The Weizenbaum Institute conducts interdisciplinary and fundamental research regarding the interaction between digitalisation and society. Designing digitalisation for the benefit of society and protecting self-determination and involvement within the networked society are focal points of its research.
The interrelationship between digitization and society was researched in an interdisciplinary manner at the Weizenbaum Institute in its start-up phase (09/2017 - 09/2022) also. The overarching research question at the Weizenbaum Institute was how to secure democratic self-determination and participation under the conditions of advancing digitization and automation.
To this end, numerous relevant disciplines - such as social sciences, economics and law, as well as design research and computer science - were brought together in 21 research groups. Not only were current developments analyzed, but the ethical, legal, economic and social aspects surrounding digitization and society were also elaborated in a value-based manner, and options for action for politics, business and society were provided.
The research groups were assigned to four overarching research areas. These were supplemented by three accompanying cross-sectional formats that focused on overarching questions of ethics and political shaping of the relationship between technology and society.