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 wonderfully organized and mediated endurance of ephemera

    Beverungen, A., 12.2021, In: Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization. 21, 4, p. 289-306 18 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  2. Published

    Three shades of 'urban-digital citizenship': borders, speculation, and logistics in Cape Town

    Antenucci, I. & Tomasello, F., 2023, In: Citizenship Studies. 27, 2, p. 247-270 24 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  3. Published

    Topografische Spurensuche in Köln entlang der Achse Berlin–Köln. Wiedergutmachung und Wiederaufbau (1945–1957): Leopold Reidemeister als Mittler und Streiter für die Moderne

    Severin, I. L., 2017, Leopold Reidemeister. Ein Deutscher Museumsmann. . Moeller, M. M. (ed.). München: Hirmer, p. 114-165 52 p.

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

  4. Published

    To See and to Be (With) - Reflections on the Ecology of Web Videos

    Simons, S., 2014, In: spheres - Journal for Digital Cultures. 1, 1, 6 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsCritical reviewsResearch

  5. Published
  6. Published

    Toward a Kaleidoscopic Understanding of Anonymity

    Bachmann, G., McHardy, J., Knecht, M. & Zurawski, N., 30.04.2021, Book of Anonymity. Collective, A. (ed.). Brooklyn, NY: punctum books, p. 16-34 19 p.

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

  7. Published

    Tracing Concepts: In, Out and Through Computing

    Romic, N. & Gardner, E., 15.07.2011, In: Volume. 28, p. 1-24 24 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

  8. Published

    Train Ticket Sharing: Alternative Forms of Computing in the City

    Bialski, P., 31.07.2017, In: The Fibreculture Journal. 29, p. 115-128 14 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  9. Published

    Transparenz und Geheimnis

    Beyes, T. & Pias, C., 2014, In: Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften. 8, 2, p. 111-117 7 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  10. Published

    Trick 17: Mediengeschichten zwischen Zauberkunst und Wissenschaft

    Vehlken, S. (Editor), Müller-Helle, K. (Editor), Müggenburg, J. K. (Editor) & Sprenger, F. (Editor), 2016, Norderstedt: meson press. 118 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch