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

    Das Wissen des Profils: Über das Selbstdesign in der digitalen Kultur

    Bernard, A., 2017, Profile: Interdisziplinäre Beiträge. Degeling, M., Othmer, J., Weich, A. & Westermann, B. (eds.). Lüneburg: meson press, p. 27-36 10 p.

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

  2. Published

    Lifted: A Cultural History of the Elevator

    Bernard, A., 01.01.2014, New York: NYU Press. 309 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologiesBook

  3. Published

    Home for Hire: How the sharing economy commoditises our private sphere

    Bialski, P., 01.01.2017, Sharing Economies in Times of Crisis: Practices, Politics and Possibilities. Ince, A. & Hall, S. M. (eds.). Oxford: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, p. 83-95 13 p. (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  4. Published

    Organisation im soziotechnischen Gemenge: Mediale Umschichtungen durch die Einführung von SAP

    Conrad, L., 01.02.2017, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. 210 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologiesMonographsResearchpeer-review

  5. Published

    Relationale Sozialtheorie und die Materialität des Sozialen 'Kontaktmedien' als Vermittlungsinstanz zwischen Infrastruktur und Lebenswelt

    Traue, B. C., 2017, In: Soziale Welt. 68, 2-3, p. 243-260 18 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  6. Published

    Potentiale und Herausforderungen einer empirischen Subjektivierungsforschung

    Traue, B., Pfahl, L. & Globisch, C., 2017, Geschlossene Gesellschaften: Verhandlungen des 38. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie. Lessenich, S. (ed.). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 5 p. (Verhandlungen der Kongresse der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie; vol. 38).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksArticle in conference proceedingsResearch

  7. Published

    Selbstthematisierungen (in) der Kommunikationsgesellschaft

    Traue, B. C., 2017, Geschlossene Gesellschaften : Verhandlungen des 38. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie. Lessenich, S. (ed.). Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, Vol. 38. 6 p. (Verhandlungen der Kongresse der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie; vol. 38).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksArticle in conference proceedingsResearch

  8. Published
  9. Published

    Das Wissen des Profils

    Bernard, A., 30.03.2016, In: Arch + : Zeitschrift für Archithektur und Städtebau. 222, p. 120-121 2 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  10. Published

    Das Diktat der Fruchtbarkeit

    Bernard, A., 2016, Fortpflanzungsmedizin in Deutschland: Entwicklungen, Fragen, Kontroversen. Woopen, C. (ed.). Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, p. 11-19 9 p.

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