Publications

Book

Abstract:
This book provides a critical introduction to the ways in which digital technologies have enabled new types of interactions, experiences and collaborations across a range of platforms and media, profoundly shaping our socio-cultural landscapes. These discussions are grounded in classical sociological concepts; community, the self, gender, consumption, power and exclusion and inequality, to demonstrate the continuities that exist between sociological studies of ‘real’ world phenomena and their digital counterparts. Examining the various debates around methods in digital sociology in recent years, this book provides an accessible and engaging guide to using methodologies to study digital technology. From the moment we wake up until we go to bed, many of us constantly use digital technologies. Our mobile phones have become our maps, banks, newspapers and entertainment consoles. What's more, they allow us to be constantly connected with the people in our lives. This book will equip you to analyse digital media in your own work. The book offers a broad guide to the various areas of our lives that are impacted by digital technology, from the virtual communities that we form on social media to the impact that digital technology has on our identity through a 'sociology of selfies'. With chapters on leisure, work, privacy and methods, this is an essential introduction for students in the areas of sociology, digital media, and cultural studies.

Book

Language(s): German

Abstract:
Die Warnung von Eltern, aufzupassen, was man online teilt, ist allgegenwärtig. Dem schließen sich Datenschützer*innen an und gebieten einen bewussten und sparsamen Umgang mit Diensten und Daten. Eine digitale Desökonomie widersetzt sich diesen Warnungen und sucht den kritischen Umgang mit der digitalen Gegenwartskultur nicht in der Askese, sondern im Exzess. Kunstwerke, Bilder und Daten sind »zu viel«, türmen sich auf und wiederholen sich ständig. Mit Bezug auf Ansätze der Gouvernementalität, der Queer Theory und auf Theorien von Georges Bataille und Roger Caillois analysiert Sebastian Althoff diese unproduktive Produktionsweise des Digitalen und zeigt eine Praxis auf, die Trägheit statt flow schafft.

Chapter

Abstract:
Lifewide learning encompasses all forms of learning and personal development in formal, non-formal and informal modalities. This article discusses the relationship be- tween Lifewide Learning, Social Network Sites (SNSs) and migration by reflecting on the role of SNSs as a resource for informal learning in the context of migration and its im- pact on the postdigital field of action. This article argues that SNSs are fields of action that are ubiquitously used and are deeply interwoven in everyday life, especially for peo- ple who wish to/or have already relocated. In these fields of action, interaction, emotional support and constant learning take place, impacting the lives and experiences of people undergoing migration. Therefore, this article considers that SNSs are highly relevant re- sources for learning ‘informally’, where sharing personal experiences not only provides concrete information regarding a situation but perhaps, more importantly, people who share or seek information find companionship in the realization that they are not alone with their doubts or situations in their new location.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Digital spaces offer individuals the opportunity to interact and connect with others, to engage with more perspectives, and to develop intercultural competence. In this chapter, we explore processes of learning and participation by newcomers in a team, pur- suing the goal of becoming fully-fledged members of that community. We observed the behaviour of a team consisting of four students from a German university and two stu- dents from a Finnish university, all participating in a number of sessions of an online simulation game. Particular attention was given to the participation development of the two students from the Finnish university, positioned as newcomers in the already-estab- lished team from the German university. We describe interactional practices adopted by the two newcomers and by the other members which foster participation and inclusion. Our findings show two learning paths by the newcomers, one in which legitimate par- ticipation became connected with performing a specific role in the group and another in which participation meant sharing the interactional routines established in the team. This case study, based on successful experiences of a remote team, can shed light on the link between intercultural learning and interactional practices.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Current times call for continuous communication across countries, negotiations on several levels, and the creation of international relationships based on dialogue and participation. Those ideals are often pursued in intercultural communication contexts and written about, as a desideratum, in the Intercultural Communication literature. However, how can this be achieved concretely? In this article, we analyze how decisions are taken by newly founded intercultural teams of higher-education students playing a so-called intercultural game online via Zoom. The game revolves around the creation of a development plan for a fictitious city. In our study, we conducted a conversation-analytic investigation of decision-making processes by players oriented towards the ideal of ‘intercultural speakers’ as the ones mediating between different points of view and giving voice to all parties in an inclusive way. We illustrate our analysis with examples that range from unilateral decision making to decisions achieved through highly collaborative processes. We point to how expectations of inclusion-oriented interactional moves in intercultural situations are sometimes at odds with how these interactions and the related decision-making processes actually unfold.

Book

Language(s): English, German

Abstract:
The contributions to this volume address the blending of language, interculturality and digitality. The nine chapters investigate how (inter)culturality is manifested in various settings of digital communication – from YouTube to Tripadvisor and Twitter – and how it becomes intertwined with sets of communicative strategies and complex displays of identity.

