1st year Digitization Research Network North East
1st year of the Digitalization Research Network North East
02.08.2024, 15:00-16:30
Contributions from the founding members
Event notice for the online lecture and discussion series 2023/2024
At first glance, technology and Social Work seem like two subject areas that do not have much in common. However, Social Work is always closely linked to technological progress, as this always leads to transformation processes of living environments. This is associated with new modes of communication and changed forms of social coexistence. This can result in new challenges and social problems for both individuals and social groups, which Social Work addresses as a human rights profession. It accompanies social change, empowers marginalized people and stands up for the protection of their fundamental rights.
In recent decades, digital technologies in particular have led to fundamental transformations in the social sphere. On the one hand, digital technologies offer new opportunities for networking, communication and the creation of knowledge, such as the Internet of Things, virtual realities, artificial intelligence and assistive technologies. On the other hand, they open up challenges such as digital inequalities and can lead to conflict-laden consequences of human-machine interactions.
Social Work is challenged by this technological progress on several levels: It is confronted both with its own organizational mechanization and with the mediatized lifeworlds of its addressees as well as socio-technical interactions between humans and machines. In addition, Social Work is faced with the question of how it can accompany technologically induced transformation processes to protect human rights and needs.
Despite the diverse processes of technologization, digitalization and mediatization in Social Work, research into the influences and consequences, potentials and limits of digital-technological transformations in Social Work as well as the teaching of these topics are underrepresented in university curricula.
To change this, the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, the Catholic University of Applied Social Sciences Berlin, the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg and the Center for Constructive Education Sciences e. V. have founded the Digitalization Research Network Northeast.
The focus of their joint work is to promote and focus research into mechanization, digitalization and mediatization in the discipline and profession of social work. There will be an open discourse on the topics with an online lecture series/colloquium in which insights from theory and practice will be discussed. The network members will supervise theses across universities, test cooperative seminars and publish an anthology to reflect the current discourse on the topic. The network will also be expanded beyond its founding members.
The Digitalization Research Network Northeast is funded by the Innovation Fund of the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences in the "Educating Society" profile line and is intended to connect universities and create a basis for cooperation in research and teaching on the topics of technologization, digitalization and mediatization in Social Work.
The lectures and discussions will take place in a hybrid format.
Online event
Link zur Veranstaltung