Andreas Hepp and Hendrik Kühn on the Work Package “Prototypes of Social Cohesion”

At ZeMKI, Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp leads the work package “Prototypes of Social Cohesion”, supported by Hendrik Kühn, who works as a research associate.

While major platforms such as Facebook, X, or TikTok are often studied in relation to hate speech, radicalization, and polarization, this work package within the research and transfer program of the Research Institute for Social Cohesion (FGZ) focuses on alternative approaches. Instead of established social media platforms, it examines pioneer communities and alternative platform models in order to explore their potential for fostering social cohesion.

The Research Institute for Social Cohesion (FGZ), funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), is an interdisciplinary and transfer-oriented institute with eleven locations across Germany. In its second funding phase, the focus lies on the multiple crises of social and particularly democratic cohesion that challenge and threaten to undermine it. Digital infrastructures play a central role in this context.

The project examines groups from the fields of Civic Hacking, Data Activism, Platform Cooperativism, and Future Journalism that experiment with digital media, highlight social issues, and develop alternative solutions. At its core, the research explores their visions of cohesion and future society: What do these groups criticize about the current use and regulation of digital technologies? What prototypical concepts do they design to foster social cohesion through digital platforms? And what kinds of possible futures do they imagine?

The study follows an interdisciplinary, media-ethnographic research design that combines interviews, event observations, and document analyses. In addition, transfer-oriented future workshops with citizens will be conducted to discuss the everyday potentials of such visionary concepts. The aim is to share knowledge about innovative ideas of social cohesion and to encourage participation in alternative platform models.

Here, you can find more information on the work package: https://zemki.maltem.de/en/forschungsprojekt/prototypes-of-social-cohesion/