Report

Language(s): German

Abstract:
Jeden Tag werden Menschen im Netz beleidigt, belästigt und bedroht. Viele ziehen sich bereits zurück und äußern ihre politische Meinung dort seltener. Das gefährdet Meinungsvielfalt und Demokratie. Die Studie „Lauter Hass – leiser Rückzug“ analysiert die Erfahrungen deutscher Internetnutzer*innen und liefert aktuelle Zahlen & Fakten zu Hass im Netz.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This Element focuses on the linguistic and discursive practices employed by digital citizens to promote their causes on social media, that is to engage in digital activism, drawing attention to the growing importance of this phenomenon in relation to gender identity and sexuality issues. I propose the label LGBTQ+ Digital Activism to join the already existing one Feminist Digital Activism and argue that, while these have been areas of interest from sociology and communication specialists, digital activism is still to be embraced as a field of research by applied linguists. I point out to a number of linguistic and discursive features that are popular among digital activists and support this through the analysis of the use of the hashtag #wontbeerased combining Social Media Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies. I suggest that further research is needed to explore how language is used to propagate and popularize emancipatory discourses online.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
The Internet has penetrated material reality to such an extent that it is now often impossible to disentangle the material from the virtual. In this postdigital scenario, the encounter with ›newness‹ becomes accessible at the touch of a button, 24/7. Learning becomes a lifewide experience which allows for the emergence of new culturalities. The contributors to this volume engage with cultural changes brought about by an intensified digitalization process in the context of formal education but also shed light on unexpected contexts in which informal learning experiences take place every day, strengthening diasporas, creating new connections and transforming ourselves and our societies.

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Service encounters between customers and staff members with different cultural backgrounds are susceptible to misunderstandings and dissatisfaction on both sides. After problematic encounters, some customers vent their frustration by publishing complaints in online review portals. Such negative online reviews can thus be considered written records of intercultural conflict between customers and staff members. In review portals, service providers can publicly respond to negative reviews, with the objective of clarifying the complaint, repairing the relationship with the customer, or conveying a positive public image. The present paper analyzes culture-related complaints written by hotel guests in online review portals and management responses to these complaints. First, the study identifies the reasons for intercultural conflict that become apparent in the reviews. Next, it discusses speech act structures in the management responses to negative culture-related reviews. Based on the analysis, an initial typology of steps in management responses to culture-related complaints is developed. The paper finishes with a summary and implications for future research.

Chapter

Abstract:
In recent years, intercultural online communication (IOC) as well as peer feedback (PF) have attracted increased attention by scholars and practitioners. However, there is hardly any research or theoretical model available that strives to combine these two fields. The present contribution critically reviews the previous literature and raises awareness of the many interrelated and dynami- cally shifting factors that affect PF processes in intercultural online environments. These include (trans-)linguistic and multimodal communicative strategies, aware- ness of sociocultural and interpersonal skills, affective and other individual factors, as well as a critical and purposeful utilization of digital tools. PF literacies in IOC thus require critical language awareness, critical cultural awareness, interpersonal (collaborative) skills as well as critical digital literacy. The proposed model is meant to provide pedagogical guidance for teachers of English as a foreign language to enable successful feedback exchanges among the learners. At the same time, it can be re- shaped and re-negotiated continuously for specific learning goals and learner needs. The chapter closes with recommendations for future research and teaching practice to meet these dynamic demands.

Book

Abstract:
We now live in a world where all aspects of everyday life are thoroughly mediated by digital technologies. Making sense of digital life is accordingly an essential undertaking for social science and humanities scholars. This multidisciplinary book provides an essential guide to researching digital life: Orienting readers with respect to methodologies, research design, and research ethics. Detailing key research methods, including interviews, surveys, ethnographies, walking methodologies, arts-based and participatory approaches, historical analysis, data visualisation, mapping and data analytics. Demonstrating these methods in action in real-world studies that have investigated apps and interfaces, social and locative media, mobilities, smart cities, and digital labour and work. The authors provide: • Non-Eurocentric perspectives and case studies from diverse disciplines • Annotated further reading to help you situate your research alongside existing research in your field • An outline of future directions for researching digital life. Accessible in style and richly illustrated, the chapters provide a wealth of key insights and practical information to ensure research projects are successfully planned and implemented.

Chapter

Language(s): German

Abstract:
Bei der Übung „Schema F“ geht es darum, TN zu Fehleinschätzungen aufgrund von eigenen Stereotypen zu verleiten. Den TN werden Videos oder Bilder gezeigt und anschließend sollen sie z.B. die politische Orientierung einschätzen. Die Videos und Bilder sollten von der Kursleitung so ausgewählt worden sein, dass eine Stereotypisierung der gezeigten Personen sehr wahrscheinlich ist. Anschließend werden die Fehleinschätzungen diskutiert und ein theoretischer Input zu Stereotypen kann folgen. Durch die eigene Fehleinschätzung zu den gezeigten Personen in der Übung können TN angeregt werden, eigene Stereotype zu hinterfragen.

