Vulnerabilities
Grounded in feminist theory and learning from post-colonial theory this research project by Magdalena Freudenschuß developed the concept of vulnerabilities with regard to digitalized societies. The concept of vulnerabilities is linked to a previous research project by Magdalena Freudenschuss on precarity/precarization. In this transdisciplinary strand of research insecurity and vulnerability are considered core moments of social change and its critical analysis.
Research was focussing on the societal conditions of vulnerabilities: What are digital media contribuiting to bodily, economic, social, juridical, emotional and political vulnerabilities of subjects? Which and whose vulnerabilities are put forward by activists and civil society agents recurring to, communicating through and constituting themselves along digital media? The research project tackled these questions through a sociological approach to discourse analysis. However, this approach was extended by agent oriented research strategies and also a profound analysis of the material conditions of media production.
The project aimed at an outline for further research and political intervention which is sensitive to social inequalities and able to grasp them within the changing conditions of digitalized societies. By inquiring into the concept of vulnerabilities the project enriched the critical, feminist repertoire of research on digital media.
This project was part of the research project Art and Civic Media within the EU major project Innovation Incubator.