Welcome to the website of the working group “Geography of social media and digital cultures”!
Our research currently focuses on four subject areas, which we investigate from a human geography perspective, primarily using qualitative social research methods:
User innovation and communities: Digital media enable people to network across large physical distances and thus support the emergence of new forms of communities. We are interested in the creative potential as well as possibilities and forms of knowledge generation and economic utilization in such “communities of interest”.
New places for work and creativity: digitalization is fundamentally changing our working world. Project work can be organized in largely virtual teams. Nevertheless, places for work are not becoming superfluous. On the contrary: we are observing and researching the emergence of places, such as coworking spaces, that are specifically tailored to the needs of digital workers.
Crises: The analytical examination of crises is more relevant than ever. What characterizes a crisis? How do crises unfold in terms of time and space? Which groups of actors are relevant for crisis management and how is crisis management (spatially) organized? Digital communication plays an increasingly important role in both crisis perception and crisis management, which we investigate in our research.
Expertise and knowledge: In situations of uncertainty, the need for advice on decision-making grows. In this topic area, we are interested in the constitution of the role of the expert and explore the question of what “expertise” is (also in contrast to “knowledge”) and how expertise is changing due to digitality.
Project team: Prof. Dr. Verena Brinks (head), Friedrich Donner (academic staff member)
Term: 09/2023-08/2026
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Current experiences with multiple crises have brought questions about the function and legitimacy of “experts” who are active in crisis management in an advisory capacity back to the center of attention. The research project understands “expert:in” as a deeply relational role that only appears in contexts of knowledge transfer. Who fills this role cannot be justified solely on the basis of criteria such as formal qualifications or professional affiliation.
However, while “certified experts”, such as scientific consultants, have in-depth knowledge of the sources of their expertise (in particular their membership of specialist communities), this knowledge is largely lacking for so-called “lay experts”. This can be understood as people who, despite a lack of formal qualifications, fulfill the role of “advisor” in a field. This category is gaining in importance, especially through digital media, and in times of crisis also in political and social relevance, as “lay experts” sometimes have a very wide reach. The aim of the project is to learn more about the relational embedding of lay experts in (translocal) community structures, their sources and resources of knowledge and the negotiation and performance of expertise in the digital space and under the special conditions of “crisis” using the example of the “energy crisis”. Methodologically, the work is qualitative.
The core of the empirical study consists of guided interviews with identified lay experts and a netnographic study of digitally mediated expertise. Overall, the project aims to contribute to two fields of research in human geography: The project contributes to the field of
Activities:
Presentation of the project at the workshop conference “Digital Disruptions” of the AK Digital Geographies on November 23, 2023 in Mainz [Verena Brinks & Friedrich Donner]
Lecture “The energy crisis online: Zur Performanz von (Laien) Expertise” at the annual meeting of the AK Energieforschung on June 7, 2024 in Marburg [Friedrich Donner]
Publication: Brinks, V. & Donner, F. (2025): Approaching “the expert” in times of (digital) disruptions: Towards a geography of expertise. Progress in Human Geography (Online First)
Lecture “Making sense of the ‘lay expert’: Towards a geography of expertise in times of (digital) disruptions”. Global Conference on Economic Geography. June 4-8, 2025 in Worcester (USA) [Verena Brinks]
Presentation “Geographies of Online Lay Expertise surrounding the German “Energy Crisis” of 2022+”. RGS Annual International Conference. August 26-29, 2025 in Birmingham (UK) [Friedrich Donner]
Lecture “Amateur Aesthetics: turning value on its head”. Annual meeting of the AK Digital Geographies. November 6-7, 2025 in Frankfurt am Main [Friedrich Donner]
Information about the respective degree programs can be found on the homepage of the Geography study offices.
We are active in teaching human geography in the bachelor and master programs of the Department of Geography with a focus on media and economic geography. The courses offered by the members of the working group can be viewed on their personal homepages.
