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
11/03/2026
06:30 PM - 10:00 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut, Hardenbergstraße 32, 10623 Berlin \ Einlass: 17:30 Uhr
Panel Discussion
Parlamentarischer Abend: Software-defined Germany
Software ist die Schlüsseltechnologie des KI-Zeitalters – und Deutschlands Ausgangslage ist gut: tiefes Domänenwissen aus den industriellen Leitbranchen, wertvolle industrielle Daten und im EU-Vergleich die meisten internationalen KI-Talente.
11/05/2026
06:30 PM - 08:00 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut, Hardenbergstraße 32, 10623 Berlin
Berlin Science Week
Science Slam on Research Data Management - going wild with AI
You wonder what happens with the data in research? You think that is a rather boring topic and completely impossible to explain at a party? We found a solution: We hand that to an AI, prompt in unexpected ways, ask for some funny elements, and take the results to stage.
11/09/2026
06:00 PM - 07:30 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut (Kassenhalle), Hardenbergstraße 32, 10623 Berlin
Talk
Wege zur gemeinwohlorientierten, gerechten und selbstbestimmten Gestaltung digitaler Infrastrukturen
Vorstellung der gleichnamigen Studie und Diskussion mit den Autor:innen: Die von Bits & Bäume beauftragte Studie untersucht, wie sich Plattformen, Rechenzentren sowie KI und Wissenssysteme gemeinwohlorientiert, gerecht und selbstbestimmt gestalten lassen.
11/10/2026
06:00 PM - 07:30 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut, Hardenbergstraße 32, 10623 Berlin
Lecture
W. Patrick McCray: Power, Corruption, and Lies – Joe Weizenbaum and the Myth of ‘Thinking Machines’
Lecture as part of the anniversary “60 years of ELIZA, 50 years of computer criticism”
11/12/2026
01:00 PM - 06:30 PM | Weizenbaum Institute, Hardenbergstr. 32, 10623 Berlin
11/16/2026
03:00 PM - 05:30 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut (Flexraum) und via Zoom
11/16/2026
06:00 PM - 08:30 PM | Weizenbaum-Institut, Hardenbergstraße 32, 10623 Berlin
Book Presentation
Beyond Harm: Mobile Communication in Everyday Life
Public debates about smartphones increasingly focus on their potential harms: distraction, dependency, declining well-being, and social isolation. But what gets lost when we understand mobile communication primarily through the lens of risk?
11/17/2026
09:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Weizenbaum Institute, Hardenbergstr. 32, 10623 Berlin
Workshop
The Creativity Debate: Humans, Machines, and Who Gets to Be the Creator
Can a machine be creative, or are we fooling ourselves?
11/17/2026
09:00 AM - 01:00 PM | Online via Zoom
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QPD
Workshop
Vertrauen in Wissenschaft in digitalisierten Öffentlichkeiten
Dieser Workshop beleuchtet das Thema Vertrauen in Wissenschaft aus kommunikationswissenschaftlicher Perspektive.
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