Research Projects
Since 01/2023
Spaces of Contemplation - Epistemologies of Landscape in Times of Deep Mediatization
The postdoc project “Spaces of Contemplation – Epistemologies of Landscape in Times of Deep Mediatization” examines how the epistemological foundations of landscape as a natural formation change under the conditions of media penetration. The research relevance of the project is based on the fact that media omnipresence fundamentally changes all areas of social reality and this also affects areas of life that are apparently far removed from this process. Landscape – both as a territorial and aesthetic term – thus stands pars pro toto for changing places of retreat. This change in such places of retreat, or their disappearance, can have devastating consequences, as recovery and regeneration from too many stress-inducing influences will be less or no longer possible, but at the same time there is also a global increase in mental illnesses, which would have to be countered with precisely these places of retreat. On the one hand, the project is concerned with the question of how the perception of landscape changes in the space-time structure under the conditions of media penetration. Social time is increasingly viewed as polychronic, i.e. a "time" pluralism is assumed. Space-related social processes are similar - a variety of spaces permeate contemporary society. The question now remains whether, in this context of the expansion of the spatial-temporal social horizons of meaning and significance, an epistemological shift in the perception of landscape is also taking place under the conditions of media penetration, and whether this has an equal impact on the perception of time and space as a whole. The second step of the project will examine what changes result for the sensory perception of landscape, i.e. for visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and equilibrium-related processes. It is assumed that the omnipresence of media sets processes of change in motion that affect specific changes for each sensory modality, since these modalities are influenced by media to varying degrees. It can also be assumed that the more a sense is influenced by media change, the more this is reflected in the cognitive and perceptual approaches to landscape, which in turn means that certain senses still allow quasi "original" approaches. Finally, on a methodological level, it is examined how future research can answer questions about landscape in the age of media penetration as comprehensively and method-integratively as possible and contribute to overcoming the dualism between qualitative and quantitative methods. These diversification processes in the methodological area need to be brought together holistically on a methodological level.
03/2018 - 03/2020
De-Westernizing Visual Communication and Cultures, led by Assoc. Prof. Thomas Herdin, in cooperation with Prof. Guo-Ming Chen
The edited volume as an output of the project gave voice to pluralized avenues from visual communication and cultural studies regarding the Global South and beyond, including examples from China, India, Cambodia, Brazil, Mexico and numerous other countries. Defining visual communication and culture as an umbrella term that encompasses imagery studies, the moving image and non-verbal visual communication, the first three chapters of the book describe de-Westernisation discourse as a way to strengthen emic research and the Global South as both a geographical concept and, even more so, a category of diversity and pluralism. The subsequent regional case study-based chapters draw on various emic theories and methodologies and find a complex arrangement of visuality between sociocultural and sociopolitical practices and institutions. This book targetsa wide range of scholars: academics with expertise in (regional) visual studies as well as researchers, students and practitioners working on the Global South and De-Westernisation. With contributions by Jan Bajec, Sarah Corona Berkin, Ivana Beveridge, Birgit Breninger, Guo-Ming Chen, Uttaran Dutta, Maria Amália Vargas Façanha, Maria Faust, Hiroko Hara, Thomas Herdin, Thomas Kaltenbacher, Fan Liang, Xin Lu, C.S.H.N.Murthy, Ana Karina de Oliveira Nascimento, Simeona Petkova, Radmila Radojevic, Renata Wojtczak.
04/2017 - 04/2018
Visual Online Communication in BRICS countries
Visual Online Content here referred to imagery, GIFs, emoticons, pictures and other visual means that accompany text in an online environment, non inclusive of the audiovisual content and moving images. Despite the increasing prominence of visual online content on social media such as WeChat, Weibo, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as traditional mass media websites across the BRICS countries, comparative academic studies focused on visual content were scarce. Recent discussions focused on plurality of emoticons such as hijabs, or emoticons with different facial color. Despite discussions in the public sphere, there was a lack of cross-cultural studies looking at the differences in imagery. This special section therefore filled this research desiderate. Arguably, a lack of visual communication research in the BRICS countries is attributed to the prevalent Western tradition in communication research. This special section also overcame the dominance of Western approaches in visual communications research.
06/2013 - 01/2014
Theory Development in Communication Studies, led by Prof. Hans-Jörg Stiehler, in cooperation with Dr. Felix Frey, Sebastian Hagen M.A. and Sebastian Koch M.A.
This research project aimed at collecting and advancing methodological tools and practices for theory building in communication and media studies.“Theory building” or “theory development” was characterized as a creative problem solving process of generating novel or modifying existing conceptual structures (statements about concepts and their relations) with the aim of describing and explaining phenomena better than be-fore. The edited collection was interested in a methodological discussion of cognitive operations, individual and social practices, and empirical approaches researchers use in this process of theory building. It, moreover, aimed at stimulating the scholarly reflection and discourse about methods and methodology of theory building across all sub-fields of communication studies.
01/2012 - 12/2012
Yin Yang –A New Perspective on Culture, led by Prof. Tony Fang, PhD, in cooperation with Gabriele Ziese M.A.; funded by Stockholm University School of Business with a global cross-cultural management workshop in 2012
Based on the indigenous Chinese philosophy of Yin Yang, culture was conceptualized as possessing inherently paradoxical value orientations, thereby enabling it to embrace opposite traits of any given cultural dimension. It was posited that potential paradoxical values coexist in any culture; that, they give rise to, exist within, reinforce, and complement each other to shape the holistic, dynamic, and dialectical nature of culture. Seen from the Yin Yang perspective, all cultures share the same potential in value orientations, but at the same time they are also different from each other because each culture is a unique dynamic portfolio of self-selected globally available value orientations as a consequence of that culture's all-dimensional learning over time.
01/2011 - 10/2012
Setup of a literature data base on time as part of the Network ‘Time Research’, part of the German Society for Time Politics (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zeitpolitik e.V. (DGfZP e.V.), in cooperation with Dipl. Elke Großer
The project aimed at developing a literature data base, compiling time literature from various fields of social and natural sciences as well as novels, essays, non-fictional works and other genres. The data base was compiled in Citavi and consisted of more than 1.500 titles as of 2012.