2018, Non-Knowledge and Digital Cultures . Bernard, A., Koch, M. & Leeker, M. (eds.). Lüneburg: meson press, p. 143-157 15 p. (Digital Culture Series ).

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

  8. Published

    Online to offline social networking: contextualising sociality today through Couchsurfing.org

    Bialski, P., 2013, Couchsurfing cosmopolitanisms: Can tourism make a better world?. Picard, D. & Buchberger, S. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 161-172 11 p.

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

  9. Published

    Open Access und Open Educational Resources: Gemeinsames Handeln für die Öffnung von Wissen

    Heise, C., 03.04.2013, Lernen in der digitalen Gesellschaft – offen, vernetzt, integrativ: Abschlussbericht. Ludwig, L., Narr, K., Frank, S. & Staemmler, D. (eds.). 1 ed. Berlin: Internet & Gesellschaft Collaboratory , p. 114-117 4 p.

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

  10. Published

    Ora et labora (et lege): Zur Politik postdigitaler Handlungsfelder

    Apprich, C., 2016, In: Kunstforum international. 242, p. 82 - 93 12 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesTransfer