Contents 

Conceptual foundations: Disruption

The conceptual foundations of the project were laid in 2020 by Prof. Dr. Lars Koch, Prof. Dr. Heike Greschke and JProf. Dr. Susann Wagenknecht.

These conceptual foundations were supplemented by a concept workshop in which the results of the projects were compiled and discussed. This resulted in several publications that shed light on the concept of disruption as a multi-layered phenomenon. These can be accessed on the Insights into Disruption publication platform.

Publication highlights

We would like to recommend a selection of the wide range of publications produced by the Disruption and Societal Change Center (in alphabetic order of the authors).

A complete list of the employees' publications can be found on this subpage.

Ingwersen, Moritz; Mai Pauline; Raschke, Nicole (2024): Critical Worldbuilding | Kritische Weltbildung: Überlegungen zu einem interdisziplinären Seminarkonzept als Möglichkeit des (Auf-)Bruchs.

The article discusses theoretical and conceptual considerations for the design of an interdisciplinary project seminar titled Critical Worldbuilding | Kritische Weltbildung. The speculative and creative methodological approaches of the experimental course create opportunities for irritation, which are reflected upon during the seminar. Drawing on the seminar results, the experiences and processes of the seminar are reconstructed and presented as a number of theses that consider how ideas of the self and the world are questioned and changed in the sense of transformative learning.

Jahromi, Helena Kowalewska; Löschner, Deborah (2024): Catch me if you can? Wirksamkeit und Regulierung von Dark Patterns auf digitalen Plattformen.

Platforms shape access to online information and influence user behavior through design, creating dependencies. The DSA addresses this by banning manipulative “dark patterns.” However, legal assessment remains complex and requires psychological insights to understand the mechanisms and extent of influence these design practices can exert.

Jahromi, Helena Kowalewska; Löschner, Deborah (2024): Catch me if you can? Wirksamkeit und Regulierung von Dark Patterns auf digitalen Plattformen. In: Johannes Buchheim, Viktoria Kraetzig, Juliane K. Mendelsohn und Björn Steinrötter (Hg.): Plattformen: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, S. 163–182.

Kneuer, Marianne et al. (2022): Limitations of democratic rights during the Covid-19 pandemic-exploring the citizens' perception and discussions on dangers to democracy in Germany.

The governments’ mitigation measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented in our post-war history. For overcoming this crisis, citizens were expected to act in compliance with these measures in order to control the spread of the virus and keep public health systems functional. This call for protecting the public health at the same time confronted citizens with several and severe limitations of their democratic freedoms and rights: confinement, restriction on freedoms of movement, religion, specific provisions for public protest and finally also limitations to the right of education by school closures. This paper analyzes how citizens perceive the threat the COVID-19 pandemic and especially the mitigation measures posed for democracy. We assume that pandemic waves and pandemic fatigue have an impact on the perception of threat. To see the overall societal picture, we exploit a large-scale archive of online discourse on Twitter out of which we extract democracy-related discourse with the same temporal and geospatial coverage for our investigation. From that data source, we apply computational methods to extract time series data reflecting aggregated opinions and their evolution over time concerned with the correlation of attitudes towards democracy. We them move deeper using a longitudinal panel survey we conducted in November/December 2020, March/April 2021, and July/August 2021. to have a view of the relationship between citizens’ socio-economic status and basic political attitudes. Our multi-method analysis bases on the German case and covers the period from December 2020 to August 2021.

Katsanidou, Alexia; Kneuer, Marianne; Bensmann, Felix; Dimitrov, Dimitar; Dietze, Stefan (2022): Limitations of democratic rights during the Covid-19 pandemic-exploring the citizens' perception and discussions on dangers to democracy in Germany. In: Zeitschrift fur vergleichende politikwissenschaft 16 (4), S. 635–661. DOI: 10.1007/s12286-023-00556-w.

Koch, Lars et al. (2023): The Great Disruptor

The storming of the Capitol represents the culmination of a populist strategy of confrontation and mobilization designed to accumulate support through a politics of denigration and enmity. In its updated second edition, this work continues to examine, from a cultural and media studies perspective, Donald Trump’s public appearances, showing how the 45th U.S. President participated in the societal confrontation between different political groups, escalated it further through communication, and sought to politically benefit from an increasingly radical polarization.

However, the scope of the analysis has now expanded to include the final two years of his presidency. During this period, Trump drove American society to the brink of civil war through increasingly extreme rhetoric in the context of Black Lives Matter and the COVID-19 crisis, by fueling conspiracy theories, and through the radical delegitimization of political procedures and institutions.

The volume discusses Trump’s media usage, his strategies of address characterized by denigration, insults, and insinuations, as well as his politics of affect. The contributions situate the “great disruptor” within a tension field of popular culture, fragmented public discourse, and rhetorical enmity.

Koch, Lars; Nanz, Tobias; Rogers, Christina (2023): The Great Disruptor. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Meier-Vieracker, Simon; Weigelt, Lucie; Dutschke, René; Lasch, Alexander; Scherbaum, Stefan; Seemann, Sophia; Pfeifer, Ulrike (2023): Was heißt eigentlich 'offen'? Eine korpuslinguistische Untersuchung am Beispiel des bibliothekarischen Diskurses der SLUB Dresden

A poster presentation at the 9th conference of the association "Digital Humanities in the German-speaking World" – DHd 2023 Open Humanities Open Culture

Meier-Vieracker, Simon; Weigelt, Lucie; Dutschke, René; Lasch, Alexander; Scherbaum, Stefan; Seemann, Sophia; Pfeifer, Ulrike (2023): Was heißt eigentlich 'offen'? Eine korpuslinguistische Untersuchung am Beispiel des bibliothekarischen Diskurses der SLUB Dresden. Unter Mitarbeit von Peer Trilcke, Anna Busch und Patrick Helling.

Möller, Johanna E. (2024): Situational privacy: theorizing privacy as communication and media practice.

Under dataveillance as the “new normal,” datafied societies render privacy seemingly impossible. Communication and media privacy scholars foster relational and contextual perspectives to explore how agents and infrastructures could nevertheless maintain a certain degree of self-determined control over the flow of data. Situational privacy accesses this debate from an alternative practice-based perspective. Putting emphasis on the ongoing transformation of privacy, this contribution leverages recent empirical and theoretical thoughts of practice-based privacy research as well as conceptual work on the notion of the situation in social theory. Shifting the focus onto privacy breakdown, mundane criticism, and pragmatic measures of “good enough privacy,” it anchors privacy in everyday routines and situations. Situational privacy offers a communication and media perspective on privacy as a critical concept in transformation.

Möller, Johanna E. (2024): Situational privacy: theorizing privacy as communication and media practice. In: Communication Theory 34 (3), S. 130–142. DOI: 10.1093/ct/qtae011.

Praun, Alina; Cunningham, Anna; Pieperhoff, Martina (2022): Disruption, Disruptors and Disruptiveness of Scholarly Communication: An Actor-Network Theory Approach

The rise of Open Access, the increasing pace of scientific work, the serial crisis and the need for interdisciplinary research are just some examples of the current disruptions of traditional scholarly communication. As publishing is a significant practice for distributing scientific knowledge and therefor for academic knowledge management, an understanding of the current disruptions in the field is necessary for the future development and maintenance of the system. The paper presents a conceptualization of disruptions drawing from Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory with reference to current understandings of disruption. The aim of the research is the identification and mapping of current disruptions, their disruptors and the disruptiveness in scholarly communication in the field of economic and social sciences by analyzing scientific editorials. 

Praun, Alina; Cunningham, Anna; Pieperhoff, Martina (2022): Disruption, Disruptors and Disruptiveness of Scholarly Communication: An Actor-Network Theory Approach. In: ECKM 23 (2), S. 1452–1456. DOI: 10.34190/eckm.23.2.532.

Praun, Alina; Pieperhoff, Martina; Rumpel, Fiona (2024): Interorganizational Networks in the Face of Disruption: Building Resilience for Grand Challenges

In an increasingly volatile and complex global landscape, grand challenges lead to disruptions that have become pervasive, requiring a reassessment of the resilience of collaboration between organizations. In literature, collaboration is discussed as important for enhancing resilience. Nonetheless, little attention has been paid to understanding the resilience of inter-organizational collaboration. Furthermore, the unclear definition of the term "disruption" and the complex interplay between resilience and disruption in the context of interorganizational networks represents a notable research gap. Our study addresses this gap by combining a systematic literature review with the Gioia method for qualitative analysis. Thereby, we aim to construct a coherent conceptual framework that illuminates the relationship between disruption and the capacity for resilience within networks of organizations. In doing so, we shed light on the multifaceted nature of disruption, the mechanisms underlying resilience between organizations, and how collaborative networks overcome and respond to major challenges.  

Praun, Alina; Pieperhoff, Martina; Rumpel, Fiona (2024): Interorganizational Networks in the Face of Disruption: Building Resilience for Grand Challenges. In: Proceedings 2024 (1), Artikel 16052. DOI: 10.5465/AMPROC.2024.16052abstract.

Schmitz, Lukas (2023): Domestic Discords

In the contemporary landscape of interconnected technologies, the smart home emerges as a symbol of progress, revolutionising domestic life by seamlessly integrating and optimising tasks for modern dwellers. Smart speakers, while epitomising this transformation, serve as conduits for managing various connected devices. However, the process of integrating smart speakers is not frictionless; as a new type of technology, smart speakers are, above all, to be implemented into everyday life. It is only during this adaptation process, in which individuals incorporate these smart technologies into their daily routine, that the actual value of the smart home becomes apparent. This paper, therefore, addresses the appropriation processes of smart speakers through a qualitative study, exploring frictions in the valuation of smart speakers within households. Drawing on a micro-sociological perspective and a pragmatist valuation framework, the paper examines the valuations guiding persons in using, avoiding, or rejecting smart speakers in everyday domestic life. By analysing data from ten households, the paper reveals how valuations of smart speakers express specific attachments and are legitimised through different regimes of justification. The unfolding of this valuation process creates friction as smart speakers challenge existing attachments, and it is carried out through various justifications that are often in tension with each other. Establishing this dual perspective on friction, the study sheds light on how people navigate the integration of new technology in their domestic environment and realise the promise of the smart home individually.

Schmitz, Lukas (2023): Domestic Discords. In: dcs 9 (2), S. 207–226. DOI: 10.14361/dcs-2023-0211

Spatan, Sergiu; Peter, Daniel; Thiele, Gundula; Wolfram, Marc; Ehnert, Franziska; Scherbaum, Stefan et al. (2024): Epistemic outsiders: Unpacking and utilising the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in sustainability transformations

Disruptions (systemic disturbances) are crucial to initiate and accelerate sustainability transformations of large-scale social systems (be they socio-ecological, socio-technical, or socio-institutional). Their emergence, characteristics and effects strongly relate to the role of agents who aim to disrupt and transform the status quo, and which thus possess what we call disruptive agency. In this paper, we highlight the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in social transformations, first by conceptualizing disruptive agents as epistemic outsiders with respect to the social system that they intend to disrupt and transform, and second by connecting this conceptualization to notions of belief, social practices, social networks, discourses, or institutions. We identify five advantages of this approach. Firstly, it informs and conceptually enables various promising interdisciplinary avenues to explore and potentially influence transformative change towards sustainability. Secondly, an epistemic conception of disruptive agency offers a key for an integrated analysis of the individual and collective levels of agency involved in sustainability transformations. Thirdly, the notion of epistemic outsiders conceptually connects agent positions across system boundaries that are understood to be of crucial importance for sustainability transformations respectively (e.g., “niche innovators” or “regime intermediaries”) but which lack an integrated understanding. Fourthly, an epistemic perspective additionally highlights the changing requirements and challenges resulting in two principal stages of transformations unfolding over time, namely before/after a new epistemic layout is shared by a majority of agents. Finally, the above features allow to derive and conceive of new intervention formats and strategies.

Spatan, Sergiu; Peter, Daniel; Thiele, Gundula; Wolfram, Marc; Ehnert, Franziska; Scherbaum, Stefan et al. (2024): Epistemic outsiders: Unpacking and utilising the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in sustainability transformations. In: PLOS Sustain Transform 3 (2), e0000097. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000097.

Wagenknecht, Susann (2022): Ungewissheit als praktisches Phänomen

Life forms are not strictly self-referential but have a functional relation to the world, measured by how well they solve problems and maintain practices. Their success depends on integrating problems and solutions into their interpretive framework. Failure to do so leads to obsolescence and existential uncertainty. Different forms of engagement shape how uncertainty is experienced and managed—ranging from familiar, caring involvement to planned actions and public justification. Social-ecological crises challenge these engagements, requiring new forms of coordination and problem-solving.

Wagenknecht, Susann (2022): Ungewissheit als praktisches Phänomen. In: Sören Altstaedt, Benno Fladvad und Martina Hasenfratz (Hg.): Praxis und Ungewissheit. Zur Alltäglichkeit sozial-ökologischer Krisen. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag (Zukünfte der Nachhaltigkeit, Band 5), S. 29–54

You will find a complete list of publications by the team members on this subpage.