Digital media are transformative: they (re)shape the ways of communicating, relating, doing, knowing, and living as much as they are themselves subject to continuous transformation. The contributions in this volume explore these contemporary shifts in and of digital cultures by analyzing a wide range of topics: from data, infrastructures, algorithms, logistics, economies, politics, identities, collectives to modes of critique and digital practices. Drawing from and contributing to ongoing debates in media culture studies, all contributions share a sensitivity for the multilayered histories of digital media technologies as well as their own discourses.
Explorations in Digital Cultures is edited by Marcus Burkhardt, Mary Shnayien and Katja Grashöfer. It grew out of the working group “Data and Networks” of the German Association for Media Studies and documents the recents debates within this working group as well as the current research of its members. All articles are peer-reviewed in a collaborative process, which involved a paper workshop bringing all the contributors into conversation as well as individual reviews of the articles by the editors. Over the next months, this volume will continually be updated with further articles.