Information about DiCuS
The research program of the research field Digital Cultural Spaces is aimed at the intersections of digitalization, culture, and space. Interdisciplinary projects in the research field may be related to two of these concepts each or they may be located at the intersection of all three concepts:
Digital culture: Culture and society are subject to major change in the context of digitalization. Digital culture enables new formats and processes of cultural education. Research questions may relate to the role of digitally transformed processes of cultural participation and to the role of big data algorithms and artificial intelligence therein. Beyond this, such algorithms may find application as research tools.
Cultural spaces: Culture is spatially anchored. It is important to gain a deeper understanding of spaces if the aim is to harness them for empowerment. This refers both to the role of intangible cultural heritage and to the appropriation of space in different milieus.
Digital spaces: Digitalization intertwines material and virtual spaces, thus creating post-digital hybrid spaces. In this context, a ‚digital divide‘ is emerging, which is both related to disparities in access to infrastructure and the availability of digital skills. Research questions can focus on how digitalization may be harnessed for adding value to regions and for generating new hybrid and digital spaces.
Digital cultural spaces: Culture and cultural education are spatially anchored and have long been transformed by globalization processes. This change is gaining even more momentum through digitalization. Emerging new spatial references are either strongly digitally mediated or completely located in cyberspace. The construction of the spatial in the digital always has repercussions on the ‚analog‘ world, and the construction of the digital in social discourse always has implications on the design of space. This field of tension offers diverse research perspectives concerning political and social geographies. This may, for example, be related to questions like who enforces which interests and how and who is left out.
Overall, the research field Digital Cultural Spaces investigates theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the digital transformation for cultural education and regional development with both qualitative and quantitative empirically research methods. Ongoing projects are focusing in particular on rural areas and post-digital, hybrid spaces.