Digital Collectives. Educational-Theoretical Analyses for a Culture of Digitality
This habilitation project asks how a theory of Bildung can be reformulated under the conditions of a culture of digitality. Its focus is the notion of the in-between as a space of the undecided — a space that dwindles in binary-algorithmic structures, and with it the basis of a critically reflexive relation to oneself, to others, and to the world.
The starting point of this habilitation is the question of how a theory of Bildung can be reformulated under the conditions of a culture of digitality, and what possibilities remain for autonomy and maturity within binary-algorithmic structures. Its focus is the notion of the in-between, understood as a space of the undecided. In binary-algorithmic structures, which are carried by unambiguity and classification, spaces of the undecided — of vagueness, negotiation, and virtuality, all of which point to contingency — are dwindling. Yet these spaces are elementary for a critically reflexive relation of human beings to themselves, to others, and to the world: the very foundation of theories of Bildung, which the habilitation connects, among other concepts, to the notion of disruption.
At the centre of the research design stands a concept of Bildung that can connect to forthcoming research questions in cultures of the digital. To develop it, classical models and ideas of the Bildung discourse are taken up, discussed and advanced under the new cultural conditions, and, in a concluding section, a concept of Bildung is developed against the background of collectives.