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. 2013
  2. Published

    Nähe und Empathie: Die Bilderwelten der Kamerafrau Judith Kaufmann

    Giesemann, B. (Editor), Kirchner, A. (Editor), Neubauer, M. (Editor) & Prümm, K. (Editor), 2013, Marburg: Schüren Verlag. 240 p. (Marburger Kameragespräche ; vol. 8, no. 8)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch

  3. Published

    Narratives of Independent Production in Video Game Culture

    Ruffino, P., 2013, In: Loading... Journal of the Game Studies Association. 7, 11, p. 106-121 16 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  4. Published

    Networked Disruption: Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the Business of Social Networking

    Bazzichelli, T., 2013, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. 261 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologiesMonographsResearchpeer-review

  5. Published

    Online to offline social networking: contextualising sociality today through Couchsurfing.org

    Bialski, P., 2013, Couchsurfing cosmopolitanisms: Can tourism make a better world?. Picard, D. & Buchberger, S. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 161-172 11 p.

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

  6. Published

    Precarity, Vulnerability and the Commons: Feminist Reflections on the Politics of Commons

    Freudenschuß, M., 2013, Democracy in Crisis: The Dynamics of Civil Protest and Civil Resistance: Peace Report 2012. Preiss, B. & Brunner, C. (eds.). Wien & Berlin: LIT Verlag, p. 135-152 18 p.

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

  7. Published

    Prekäre Subjekte - Prekäre Kritik

    Freudenschuß, M., 2013, Krise, Kritik, Allianzen: Arbeits- und geschlechtersoziologische Perspektiven. Nickel, H. M. & Heilmann, A. (eds.). Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa Verlag, p. 118-134 17 p.

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

  8. Published

    Prekär ist wer? Der Prekarisierungsdiskurs als Arena sozialer Kämpfe

    Freudenschuß, M., 2013, Münster: Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot. 333 p. (Arbeit - Demokratie - Geschlecht; no. 18)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesMonographsResearch

  9. Published

    Provocative Alloys: A Post-Media Anthology

    Apprich, C. (Editor), Berry Slater, J. (Editor), Iles, A. (Editor) & Schultz, O. L. (Editor), 2013, London: Mute Books. 160 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch

  10. Published

    Quantencomputer. Taktlos

    Warnke, M., 2013, Kulturtechniken der Synchronisation. Kassung, C. & Macho, T. (eds.). Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, p. 269-287 18 p.

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

  11. Published

    Relationen im Raum: Visualisierung topographischer Klein(st)strukturen

    Hüttenmeister, N., Kollatz, T., Rütenik, T., Warnke, M., Wedemeyer, C. & Ziai, T., 2013, In: Kalonymos. 16, 4, p. 4-6 3 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch