Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://www.weizenbaum-library.de/handle/id/1115
The Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society (WJDS) is an interdisciplinary, diamond open access journal that investigates processes of digitalization in society from the perspectives of different research areas.
Browse
87 results
Search Results
Item Coworking Spaces and Alienation(Weizenbaum Institute, 2026) Capitani, Eugenio; Casali, Anna Maria; Montalvo, Carlo; Sciortino, CameliaThis article investigates coworking spaces as ambivalent infrastructures within the landscape of digital capitalism. Through a qualitative case study of Fabbriche Binarie and Sugar Paper in Modena, Italy, it explores how these spaces mediate experiences of alienation, spatial disconnection, and social recognition. Drawing on theories of alienation (Rosa, 2013, 2019) and recognition (Honneth, 2014), the study identifies three interrelated forms of estrangement (temporal, spatial, and relational) amplified by remote work. While coworking is promoted as a flexible and inclusive alternative to traditional offices, the findings reveal underlying contradictions: symbolic over-coding, weak social ties, and selective inclusion. The paper argues that coworking hubs can either reproduce or resist forms of alienation depending on their governance and integration into the urban fabric. Ultimately, it calls for a rethinking of such spaces as civic infrastructures, capable of fostering democratic presence, spatial justice, and social resonance in an increasingly fragmented work environment.Item Will News Find Them With Generative AI?(Weizenbaum Institute, 2026) Reiss, Michael; Knor, Eva Luise; Merten, Lisa; Moeller, JudithThree key affordances of generative AI (GenAI), namely, hyper-personalization, intuitive interaction, and universality, provide the technology with the potential to disrupt current news consumption practices. While opportunities include reducing intentional news avoidance, risks involve the displacement of journalistic news sources. Using a representative survey conducted in Germany before the 2024 European Parliament elections, this study examines the use of GenAI for political information and news. We find that although a significant portion of the population has experimented with GenAI, its use for news remains limited. Established patterns of news consumption largely persist: news exposure and political interest are positively associated with GenAI use for news. In contrast, intentional news avoidance is not associated with such GenAI use. Importantly, we find no evidence that using GenAI for news replaces journalistic sources. An exception is observed among individuals with a lower sense of duty to stay informed, who usually have a lower tendency for news consumption and are more likely to turn to GenAI for news. These findings, GenAI’s rapid evolution, its increasing integration across various contexts, and shifting user behaviors warrant further research.Item Untangling the Future of Diamond Access(Weizenbaum Institute, 2026) Beigel, FernandaThis paper examines the future of Diamond Open Access as a non-commercial, community-driven model for scholarly publishing that challenges the growing marketization of research dissemination. Drawing on recent initiatives, such as DIAMAS, Craft-OA, the Global Diamond Summits, and ALMASI, it analyzes the existing definitions and standards for Diamond journals, highlighting efforts in Europe and Latin America to establish common criteria for quality, sustainability, and visibility. It emphasizes the need to move beyond universal rankings and impact factors toward context-sensitive federated indexing systems, such as Latindex, SciELO, Redalyc, Biblat, AJOL, or DOAJ, that reflect the diversity of academic communities. The paper argues for a re-communalization of scholarly publishing through institutional support, reliable indexation, and the recognition of multi-indexed journals as legitimate indicators of quality. Ultimately, it proposes reclaiming academic control from corporate infrastructures by reinforcing autonomy, multilingualism, and bibliodiversity in research evaluation and publication practices.Item The Regulatory Implications of Subcontracting Practices in Germany’s Location-Based Platforms(Weizenbaum Institute, 2026) Özkiziltan Wagenführer, Didem; Feuerstein, PatrickSubcontracting is becoming a dominant business model in Europe’s platform economy, enabling digital labor platforms to externalize employer responsibilities while retaining control over work through algorithmic management practices. However, it is only marginally addressed by the European Union’s Directive on Improving Working Conditions in Platform Work. This article analyses the regulatory challenges posed by subcontracting arrangements by drawing on findings from the Fairwork Germany reports and discusses emerging regulatory proposals to address them. It concludes that the Directive presents a timely opportunity to strengthen worker protections in Germany’s platform economy and promote fair working conditions for all.Item Between Policy and Market: The Role of China’s Alliance of Industrial Internet in Industrial Digitalization(Weizenbaum Institute, 2026) Zhou, WangwangExisting research on the digital transformation of production in China has largely examined the roles of government, market, and industry associations in isolation, failing to integrate them into a unified analytical framework. This study addresses this gap by investigating how the Chinese state advances manufacturing digitalization through the Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII), an institutional innovation designed to connect with the market and facilitate the digital transformation of production. Established in 2016 with government backing, the AII operates both as a political instrument for implementing national strategies and as a commercial industry association that connects, guides, and evolves the market. The findings reveal that the AII’s effectiveness is shaped by global and domestic challenges. Industrial digitalization remains uneven across sectors and regions, and the market is far from mature. Although the AII plays a significant role in coordinating state and market actors, its limited power and autonomy constrain its capacity to fully realize the overarching industrial upgrading agenda.Item Editorial: Special Issue: Well-Being in the Digital World(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025-12-18) Baumann, Annika; Gladkaya, Margarita; Krasnova, Hanna; Krause, Hannes-Vincent; Meythaler, AntoniaSecuring individual well-being represents an important societal goal. While governments across the world have introduced multiple initiatives