Research Culture Studies

Rapid Social and Cultural Transformation: Online & Offline

The research program Rapid Social and Cultural Transformation: Online and Offline started running in 2015. The program focusses on the synergies between digital culture, multimodality, intermediality and socio-cultural diversity. The program draws on a broad range of empirical data, and aims at theoretical and methodological innovation. The overall ambition is to run a program with high-quality academic output and impact, and successful internal quality control through mutual assistance and continuous learning. We aim at achieving high societal relevance that in many cases can translate into immediate knowledge utilization.

The mission of the research team is to explore and explain how digitalization and globalization have consequences for social, cultural and artistic practices. In the 21st century, the online and offline world increasingly integrate. Modes of everyday interaction have changed worldwide, and our group examines various aspects of the rapidly transforming public sphere.

Examples of research topics are:

• the fundamental changes in communicative practices due to the speed and fragmentation of the online environment
• the rapidly increasing diversification in identity constructions caused by online practices
• new forms of writing and reading in multimodal contexts
• the solidification of populist discourses and the diminishing impact of public intellectuals on societal debates
• the incorporation of online practices in pre-existing community rituals
• practices and representation of migration online and offline.

Existing analytical and theoretical frameworks to account for these transformations are continuously subject to critical reflection and revision.