Department of Communication
Room: E 224
D-48143 Münster
Phone: +49 251 83-23004
sigrid.kannengiesser@uni-muenster.de
Consultation-hours
Appointments for consultation hours can be made via Learnweb.
The team of the research area "Media Sociology and Sustainability" deals with sustainability in the sense of socio-ecological-economic justice from a media sociological perspective. The focus is on the socio-ecological-economic consequences of digitization, datafication and automated communication with artificial intelligence, as well as on sustainability (in the sense of a just) design of digital media technologies and infrastructures of artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the question of how digital media and technologies of automated communication can be used to empower discriminated and marginalized actors is explored. Moreover, collectives and social movements are analyzed, in which actors network in order to shape digitalization, datafication and automated communication and other social processes in a just way. Overall, the question of how media (technologies) can be used for a good life is thematized.
Prof. Dr. habil. Sigrid Kannengießer is professor of Communication Studies with a focus on Media Sociology. Previously, she was professor of Communication and Media Studies with a focus on Media Society at the University of Bremen. She rejected appointments as a professor to the University of Paderborn and the Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen.
She was scientific manager of the artec Sustainability Research Center at the University of Bremen and research associate at the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research at the University of Bremen, at the Center for Transnational Studies at the Universities of Oldenburg and Bremen, and at the Department of Language, Literature and Media at the University of Hamburg.
Her second book (Habilitationsschrift) "Digital Media and Sustainability. Media Practices for a Good Life“ was funded as an „Independent Postdoc Project" by the Central Research Development Fund of the University of Bremen and her PhD project on "Translocal Empowerment Communication. Media. Globalization. Women's Organizations" by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The dissertation was awarded the Bremen Study Prize.
She studied Film and Television Studies and Political Science at the Ruhr University in Bochum and Media Culture and Political Science at the University of Hamburg, where she completed her master's degree (Magistra Artium).
Sigrid Kannengießer was chair of the section Sociology of Media Communication of the German Association of Communication Studies (DGPuK) and is co-editor of the book series Media - Culture - Communication (Springer VS) and Critical Studies in Media and Communication (transcript).
Duration: 01.04.2025 - 31.03.2028
Funding: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt
The inter- and transdisciplinary project ‘Making the future palatable’ is establishing a real-world laboratory in Tecklenburg to contribute to the practical and inclusive implementation of the municipal sustainability strategy. The aim is to promote the transformative resilience of the region and those involved in the context of multiple crises.
The multi-layered crises and processes of change, such as the climate crisis, wars, species extinction, social division and demographic change, highlight the need for far-reaching transformations, but they also cause uncertainty and fear. To ensure that democratic structures and processes are not further threatened, transformative approaches to education and action are needed to help turn insecurities and fears into courage, curiosity and confidence. However, in order for the potential and opportunities of change to take centre stage rather than the risks, people need to experience a sense of self-efficacy and the ability to shape the future. The motivation and encouragement to actively shape the future in this way is the guiding principle behind the concept of the real-world laboratory project.
Concrete solutions for upcoming challenges are trialled in real-world laboratories. The focus is on joint action and learning by different stakeholders. In this way, local transformation processes are supported. At the same time, the Tecklenburg living lab acts as a prototype and enables transfer to other regions and target groups. As part of the project, future modules are being developed that focus on individual transformation challenges and tie in with the fields of action of the sustainability strategy. Prof. Dr Sigrid Kannengießer is responsible for the future modules on ‘Sustainable digitalisation and artificial intelligence in municipalities’ together with Dr Lea Püchel (Business Informatics, University of Münster). The future modules take the form of ‘Utopia Dinners’.
The project is being implemented by various members of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research and is headed by Prof. Dr Tillmann Butschardt.
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Duration: 01.01.2024 - 31.10.2025
The aim of the project is to analyze current governance processes, networks and practices at universities that pursue the goal of sustainability. A qualitative empirical study is conducted on the theoretical basis of sociological practice theory, governance concepts for universities, network theory, sustainability concepts and existing research on sustainability practices at universities. In this study, the research question is posed: Which governance processes, network structures and sustainability practices do actors from different university status groups (Whole Institutional Approach) use to make universities more sustainable and what specific goals are they pursuing? This question is answered through an empirical study that triangulates qualitative interviews, non-participant observations and focus groups. Problems and ambivalences in the practices and goals of the actors are reconstructed. As part of the collaborative research project "Bremen Goes Sustainable. A university region on the way to sustainability", the project focuses the university landscape in Bremen, Germany, as an example, but draws transferable findings from the results for other universities.
Duration: 01.04.2024 - 31.3.2025
Project funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (joint project, joint coordination: University of Münster)
Hydrogen is being discussed in political discourse as one of the key technologies for the energy transition and social transformation. Stakeholders from various industrial sectors also see this as an opportunity to enable the necessary industrial transformation with the aim of achieving climate neutrality. At the same time, politicians and industry believe that hydrogen has the potential to address recurring economic problems in the German economy. But how is hydrogen being discussed in social discourse? What issues are being discussed in connection with hydrogen? What potential and challenges are attributed to hydrogen? Who has a say in this discourse and how do these actors assess hydrogen in terms of sustainability and innovative capacity? How can the development and positioning of the players in hydrogen policy and industry be expected?
In order to analyse the social discourse with a focus on these research questions, the content of journalistic news media is the focus of this BMBF-funded project, as they both depict further social debates and influence them through their own reporting.
The focus is on national print media in Germany. A quantitative content analysis traces the development of reporting and records the dominant topics and actors in the hydrogen discourse. A qualitative content analysis examines the media frames and thus the way in which hydrogen is represented as well as the attribution of meaning to the technology. Furthermore, the perspective of the actors who have their say in this discourse is reconstructed. Based on this analysis, ontologies will be created and the extent to which the results of the media content analysis can be incorporated into agent-related modelling will be examined in order to improve them and to model the behaviour of actors in the hydrogen industry and policy.
