FOR 2252:  Media and Participation. Between demand and entitlement

Our theory of‘media participation is based on a processual mediality, which en- or disables the relational assemblages and heterogeneous configurations of participation. Participation can thus be described through processes of mediatisation and their co-constitutive relations. In the proceeding phase we will accentuate the historical and political dimensions in the context of negotiating possible alternatives within modernity. This not only allows for a critical observation of ‚relationality‘ in the field of relational anthropology, but also for a specific kind of theorisation, by which precarious subjects and their sociocultural, political and economic enivronmentalities are thought as co-constitutive. Based on the research of the first phase we identified theoretical problems that will now be addressed both in case studies and in theory. With regard to the research conducted in the sub-projects, we will further develop Nancy’s radical ontological concept of ‘community’ in socio-political, techno-ecological and economic discourses of ‘the common’. In doing so, we will strengthen the aspect of practices and especially that of processual constitution. Also, we will address current discourses on the interconnection between capitalist economy and ecology that has become more and more significant in discussions about communities and collectives. Against the background of the first phase, we specify a media theroy of processes of participation following three modalities: interconnecting (TP, 1, 2, 3), temporalising (TP 3,4) and criticising (TP 1,5). These modalities can be understood as systematic extensions to the modalities that guided the first phase (co-existence – ‘Mitsprechen’, promises – ‘Versprechen’ and dissent – ‘Widersprechen’). Based on these central modalities, we will broaden our perspective to include non-verbal operations, such as sensory-affective interconnections. Furthermore, we will not address the modality of promise as a utopian vision, but instead analyse the immanent temporalisation of participation processes. The modality of dissent will be conceptualized as a means of analysing specific forms of a participatory criticism taking into account the relationality of power relations that come into being in the course of such processes. The description and analysis of different media assemblages in the sub-projects will provide fundamental insights into the socio-technical interconnections and the specific temporalities that generate new forms of participatory criticism and can therefore serve as the basis for a theory of media participation. All sub-projects’ research is founded in the concept of processual mediality and a methodological approach combining both discourse history and discourse analysis with praxeological methods. The sub-projects will use texts, pictures, interviews and data as objects to their extended discourse analysis (TP 1, 2, 5) as well as studies of practices visualised by digital processes (TP 3, 4).

DFG Programme Research Units

International Connection Switzerland

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Ochsner, Beate )
• Elements of a Critical Theory of Media and Participation (Applicant Hörl, Erich )
• Media Cultures of Streaming: Temporality, Infrastructure and Valuation (Applicant Stäheli, Urs )
• Participatory Critique as Transforming and Transversal "With" (Applicant Brunner, Christoph )
• Smartphone-Communities. Dynamics of Resistance in Relations of Participation (Applicant Otto, Isabell )
• Techno-sensory processes of participation. App-practices and Dis/Ability (Applicant Ochsner, Beate )

Spokesperson Professorin Dr. Beate Ochsner