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Scimificationis is a newly-constructed word composed from the words science and gamification. In terms of content, it describes a realised form of the reciprocal connection between the competence levels of knowledge (cognitive level), ability (conative level) and will (affective level) in digital and virtually-oriented university teaching.The question of whether, and if so, how, science and gamification fit together, arises with particular urgency against the backdrop of the corona-accelerated digitalization movement in higher educational teaching: Should games such as virtual strategy games be taken seriously at all in academic training and further education? Conversely, against the background of significantly changed teaching/learning scenarios, the question arises as to whether cognitive teaching/learning formats, such as 90-minute lectures, remain suitable at all anymore for the initiation and maintenance of sustainable learning. Using the example of interdisciplinary and transnational university cooperation, this chapter outlines how virtual escape rooms and strategy games can contribute to the promotion of holistic competence development processes. They may also stimulate new curricular directions for the methodology-based didactic implementation of digitalization and internationalization.

Book

Abstract:
The Anthropology of Digital Practices connects for the first time three distinct research areas – digital ethnography, causal ethnography, and media practice theory – to explore how we might track the effects of new media practices in a digital world. It invites media and communication students and scholars to overcome the field’s old aversion to ‘media effects’ and explores the messy, complex, open-ended effects of new media practices in a digital age. Based on long-term ethnographic research and drawing from recent advances in the study of causality and ethnography, this book tells the ‘formation story’ of the anti-woke movement through a series of critical media events. It argues that digital media practices (e.g. podcasting, YouTubing, tweeting, commenting, broadcasting) will have ‘formative’ effects on an emerging social world at different points in time. One important task of the digital ethnographer is precisely to distinguish between the formative and non-formative effects of specific media practices. This book makes three contributions to our understanding of media practices in the digital era, namely a theoretical, methodological, and empirical contribution. Theoretically, it furthers the ‘practice turn’ in media and communication studies by engaging with the latest thinking on causality and ethnography. Methodologically, it serves as a compelling, up-to-date guide to doing digital ethnography, with special reference to the study of digitally mediated practices. Empirically, it is the first book-length study of the anti-woke movement, a major actor in the ‘culture wars’ currently being fought across the Western world. With its accessible language and rich case studies, The Anthropology of Digital Practices will make an ideal supplementary textbook for a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in research methods, digital ethnography/anthropology, and digital activism.

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Virtual exchange (VE), a pedagogical approach towards intercultural dialogue among young people supported by technology, has been prominent over the past two to three decades. In this chapter, I offer a general introduction to the different types of Virtual Exchange and focus on a particular approach provided by the Sharing Perspectives Foundation (SPF). The logic and theoretical foundation on which the SPF programmes and courses are built are presented and the efficacy of using Virtual Exchange as a tool to prepare the ground for the seeds of social inclusion and civic engagement are debated, while various virtual exchange programmes offered by the SPF and its partners are also discussed. This chapter combines scientific research with years of practice to offer a holistic view of the application of Virtual Exchange in peace education. I dwell on my own ten years of experience in the field of VE, wearing the various hats of participant, facilitator, coach and mentor, trainer, programme officer and partnership coordinator at the Sharing Perspectives Foundation (SPF), as well as a lecturer at Hebron University in Palestine.

Book

Language(s): German

Abstract:
Wie gestaltet sich Interkulturelle Kommunikation als wissenschaftliche Disziplin in China und Deutschland im Vergleich? Inwieweit gibt es Unterschiede und Ähnlichkeiten im Kulturverständnis? Inwieweit wird die Entwicklung interkultureller Kompetenz als disziplinübergreifende Herausforderung in Studium und Beruf verfolgt und wo gibt es Übereinstimmungen oder Besonderheiten im Verständnis, dem Design und den Formen der Vermittlung? Die Beitragenden zu diesem Sammelband sind seit Jahren in Lehre und Forschung mit Fragen interkultureller Kommunikation beschäftigt, als Vertreterinnen und Vertreter der Disziplin oder als perspektivisch Betroffene in anderen Wissenschaftsbereichen, in denen Interkulturalität zur zentralen Lebens- und Arbeitsperspektive/Praxis gehört.

Article

Language(s): German

Abstract:
As kindergartens and schools closed down during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, two hashtags emerged on Twitter: #CoronaEltern (#CoronaParents) and #CoronaEltern­Rech­nenAb (#CoronaParentsDocumentTheCosts). In this paper, we examine the positioning practices around both hashtags as expres­sions of “digital activism” (Joyce 2010: VIII). One characteristic of the hashtag campaign is that political demands are hardly ever made di­rectly. Rather, the participants resort to five main linguistic patterns: (1) they address different target groups; (2) they refer to different protagonists; (3) in the subcorpus #CoronaEltern specifically, they constitute themselves as a collective through (4) the recurring use of first-person narratives; (5) and generalization and typification. Our findings show that #CoronaParents are not just parents in times of a pandemic: #CoronaParents are only those who see themselves as such, participating in an evolving, at times misunderstood commu­nity.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Linguistic variation across a region of interest can be captured by partitioning the region into areas and using social media data to train embeddings that represent language use in those areas. Recent work has focused on larger areas, such as cities or counties, to ensure that enough social media data is available in each area, but larger areas have a limited ability to find fine-grained distinctions, such as intracity differences in language use. We demonstrate that it is possible to embed smaller areas, which can provide higher resolution analyses of language variation. We embed voting precincts, which are tiny, evenly sized political divisions for the administration of elections. The issue with modeling language use in small areas is that the data becomes incredibly sparse, with many areas having scant social media data. We propose a novel embedding approach that alternates training with smoothing, which mitigates these sparsity issues. We focus on linguistic variation across Texas as it is relatively understudied. We develop two novel quantitative evaluations that measure how well the embeddings can be used to capture linguistic variation. The first evaluation measures how well a model can map a dialect given terms specific to that dialect. The second evaluation measures how well a model can map preference of lexical variants. These evaluations show how embedding models could be used directly by sociolinguists and measure how much sociolinguistic information is contained within the embeddings. We complement this second evaluation with a methodology for using embeddings as a kind of genetic code where we identify “genes” that correspond to a sociological variable and connect those “genes” to a linguistic phenomenon thereby connecting sociological phenomena to linguistic ones. Finally, we explore approaches for inferring isoglosses using embeddings.

Article

Language(s): Spanish

Abstract:
Recent theoretical debates in the field of intercultural language education reveal a “cosmopolitan turn”, which implies a glocal, critical, and transformative perspective of interculturality as praxis. This article explores the promotion and development of interculturality from a critical cosmopolitan perspective and reports on the results of an empirical study carried out in a Spanish language classroom for adult migrants in Barcelona through a didactic intervention based on emergent pedagogies. The results enrich the conception of a “cosmopolitan agenda” for language teaching and contribute to bridging the methodological gap between global theoretical debates and local practices of intercultural language education.

Article

Language(s): German

Abstract:
Debriefing refers to the process of shared reflection and evaluation of a specific expe rience in a team on a meta level. This process receives increasingly more attention in the context of (intercultural) team training as an independent methodological com ponent. Most studies focus on the forms of debriefings and especially on the evidence of their effectiveness. The question of the relationship between trainers and learners, however, is rarely addressed. This paper argues that the design of this relationship si gnificantly influences the process and the results of debriefings. The paper outlines the history and relevant concepts of debriefing. It then identifies possible areas of application before it classifies forms of debriefing in terms of the exercise of power by the person facilitating the debriefing. Finally, factors that have an influence on this power relationship between the team and the facilitator are reflected in a critical way,

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This article analyses the representation of Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi in Bernhard Setzwein’s Der böhmische Samurai (2017) and Heinrich Mann in Colm Tóibín’s The Magician (2021). This discussion is situated in a number of wider contexts, including literary European Studies within German and Irish Literary Studies; existing representations of European federalists/Europeanists; the actual European thought of Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi and Heinrich Mann; and the oeuvre of the novelists Bernhard Setzwein and Colm Tóibín. It is argued that the representation of European federalists in recent novels enables us to analyse common attitudes and understandings of Europe and Europeanness in the current environment of Euroscepticism, self-questioning, and self-doubt at the institutional as well as constituent levels. It is also argued that the European federalists Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi and Heinrich Mann are represented as European cosmopolitans: Both are depicted as existing within a wide variety of transnational links, as remaining deeply sceptical of nationalism, especially in its violent form, and as arguing for the extension of the space of the political, beyond the national. Their depiction is, thus, of intellectual figures who laid some of the ideational groundwork for the creation of later European institutions, undertaking this reflective task from the perspective of an idealistic, pacifist and deeply democratic cosmopolitanism.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This article argues that the study of literary Europeanism should be extended to the discourse of wider textual Europeanism, understood here as a digital Europeanism that examines digital texts, in the widest sense, contextualised within the norms of digital culture. The texts emanating on the platform Twitter from two explicitly pro-European/pro-European Union accounts, one German-language and one largely (non-native) anglophone – @PulseofEurope and @mycountryeurope – were examined from 9 May 2021 to 9 November 2021. In evidence was a type of textual Europeanism that indeed owes a degree of coherence to the norms of digital culture. This was seen in relation to referentiality, that is, the use of already existing and circulating cultural materials for one’s own cultural production. This was evident in commented and uncommented retweets, social TV practices and the Europeanisation of Internet memes. The creation of a sense of communality – the way in which meanings can be stabilised, options for action generated and resources made accessible via a collectively supported frame of reference – is also in evidence and to be seen in the distinct discursive creation of an authoritarian ‘other’. This ‘other’ consists of a temporal ‘other’ – a small number of tweets relating to authoritarianisms of the past; an inner-European Union ‘other’ – tweets relating to movements towards authoritarianism within the European Union, especially in Hungary and Poland; and an external European Union other – tweets relating to authoritarianism on the European Union’s borders, especially in Belarus and Russia.

Article

Language(s): German, English

Article

Language(s): English

Article

Language(s): German

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
As smartphones mediate more of our activities, they are changing our relationship with meaning. To a teenager, for example a “conversation” is just as likely to refer to an exchange of text messages as it is a face-to-face discussion. Meanwhile, Facebook has redefined what friendship means, Snapchat what a memory means, etc. The kinds of changes smartphones bring are happening at rapid pace: TikTok reached a billion users in just over three years, whereas it took the telephone 75 years to reach a tenth of that number of people. Meaningful Technologies: How Digital Metaphors Change the Way We Think and Live by Eric Chown and Fernando Nascimento offers systematic reconsideration of the ways in which digital technologies impact our lives both individually and collectively. Metaphors aren’t just a clever way to describe technology, they are also changing the way we think. When we click on a picture of a shopping cart it connects a complex set of technologies to represent a simple idea that we’re all familiar with. A heart icon under a photo is understood as an easy way to express appreciation. We aren’t required to understand how technology works, just how we interact with it. The ambiguity of metaphors, and the complexity of technology can also hide important realities about what is being described. “The cloud,” for example, actually consists of very real data centers, which consume huge amounts of natural resources to keep running. Meanwhile, pressing that heart icon on a photo is a signal to the artificial intelligences running in your app that you want to see more things like that photo and that it should adjust what it knows about you accordingly.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This paper investigates the author’s classroom practice of implementing an interpretive perspective on intercultural language teaching and learning in two online intercultural workshops on the topic of face masks designed and delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reflexively examines two critical incidents in classroom practice in terms of what these incidents reveal about the challenges faced by pre-service teachers in operationalizing an interpretive stance towards intercultural language teaching and learning in practice. Based on the epistemology of reflective practice, this self-study seeks to produce knowledge-of-practice by framing the author’s practical knowledge as language teacher in relation to theories of intercultural language teaching. Classroom discourse analysis of teaching and learning sequencies provides an emic lens on the enactment of an interpretive perspective on intercultural language teaching at the micro level in terms of two basic aspects of pedagogical practice: 1) Embedding interpretation in learning design and 2) Mediating learners’ interpretations in classroom interaction. The findings reveal that this author’s attempts to personalise intercultural language learning and elicit meaningful reflections from students were constrained by the limited semiotic richness of the material presented and the difficulty of going beyond a superficial interactional format to provide effective scaffolding and successfully realize a dialogic stance towards knowledge building. The paper considers the implications of these challenges for pre-service teacher education and offers suggestions for supporting teachers hoping to teach interculturally.

