Research Foci
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Digital Technologies in Society
In this research focus, the connection between digitalization, participation and inequality is to be researched, the use of digital technologies for participation opportunities is to be tested and interventions against new inequalities are to be made. To this end, perspectives from business informatics, design research and computer science will be brought together.
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Digital Markets and Public Spheres on Platforms
In recent years, markets and publics have emerged on digital platforms, which are investigated in the four research groups of the focus area. Normatively, these platforms are in tension between public good orientation and economic imperatives. For their investigation, the perspectives of communication science, political science, economics, and computer science are brought together.
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Organizing Knowledge
Within this research focus we deal with questions about the workplace, the education system, and science. Above all we examine questions of openness and exclusion in the processing and organization of data and knowledge. In doing so, we draw on perspectives from computer science, business informatics, sociology, and innovation research.
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Digital Infrastructures in Democracy
This research focus examines the development of digital infrastructures and the resulting structural change in society. Special attention is given to tensions between security and freedom from the perspectives of law, sociology, computer science, and political science.
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Weizenbaum Digital Science Center
With the new Weizenbaum Digital Science Center, the Weizenbaum Institute establishes scientific offerings that create research, networking, orientation, and infrastructure services for interdisciplinary digitalization research and strengthen the coherence of research at the Weizenbaum Institute.
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Events
04/09/2026
11:00 AM - 01:00 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut, Hardenbergstraße 32, 10623 Berlin
Lecture
Workshop
Anna-Verena Nosthoff: Kybernetik und Kritik. Eine Theorie digitaler Regierungskunst
Buchworkshop und Diskussion der Autorin mit Sebastian Berg, Katrin Becker und Sandra Sieron
04/13/2026
05:00 PM - 09:00 PM | Weizenbaum Institute, Hardenbergstraße 32, 10623 Berlin and via Livestream
Panel Discussion
Reclaim the Cloud! Contesting, Resisting and Reimagining Data Centers
Bits & Bäume and the research group “Digitalization, Sustainability, and Participation“ (Weizenbaum Institute) jointly present: Reclaim the Cloud! Contesting, Resisting and Reimagining Data Centers.
04/14/2026
06:00 PM - 07:30 PM | online
Weizenbaum Forum
Demokratie unter Druck – zivilgesellschaftliche und wissenschaftliche Strukturen stärken
Die Anfeindungen gegen Personen, die sich aktiv für unsere Demokratie engagieren, nehmen zu. Im Weizenbaum Forum nehmen wir dies zum Anlass, um über konkrete Erfahrungen zu diskutieren und Handlungsmöglichkeiten aufzuzeigen.
04/21/2026
06:00 PM - 08:00 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut, Hardenbergstraße 32, 10623 Berlin
Panel Discussion
Lecture
Weizenbaum Report 2026: Politische Partizipation in Deutschland
Unsere Studie zu politischer Partizipation in Deutschland legt dieses Jahr den Fokus auf Gewalt und Drohungen gegen Politiker:innen. Wir diskutieren die Ergebnisse mit Expert:innen aus Politik, Zivilgesellschaft und Wissenschaft.
04/29/2026
01:30 PM - 06:30 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut | Hardenbergstr. 32 | 10623 Berlin
Hype oder echter Mehrwert für Prozesse? Agentic AI im Prozessmanagement erfolgreich einsetzen
05/28/2026
04:00 PM - 08:00 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut, Hardenbrgstraße 32, 10623 Berlin
Book Presentation
Workshop
Workshop und Buchvorstellung: Der Traum der Gurke. Ein literarisches KI-Experiment
Ein Projekt des VS Berlin (Verband deutscher Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller in ver.di) Berlin in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Weizenbaum-Institut
06/12/2026
10:00 AM - 03:00 PM | WZB Social Science Centre, A310
Workshop
Sovereignty Exhaustion: New Vocabularies for Global AI Value Chains
This workshop starts from a provocation: the language of digital sovereignty circulating in academic and policy settings is both exhausted and exhausting.
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