to ensure and promote mental health, support for vulnerable population groups remains insufficient, highlighting the need for innovative approaches. Digital technologies offer the potential to enhance well-being. At the same time, their use can also result in numerous (unintended) risks. To enrich and stimulate scientific discourse in this area, this special issue presents five interdisciplinary contributions positioned at the intersection of digital technology use and users’ well-being. Topics include the effects of addictive design and dark patterns, the supportive role of online mental health communities, measuring eudaimonic virtues in technology interaction, gendered experiences and strategies for managing technostress at work, and dynamic practices of digital disconnection. Together, these papers contribute to a better understanding of the complexities behind technology use, provide a foundation for policy development, and aim to enhance societal awareness of how digital tools can shape users’ mental health and overall well-being.Item Generative AI and Changes to Knowledge Work(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025) Butollo, Florian; Haase, Jennifer; Katzinski, Ann; Krüger, Anne K.The application of generative AI (GenAI) tools has led to widespread speculation about the implications of technological change for the future of knowledge work. This article provides insights on how the use of GenAI affects work practices in the fields of IT programming, science and coaching based on expert interviews and a quantitative survey among users of GenAI. Specifically, we ask about perceptions on skills, creativity, and authenticity, which we regard as key qualities of knowledge work. Our results belie the expectation that human expertise and skills lose importance. Our study rather shows the contrary: debates and experiences with genAI help to sharpen and value the core of the professional identity. Our study thus also highlights that professions consist of more than the sum of single work tasks. They contain experiential and tacit knowledge about how to frame, prepare, and interpret work steps that are difficult to replicate by machines. However, there are also concerns that professions could be hollowed out and especially that the quality of products and services could deteriorate as automated ‘good-enough-versions’ of the former offers become commonplace.Item Pay Cashless and Be Clueless About Your Data?(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025) Jessen, MarekThis article analyzes the use practices of payment data along the payment processing chain in Europe. By first mapping the key actors involved in digital payments and their data use practices, this research offers novel insights into the multiplicity of actors that intermingle when a digital payment is made. The findings are interpreted through an adaptation of Zygmuntowski’s data governance trilemma, which seeks to balance three objectives in the context of payment data: preserving privacy, monetizing data, and enabling law enforcement. The article shows that the widespread interest in data does not stop at payment data. Preserving privacy is difficult to pinpoint due to the opacity, lack of transparency, and complexity of the data processing behind a digital payment. Meanwhile, monetizing data is a core practice for many actors, although it is pursued with varying levels of vigor. The growing availability of data poses significant risks, as information initially collected for payment processing may be used to enable law enforcement. Promising alternatives such as Wero and the digital euro could help curb the dominance of non-European players, increase transparency, and offer data-minimizing payment options.Item Disinformation Resilience in Backsliding Democracies(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025) Peißker, Antonia; Cowburn, Mike; Klinger, UlrikeSocieties’ resilience to disinformation is often linked to democratic backsliding, but the relationships between these concepts remain poorly understood. To measure structural resilience to disinformation, we expand the framework developed for consolidated Western democracies by Humprecht et al. (2020) to democracies that are experiencing varying degrees of democratic backsliding; the Visegrád Group of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Our application leads us to generate additional macro-level features that should be incorporated when thinking about disinformation resilience in states experiencing democratic backsliding. Specifically, we identify how the role of civil society operates differently depending on the level of democracy and that the value of media trust is conditioned by the degree of institutional capture, adding these complementary measures to the original framework. Our updated empirical analyses suggest that, of our cases, Slovakia had the greatest and Hungary had the least resilience to disinformation. The advancement of the framework enables its application beyond consolidated democracies by identifying additional aspects that help build structural resilience to disinformation elsewhere.Item Disconnecting in a Digital World(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025) Pohl, Merle; Wessel, Lauri; vom Brocke, JanHow individuals use or refrain from using mobile digital technology in their habitual daily practices has significant implications for their well-being. Closely related to digital well-being is the sociotechnical phenomenon of voluntary digital disconnection; a deliberate form of non-use that varies in frequency and duration. While this concept foregrounds intention, disconnection may also arise incidentally in everyday life. This study explores the phenomenon through an information systems lens and draws on sociological practice theory to examine how digital disconnection is enacted in practice, based on qualitative data from 12 interviews and 5 observations. The findings suggest that digital disconnection unfolds continuously over time, both with and without deliberate intention. Therefore, we propose digital disconnecting as a broader term that encompasses not only deliberate non-use, but also emergent, unintended forms of disconnecting. Our analysis further demonstrates that digital disconnecting unfolds along a continuum of dynamic and interrelated dimensions: temporal, mental-emotional, technical, and spatial. Importantly, regarding the spatial context, we found that places – and the placing of a digital device within them – matter for enacting digital disconnecting. Our findings further the existing understanding of disconnection strategies by highlighting that individuals may strategically use places and device placement to enact disconnecting.