Article

Language(s): English

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
In recent years, the emergence of smart cities and other related initiatives has prompted a growing interest in the role of digitalization in the housing sector. Housing cooperatives are increasingly exploring new and innovative concepts of community living and social connectedness within neighborhoods. In the context of the research project “Multi-Generation Smart Community” (mGeSCo) we are investigating and testing digitization in various dimensions using a living lab approach in the “Smart Quarter” Jena-Lobeda, which is currently home to 228 residents. In cooperation with different stakeholders, network partners and residents, interdisciplinary solutions are being developed and explored in the dimensions of work, living, housing and caring. The neighborhood residents can obtain benefits from a diverse range of digital amenities. In order to enhance acceptance and effectiveness while improving the well-being of the community, both analog and digital methods of participation and communication are being integrated. For example, a community platform designed for a neighborhood can improve well-being by fostering community, social support, trust, engagement, and comfort with smart technology in homes. The paper aims to provide insights in the designing process, information on challenges and peculiarities of the neighborhood, as well as to form a preliminary approach for a user-centered design of a neighborhood platform. While the overall conceptualization will involve additional aspects (such as user experience, interface design, communication and content strategy, analytics, and security), the initial step will focus solely on user needs and the associated features and functions of the platform.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This paper is an exploration of the variety of French-speaking cats on Twitter. Among the many creative phenomena that the internet has produced, animal-related language varieties, the language used by pets, have been explored as early as the 2000s, yet with a strong and almost exclusive focus on English. I first describe the shared repertoire of lexical, semantic, phonographic, and syntactic features used by French-speaking cats, and show how the simultaneous use of a childlike code and a formal register constructs the sociolinguistic persona of cats as ambivalent animals. I argue that the French variety has become “enregistered” (Squires 2010) insofar as it is perceived and ideologically constructed as a variety of its own while promoting a welcoming culture towards new members. In doing so, cats show that the belonging to a community of practice, notably by drawing on a common repertoire of resources, does not need to be linked with processes of exclusion.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
While the reputation of the platform Twitter was severely dented during the presidency of President Donald Trump, who often retweeted far-right content, this article engages from the argumentative assumption that Twitter is an inherently cosmopolitan online space, both in terms of statements found there and of the lived experience of users on the platform itself. Cosmopolitanism is understood as a normative concept and as a descriptive term for increasing cultural interconnectedness. Twitter users may engage in pursuing liberal aims by taking responsibility for or identifying with all humanity, and thus enact the more conceptual ideas of cosmopolitanism into pragmatic and viral utterances. They may also be deemed cosmopolitan influencers. Based on qualitative interviews with ten purposely selected Twitter users, it is argued that the motivation behind such online political engagement is chiefly societal and activist, and stems from a desire to change society and, indeed, to “give back to society”. Tweeters are guided by an array of values, such as authenticity, solidarity, justice and equality, and freedom of expression. These socially-engaged Twitter users also often see themselves as exceptional, and able to view social developments others cannot see. The data shows that positive reinforcing as well as negative discouraging feedback plays a crucial role and gives hints for the promotion of Cosmopolitan Twitter.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
With increasing globalized interaction of people, institutions, scholars, and students, there is growing attention on mutual understanding and peace-seeking, instead of conflicts and implicit and explicit cultural biases. Thus, intercultural communicative competence in ELT discourse is of paramount importance today. Virtual collaboration is a new way to develop intercultural communicative competence because it involves co-teaching, co-learning, two cohorts, two cultures (at least), two institutions, and two mindsets (at least). Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a project of the SUNY initiative to teach common modules at higher education levels whose ultimate goal is to promote mutual understanding culturally, professionally, and institutionally. This chapter studies the effects of virtual collaboration on students from Mohammed Premier University (Morocco), particularly their confidence in their intercultural communicative competence.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
The cosmopolitan idea has a substantial intellectual history, stretching back to ancient times. It is argued here that the term retains a multifacetedness and, especially, a flexi- bility, which makes it very suitable for the theorization of the contemporary digitalized world. To commence this argument, an overview of the ongoing postdigitality discus- sion is given, which argues for the present, clear, real and existing convergence of the digital and the analogue. From here three macro-categories of cosmopolitanism within academic writing are proffered, incorporating normative-philosophical, empirical- descriptive, and processual approaches to cosmopolitanism. Building on this catego- rization, it is then argued that a number of categories of postdigital cosmopolitanism may also be seen, from (empirical) everyday postdigital cosmopolitanism, with both a cultural and a structural form, to processual postdigital cosmopolitanism, which retains an alter-cosmopolitan and a benign form. The discussion concludes with normative- philosophical postdigital cosmopolitanism, which is also linked to visionary re- imaginings of the Internet and its interconnections with the material world.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This article explores the hateful and solidarity-driven reactions directed towards Yalitza Aparicio, the first Indigenous woman nominated for Best Actress at the Oscar Awards (2019) for the film Roma (Cuarón 2018). Her fame and media presence in spaces where Indigenous women are not usually represented contributed to exposing everyday racism more explicitly in the public debate in Mexico. The comments of hate and solidarity towards Aparicio reveal the entanglement between the imaginaries of coloniality and Mexicanness that are emebbed in everyday life in Mexico. This case study exposes, on the one hand, the continuity and domination of these imaginaries through everyday narratives in a postdigital context. On the other hand, it also shows the reconfiguration of the (digital) imagined community in Mexico.

Article

Language(s): Deutsch

Abstract:
Discussions regarding the representation of people of colour in TV series and other media products are present, relevant and very much active, and currently pose a challenge to society. Unsurprisingly, superhero stories such as those in the Marvel Universe have been also affected. The series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (2021) addresses racism in an unprecedentedly explicit manner. With the character of Falcon, for the first time a Black American is appointed to the emblematic role of Captain America. Such developments, which show a continuity at least since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, have triggered harsh discussions within fandom. Verbal disputes are currently taking place primarily online. This article embeds these discourses in the Critical Race Theory concerning media reception. It explains the special conditions of fandom and illustrates developments and current discussions regarding representation and (cyber-)racism in the Marvel Universe.

Book

Language(s): German

Abstract:
Dass Michel Foucault mit der Archäologie des Wissens auf die Herausforderungen der Computerkultur der 1960er Jahre antwortete, ist bislang kaum gesehen worden. Heute gilt es, die Aktualität der Foucaultschen Archäologie neu zu entdecken – in der Informatik ebenso wie in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This editorial of the Special Issue ‘Textures of Diaspora and (Post-)Digitality: A Cultural Studies Approach’ explores the digital agency of diasporic communities by showing how cultural and literary studies genuinely contribute to scholarly debates and our understanding of digital diasporas. It explores the implications of the digital in a (post-)digital age, one in which the notion of diaspora is used to refer to actual ethnic, religious communities and to collectives that do not necessarily share any common origin or history but articulate their communality through a ‘diaspora rhetoric’. It uses an approach that concentrates on the medial, cultural and aesthetic dimensions of diasporic (self-)representations, positionings and practices in cyberspace. It brings into focus the ‘textures’ of these communities and points to the need to decode diasporic imageries and the many meanings of those portrayals. It studies the textual and visual language with which diasporic communities are imagined in the digital space.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
At the end of 2017, a couple from Austria began building up a settlement projected eventually to house up to 20,000 inhabitants in an area of 16km² in rural Paraguay, which they called “El Paraíso Verde”. To go to Paraguay, according to the promotion material available on their website and YouTube Channel, entails a rejection of the decisions taken by the European Union and disagreement with a lifestyle associated with it. By conducting a digital ethnography and analyzing the discourse and tropes in interviews that the couple conducted in 2017 to promote the initiative on their websites, and in the comment section of their YouTube Channel, I show that there is a strong nationalist component in their discourse. The ‘nation’ that, apparently, needs defending, rather than existing spatially, represents a set of ‘universal’ values (i.e., a transnational/deterritorialized form of nationalism) that may be relocated elsewhere. Moreover, I argue that digital media plays a crucial role, not only in bringing like-minded people together and helping them to create “imagined communities”, but also in providing a platform that serves the modern need for self-design, creating a sense of agency and reinforcing the national project as a matter of autonomy-seeking.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Fictional narratives concerning science and technology, and specifically science fiction narratives, are centred upon questions of difference, alterity and Otherness. Though not representing classical science fiction texts, the analyzed novels display a key role attributed to technological advancement and thus incorporate and discuss that central question of Otherness in external and internal representation. Firstly, Ian McEwan’s novel Machines Like Me (2019) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun (2021) superficially deal with human-machine interaction, but also more subtly mirror humaneness in contrast to a perfectionist Machine Otherness that, in turn, questions human morality. Secondly, Juli Zeh’s novel Leere Herzen (Empty Hearts) (2017) and Julia von Lucadou’s novel Die Hochhausspringerin (The High Rise Diver) (2018) subconsciously display the more disruptive influences of Artificial Intelligence on societies. The conception of Otherness is thus not rooted in the opposition between machines and human beings, but in a steady process of self-alienation.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
While cultural sciences are increasingly concerned with the effects of algorithmic systems on society, the production of algorithms remains an opaque field. Yet this process happens freely and accessibly on Open Source (OS) platforms such as GitHub. This paper exa- mines the future imaginations of developers on GitHub, as relayed in qualitative inter- views. Although GitHub sees itself as a diverse space, only two strong „socio-technological imaginaries“ (Jasanoff 2016) may be identified: The ‘greater good’ and the ‘Manichean good vs. bad’ imaginary. The imagined futures are populated by ever better technology. This techno-optimism is combined with a hierarchical order on GitHub, from which individual developers emerge as ‘Benevolent Dictators for Life’. They control and protect algorithmic developments, in case of doubt even against the ‘bad’. The result is an image of the future that continues the development of technology in a non-disruptive way.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Dialogue is a concept replete with great potentiality for the re-orientating process to- wards the more inclusive transformation of society, which indeed the Covid-19 pandemic has made even more urgent. This study verifies this statement, while also identifying the specific factors which have had a meaningful impact upon the engagement of people, embedded in their various communities. The undertaken research shows that these factors –related to the agents’ own role in the community, to their personal relationship with others and to their own perception of the general context– are interdependent and intersubjective. Indeed, feedback loops have emerged with an evident impact on the well-being of the community members and, therefore, of the community itself. The analysis of the data shows that a genuine dialogic culture, defined as a culture of acknowledging differences, embracing them with respectful openness and facilitating their expression through a non-hierarchical attitude, fosters positive feedback loops and, there- fore, the development of sustainable communities. Communities, on the other hand, in which exclusion is tolerated place themselves in danger. The widespread reproduction of subtle discrim- inating practices, which were observed also in the framework of this study, remain thus alarming. Underlying the research design is indeed the formation process of international online communit- ies in the context of an online simulation game. The crossmatching of the individual reflections of the members and the observation of their behaviour shows how their actions and interactions are entangled with handed down power structures, such as racism and sexism. Establishing an inclus- ive community implies therefore one fundamental condition: tackling the reproduction of power dynamics through conscious power-sharing.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
How do Mexican migrants in Germany perceive themselves and their lives? Innovatively combining theories of interculturality and social imaginaries, Yolanda López García uses the anthropological method of life stories to investigate the understudied area of Mexican migration to Germany. She discusses areas such as quality of life as a motivation for migration, the role of banal nationalism in imaginaries, the dynamic subjective re-construction of Mexicanness, and the process of (imagined) »Germanisation«. Yolanda López García ultimately argues that individuals, as social agents, engage with and construct new emerging imaginaries, which may be viewed as important engines of social change.

Chapter

Language(s): Deutsch

Book

Language(s): German

Abstract:
Das Netzwerk ist ein Grundbegriff des 21. Jahrhunderts geworden – und mit ihm die Diagnose, dass wir in einem neuen Zeitalter leben, in dem es auf Konnektivität, Flexibilität und Selbstorganisation ankommt. In einer groß angelegten Geschichte des Regierungsdenkens zeichnet Vincent August erstmals diese fundamentale Transformation nach. Er zeigt, dass unsere Welt keineswegs nur durch den Neoliberalismus geprägt wird – und dass die Netzwerk-Gesellschaft nicht einfach ein Resultat des Internets oder von Computern ist. Vielmehr griffen Berater:innen und Intellektuelle wie Foucault, Crozier oder Luhmann auf die Kybernetik zurück, um die Ideenwelt der Souveränität abzulösen und unser Regierungsdenken grundlegend zu verändern. Eine Analyse spätmoderner Gesellschaften kommt ohne eine Analyse dieses Netzwerk-Paradigmas nicht aus.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
2020 will be remembered as an unprecedented ‘global’ socio-economic and educational crisis. As a lecturer in a tertiary institution in Aotearoa New Zealand, this pandemic has heightened my awareness of inequalities in education and the impacts these have had on students and educators. Educational institutions around the world decided to continue teaching and learning online to ensure physical distancing among students, as if institutions, lecturers/teachers, and students, among others, were prepared for this shift. As a result of this shift, digital poverty and illiteracy are considered for some to have ‘emerged’ from the pandemic (Baker, 2020) failing to recognise the pre-existing digital divide (Ayre, 2020; Holmes & Burgess, 2020; Ouahidi, 2019; Wolstencroft & Zhou, 2020). However, these are problems that governmental and educational institutions have neglected to address until the pandemic rendered these issues unavoidable. Both students and lecturers were affected. For example, many lecturers were unfamiliar with online learning tools and/or strategies for online teaching and/or lacked appropriate devices and/or access to stable internet connections. Similarly, many students struggled with online platforms, such as Blackboard, or did not have access to devices or internet connections. The high demand from both students and lecturers for support from their educational institutions overwhelmed tech support infrastructures, revealing the neglectful assumption that these issues did not already exist (Ayre, 2020; Madianou, 2020; Montacute, 2020; Norris, 2001). As an educator, this year was particularly challenging because it made me reflect on how accessible my teaching practice was, how I could respond to digital poverty and illiteracy, and what gaps remained. Nonetheless, I also learnt many lessons about the amazing possibilities that technology-enhanced education can offer. This conference addresses many of these innovations, which will inspire educators. Learning can undoubtedly be enhanced by technology but this presentation endeavours to start a conversation about what changes are necessary to ensure that all students have access to what they need for their learning to be technologically supported and for lecturers to be able to utilise technological enhancements in their practices. I provide a range of instances from my practice where I tried to address the aforementioned issues and some examples of the limitations I encountered.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Many researchers have underlined the benefits of student mobility in strengthening their communication skills. Studying a foreign language and fostering knowledge about behavioural attitudes are the most common research cases. One of the major issues of mobility, by its very nature, is that it implies significant travel and accommodation costs. Virtual mobility, or Virtual Exchange (VE), can be introduced as a proactive alternative solution. This work presents an evaluation of a telecollaborative online course model organised as a VE between German and Moroccan universities. It was established to explore the benefits of integrating a VE experience by practicing some 21st-century knowledge elements as tools for the development of intercultural, language, and digital competencies from the perspective of mobility. In this paper, we present a VE model and its design, structure, and progress. Then, we evaluate this first experience to overcome some challenges that similar future experiences could face. We analyse the tools proposed in this design, the interactions between the different actors, and their feedback. The evaluative study shows the acquisition of awareness of cultural differences and the improvement of language skills through practice in addition to the development of some digital skills.

Chapter

Language(s): Deutsch

Abstract:
Die Frage, ob Interkulturalität neu zu denken sei, eröffnet Spielraum für möglicherweise sehr unterschiedliche Argumentationszusammenhänge: Bei einem ‚Nein‘ als Antwort würde man erwarten, dass entweder kein weiterer Diskussionsbedarf gesehen wird und/oder man am Bestehenden festhalten sollte. Oder man gelangt zu der Ansicht, dass sich die Begrifflichkeit als solcherart unbrauchbar bzw. überholt erwiesen hat, dass eine weitere Verwendung grundsätzlich nicht mehr sinnvoll erscheint.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This book explores the potential of the Internet for enabling new and flexible political participation modes. It meticulously illustrates how the Internet is responsible for citizens' participation practices from being general, high-threshold, temporally constricted, and dependent on physical presence to being topic-centered, low-threshold, temporally discontinuous, and independent from physical presence. With its ethnographic focus on Icelandic and German online participation tools Betri Reykjavík and LiquidFriesland, the book offers plentiful advice for citizens, programmers, politicians, and administrations alike on how to get the most out of online participation formats.

Article

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Jürgen Bolten explores intercultural competence as a form of general ‘action competence’, which is implemented in intercultural, i.e. uncertain contexts. In the context of increasing social mobility at nearly all levels and in most professions, intercultural competence is highlighted as more relevant today than ever before. However, that relevance correlates with a ‘rethinking’ of the concept, within which intercultural competence research has to expand its own horizons by integrating the hitherto still dominant focus on national cultural diversity into the much more complex field of micro-cultural diversity.