“Beyond Germany: German Media theory in a Global Context” is the title of the preconference I am preparing together with Andreas Ströhl (Goethe Institut, Washington DC) and Bernhard Debatin (Ohio University). This event is part of the programming of the 2019 ICA annual conference in Washington. Hosted by the Goethe Institut, it will focus on readings, critiques, and applications of German-language media theories beyond the boundaries of German-speaking Europe. Submissions (1000-word extended abstracts) are accepted until 31 January, 2019. Participation is free, please register via the ICA conference site. Check the call for papers here: CFP_preconference_ICA2019

Inmitten des Lärms um Sharing Economy und Social Media ist selten die Frage zu vernehmen, welche Bewandtnis es mit dem Teilen selbst eigentlich hat. Was sagen wir, wenn wir sagen, wir „teilen“? Dass das Teilen selbst vertrauter und alltäglich Vorgang ist und nicht als etwas Besonderes wahrgenommen wird schafft leicht das Gefühl, hier gäbe es nichts zu wissen.

Erschienen in Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, Johannes Ebert, Andreas Ströhl, Nokalai Blaumer (Hg.), Teilen und Tauschen. (Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag).

The latest issue of Media and Communication on peacebuilding in the age of new media is out. Edited by Vladimir Bratić, the issue explores the innovative use of new media technologies in peacebuilding both from a theoretical and applied angle. In my own contribution, Elicitive Conflict Transformation and New Media: In Search for a Common Ground  I examine elicitive conflict transformation, a communication-based model of conflict management advocated by writers such as John Paul Lederach and Wolfgang Dietrich, and its relationship to communication media from a media-theoretical perspective. You can access this edition of Media and Communication here. 

An interview conducted by German artist and cyberfeminist Cornila Sollfrank during the transmediale workshop at Liverpool John Moores University has appeared in the APRJA issue Excessive Research. We talk about the notion of excess, its significance in the work of Bataille, and its role in conceptualizing sharing.

“The rise of ‘sharing in communication and media studies,” by Nicholas A. John (Hebrew University, Israel) and myself is available online now at the digital version of Information, Communication, and Society. Full Special Issue on Sharing will follow early 2016.

The Goethe Institute’s Kultursymposium Weimar will be a major event of which I expect a shift in our research about sharing. Thanks to Andreas Ströhl and his fellow workers for preparing this exciting event, and for inviting me to speak.

Sharing and exchange are basic human cultural practices. They play as big a role in poor countries as in affluent societies. But when do I share – and with whom? What social and cultural developments emerge from the various forms and manifestations of sharing and exchange? What is the meaning of trust in times of couch surfing and car sharing?

The research/Ph.D. workshop EXCESSIVE RESEARCH relates to the announcement of transmediale 2016 “Conversation Piece” which examines some of the compulsive activities of contemporary digital culture in which we are encouraged to stay active, to make, to share and to secure. A culture of sharing, for instance, is evidently one of the most noticeable compulsory effects of a networked society and how value is created.