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

    The total Archive On the Function of Not-Knowing in digital Culture

    Bernard, A., 02.2016, In: Merkur. 70, 801, p. 5-17 13 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  3. Published

    Spaces with a temper: On atmospheres of education

    Michels, C. & Beyes, T., 17.06.2016, The Routledge Companion to Reinventing Management Education. Steyaert, C., Beyes, T. & Parker, M. (eds.). London: Taylor and Francis Inc., p. 312-329 18 p.

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

  4. Published

    Trick 17 zur Einführung

    Vehlken, S., Müggenburg, J. K., Sprenger, F. & Müller-Helle, K., 2016, Trick 17: Mediengeschichten zwischen Zauberkunst und Wissenschaft. Vehlken, S., Müller-Helle, K., Müggenburg, J. & Sprenger, F. (eds.). Lüneburg: meson press, p. 7-14 8 p.

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

  5. Published

    Performing (the) digital: Positions of critique in digital cultures

    Leeker, M., 11.2016, Performing the Digital: Performance Studies and Performances in Digital Cultures. Beyes, T., Schipper, I. & Leeker, M. (eds.). 1 ed. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, Vol. 11. p. 21-63 43 p. (Digitale Gesellschaft).

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

  6. Published

    Authority and Authorship: Uncovering the Socio-Technical Regimes of Peer-To-Peer Tourism

    Bialski, P., 03.05.2016, Re-Inventing the Local In Tourism: Producing, Consuming and Negotiating Place. Russo, A. P. & Richards, G. (eds.). Bristol, GB: Channel View Publications Ltd, p. 35-49 15 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  7. Published

    Kultursoziologie in Großbritannien

    Traue, B. C., 2016, Handbuch der Kultursoziologie: Band 1: Begriffe – Kontexte – Perspektiven – Autor_innen. Moebius, S., Nungesser, F. & Scherke, K. (eds.). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Vol. 1. p. 123-139 16 p. ( Springer Reference Sozialwissenschaften).

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

  8. Published

    The Ornament of Mass Customization: On the Collective Consciousness of Dispersed Examiners

    Simons, S., 2016, Social Media: New Masses. Baxmann, I., Beyes, T. & Pias, C. (eds.). Zürich: Diaphanes Verlag, p. 225-246 22 p.

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

  9. Published

    The Political Economy of Corporate Governance

    Jansson, A., Larsson-Olaison, U., Veldman, J. & Beverungen, A., 02.2016, In: Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization. 16, 1, p. 1-17 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsOther (editorial matter etc.)Research

  10. Published

    #3 Unstable Infrastructures: spheres Editorial Collective

    Apprich, C., Beverungen, A., Feigelfeld, P., Freudenschuß, M., Hille, L., Luchs, I., Simons, S., Wiedemann, C. & Yoosuf, H., 06.2016, In: spheres - Journal for Digital Cultures. 3, p. 1-3 3 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsOther (editorial matter etc.)Research