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

    The Creativity Complex: A Companion to Contemporary Culture

    Metelmann, J. (Editor) & Beyes, T. (Editor), 2018, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. 255 p. (Kultur und Gesellschaft; vol. 36)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch

  2. Published

    The Environmentalitarian Situation: Reflections on the Becoming-Environmental of Thinking, Power, and Capital

    Hörl, E., 01.07.2018, In: Cultural Politics. 14, 2, p. 153-173 21 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  3. Published

    The financialisation of business ethics

    Beverungen, A., Dunne, S. & Hoedemaekers , C., 01.01.2013, In: Business Ethics: A European Review. 22, 1, p. 102-117 16 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  4. Published

    The "Hidden Homeless" in Japan’s Contemporary Mobile Culture

    Yoshida, M., 2013, Asian Popular Culture in Transition. Fitzsimmons, L. & Lent, J. A. (eds.). London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, p. 97-107 11 p. (Routledge contemporary Asia series; vol. 36).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  5. Published

    The Invisualities of Capture in Amazon’s Logistical Operations

    Beverungen, A., 01.08.2022, In: Digital Culture & Society. 7, 2, p. 185-202 18 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  6. Published

    The Island of the Day After. The Television Series Lost and the Post-9/11-Era

    Niemeyer, K. & Wentz, D., 2018, Lost In Media. Wentz, D., Beil, B. & Schwaab, H. (eds.). Wien: LIT Verlag, p. 137-154 18 p.

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

  7. Published

    ”The Machine Could Swallow Everything”: Satin Island and Performing Organization

    Beyes, T., 31.12.2016, Performing the Digital: Performativity and Performance Studies in Digital Cultures. v. Leeker, M., Schipper, I. & Beyes, T. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 229–244 16 p.

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

  8. Published

    The media arcane

    Beyes, T. & Pias, C., 01.05.2019, In: Grey Room. 75, Spring, p. 84-107 24 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  9. Published

    The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibilities of Life in Capitalist Ruins

    Conrad, L., 04.2021, In: Management Learning. 52, 2, p. 255-259 5 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsCritical reviewsResearch

  10. Published

    The Network Dynamics of Movements

    Apprich, C., 2014, In: spheres - Journal for Digital Cultures. 1, 1, p. 1-4 4 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsCritical reviewsResearch