The one-year project is being carried out in collaboration with the communication scientists Prof. Dr Sigrid Kannengießer, Dr Stephan Görland and Dr Bernadette Uth from the University of Münster in cooperation with the Department of Resilient Energy Systems at the University of Bremen under the direction of Dr Torben Stührmann.
Duration: 1.3.2023 - 28.2.2026
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
How and why do actors in industry, politics and sciences that focuses on hydrogen network and what role do (online) media play in this networking? This is one of the central research questions in the project. Communication strategies and communication practices of actors in the hydrogen industry, policy and sciences as well as their goals for networking are examined. Online platforms that are used for networking are also analyzed. The relevance of media technologies for socio-ecological transformation and sustainability is an overarching question and is viewed from a critical social science perspective. The project is thus located in the research fields of energy communication and sustainability research as well as qualitative network analysis. As a transformative project, it is designed to support the networking of actors from the hydrogen industry, policy and sciences. The project is part of the collaborative research project "hyBit - hydrogen for Bremen's industrial transformation".
Duration: 1.10.2022 - 30.9.2023
The recent rise of extreme right-wing ideologies has become a threat to democracy. In Brazil's brief democratic history, citizens have traditionally organized 'Fora' (‘Out’) protests to voice disapproval of governments and politicians. Seeking to investigate how progressive initiatives used the slogan 'Fora' to mobilize against Bolsonarism in Brazil, this article presents the results of a qualitative study of the Fora Bolsonaro campaign on Twitter. Founded by left-wing political parties, unions, popular movements, and civil society organizations, the campaign responded to Jair Bolsonaro's far-right policies and rhetoric. It aimed at removing the president from office and promoting a more inclusive political system. This study is an analysis of the campaign’s Twitter account — @forabolsonarona — as an example of a media activist tool to contest, expose and call for the president's removal. Through an examination of the campaign's goals and criticisms, the study offers insights into how the ‘Fora’ tradition is manifested in the age of skillful use of social media and mobile applications by political parties, politicians, and activists. Through a grounded-theoretical, qualitative analysis of Twitter posts from the Fora Bolsonaro Twitter account, the findings reveal how the campaign centered on safeguarding democracy and combating authoritarianism by focusing on four key themes: militarization, attacks on the electoral system, fake news, and erosion of social rights.
Duration: 1.10.2022-30.9.2023
Sustainability is a relevant topic for gender studies in communication and media studies, not only because sustainability topics in communication and media studies can and should be analyzed from a gender perspective, but also because gender-related media outlets take up the topic of sustainability: for example, women's magazines, which are traditionally the subject of gender studies in communication and media studies and which now also deal with sustainability as a topic. Of particular interest at the connection between sustainability and women's magazines in Germany is the magazine Brigitte BE GREEN, which, as a "line extension" of the women's magazine Brigitte, explicitly focuses on sustainability as a topic in its issues. Brigitte BE GREEN was published twice a year from 2019 to 2023.
The project investigated the following research questions in a qualitative study: What meaning of sustainability is constructed in Brigitte BE GREEN? Which products and practices are characterized and presented as sustainable? What norms and values are constructed in Brigitte BE GREEN and what does this mean for gender roles? To answer these questions, a qualitative content analysis was triangulated with an image analysis. All issues of Brigitte Be Green were used as a sample.
Duration: 1.1.2022 – 31.12.2022
The safety measures and restrictions imposed by the German federal government to protect people during the Covid 19 pandemic led to the formation of a protest movement, the “Querdenken”-movement, which criticized, among other things, the restrictions on freedom of assembly. In their criticism, the "Querdenkenden" referred to the norms of democracy and freedom, which they saw endangered by the restrictions. In order to retrospectively understand the argumentation of the “Querdenken”-movement, an analysis of selected Twitter profiles of the movement was conducted and central themes as well as strands of argumentation were examined. In the process, fractures and ambivalences in the narratives around democracy and freedom became apparent.
Duration: 1.6.2015 bis 30.4.2020
Funded by the Central Research Development Fund oft he University of Bremen
How do individuals, non-governmental organizations and companies use digital media to contribute to sustainability? The project investigated this question on the basis of the reconstruction of the socio-ecological-economic consequences of digitalization. Three case studies were used to show how different actors (want to) make digitalization more sustainable: In addition to the repair of media technologies in repair cafés, the production and appropriation of fair media technologies was examined using the example of the Fairphone, as well as online platforms that promote sustainable consumption using the example of utopia.de. For the qualitative study, qualitative interviews were triangulated with non-participant observations, qualitative content analysis and virtual ethnography. Theoretical concepts of media practices, materiality of digital media technologies, media ethics and social movements were used as a theoretical framework alongside sustainability research in communication and media studies. The comparative analysis also highlighted contradictions and ambivalences in the objectives and practices.
Publications in English, e.g.:
Duration: 1.3.2009 - 28.2.2012
PhD project funded by the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation
How do civil society actors appropriate digital media for translocal networking and local empowerment projects? This question was investigated using the case study of a network of women's organizations, the Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme. One of the aims of the empirical study was to analyze media and mediatized communication in the work of civil society actors. Analyzing the local network level, workshops for digital storytelling (with HIV activists and sex workers) in South Africa were examined. In bringing together the results of the analysis of the local and translocal network levels, the theoretical concept of translocal empowerment communication was developed, which reveals moments of empowerment and power structures and highlights inequalities within the network and between the network and its environment.
Publications in English, e.g.:
(online those in English language)