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

    Hacking Crowdfunding: Towards A New Commons

    Ridgway, R., 2016, Hacking Habitat: Art of Control. Art, technology and social change. Gevers, I. (ed.). Rotterdam: nai010 Publishers, p. 98 - 112 15 p. 9

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

  2. Published

    Other Beginnings of Participative Sense Culture: Wild Media, Speculative Ecologies, Transgressions of the Cybernetic Hypothesis

    Hörl, E. H., 2016, ReClaiming Participation: technology - mediation - collectivity. Denecke, M., Gatzert, A., Otto, I. & Stock, R. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 93-122 28 p. (Media studies).

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

  3. Published

    Visuelle Diskursanalyse: Ein programmatischer Vorschlag zur Untersuchung von Sicht- und Sagbarkeiten im Medienwandel

    Traue, B. C., 2013, In: Zeitschrift für Diskursforschung. 1, 2, p. 117-136 20 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  4. Published

    Communication Regimes and Creativity

    Traue, B. C., 2014, Culture, Communication, and Creativity: Reframing the Relations of Media, Knowledge, and Innovation in Society. Knoblauch, H., Jacobs, M. & Tuma, R. (eds.). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, p. 227-246 20 p. 31

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

  5. Published

    Zur Kritik der Fähigkeiten: Ableism als neue Forschungsperspektive der Disability Studies und ihrer Partner_innen.

    Buchner, T., Pfahl, L. & Traue, B. C., 2016, In: inklusion online. 9, 2

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  6. Published

    Die technologische Bedingung des sozialen Selbst

    Traue, B. C. & Schünzel, A., 2015, Mediatisierung (in ) der sozialen Arbeit. Kutscher, N., Ley, T. & Seelmeyer, U. (eds.). Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, p. 39 - 55 17 p. (Grundlagen der sozialen Arbeit; vol. 38).

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

  7. Published

    Die (Psycho-)Macht des Therapeutischen und die Optionalisierung des Handelns

    Traue, B. C., 01.2016, Handbuch Therapeutisierung und Soziale Arbeit. Anhorn, R. & Balzereit, M. (eds.). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, p. 249-261 13 p. (Perspektiven kritischer Sozialer Arbeit; vol. 23).

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

  8. Published

    Das totale Archiv: Zur Funktion des Nicht-Wissens in der digitalen Kultur

    Bernard, A., 2016, In: Merkur. 801, 70, p. 5-17 12 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesTransferpeer-review

  9. Published

    Theatre and Engineering: Kontrolle und Macht in medialen Umwelten in den 1960er Jahren, und heute?

    Leeker, M., 2016, Räume und Medien des Regierens. Balke, F. & Muhle, M. (eds.). 1 ed. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, p. 198-217 20 p. (Merz Akademie).

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

  10. Published

    Medienästhetik und implizites Wissen: 1964/1991/2011

    Leeker, M., 30.01.2017, Handbuch Schweigendes Wissen : Erziehung, Bildung und Sozialisation und Lernen. Kraus, A., Budde, J., Hietzge, M. & Wulf, C. (eds.). 1 ed. Basel: Beltz Juventa Verlag, p. 448-461 14 p.

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