Knowledge cultures and digitalisation

Research concerning knowledge cultures and digitalisation examines the complex interrelations between technological developments and social and academic knowledge production. It seeks to understand which dynamics are influencing and fostering the development of technologies and social relations, and the ways in which individual, social and global inequalities are shaping these processes.

Particular attention is paid to the critical reflection on the production and dissemination of academic and non-academic knowledge, including intersectional inequalities in its production and reception in local, national and global dimensions, as well as to understanding current trends in science scepticism. The development of newly emerging digital-physical infrastructures is analysed and reflected upon. In order to contribute to the decolonisation of knowledge and to reflexive forms of knowledge production, innovative transdisciplinary and multimodal methods are developed and also questioned while taking critical approaches to research ethics into account.

This key research area is concerned with the position of the social sciences in society and their role in knowledge production, in science policy and at the interfaces with society, in order to enhance and underpin the transfer and societal impact of knowledge produced by social scientists.