Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research (BIM)


Alexander Harder

alexander.harder@hu-berlin.de

 

                                                                               Photo: Lena Ures " (https://lenaures.com) / Screenshot: BIM
 

  • Scientific assistant in the project „The Social Life of XG.
    Digital infrastructures and the reconfiguration of sovereignty
    and imagined communities“

 

phone: +49 (0)30 2093-46255
alexander.harder@hu-berlin.de

Profile ZIS

 

Profile

  

Alexander Harder is a research associate at the Institute of European Ethnology and at the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research (BIM) at Humboldt University of Berlin. From 2022 to 2025, he worked on the research project "The Social Life of XG – Digital Infrastructures and the Reconfiguration of Sovereignty and Imagined Communities," focusing on the imaginations and ideologies of digital infrastructures.
 
From 2019 to 2022, he researched in the project "Cultures of Rejection: Conditions of Acceptability in Socio-Spatial and Digital Environments in Contemporary Europe," exploring the everyday entrenchment of the European rightward shift. He is a member of the lab "Culture, Society and the Digital."
   

Curriculum Vitae

   

  • Since January 2021: Research associate at the Institute of European Ethnology (IfEE) / Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research (BIM), Humboldt University of Berlin.  
  • January 2019 to December 2020: Research associate at the Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC) / Institute for Sociology and Cultural Organization (ISKO), Leuphana University of Lüneburg.  
  • July 2015 – July 2016: Q-Tutor at the Bologna.Lab of HU-Berlin, Research Tutorial "Serious (Video) Games: Investigating the Intersections of Image/Play/Virtuality."  
  • October 2014 – February 2019: MA in Gender Studies at the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin.  
  • October 2012 – July 2013: Study abroad at the University of California, San Diego.  
  • October 2010 – July 2014: B.A. in Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin.

     

Research focus

 

From 2019 to 2022, I conducted research in the project "Cultures of Rejection: Conditions of Acceptability in Socio-Spatial and Digital Environments in Contemporary Europe," focusing on the everyday entrenchment of the European rightward shift. My interest included narratives about the transformation of work and daily life triggered by processes of digitalization, as well as the restructuring of social spaces and political public spheres through digital media.
 
Since 2022, I have been working on the project "The Social Life of XG – Digital Infrastructures and the Reconfiguration of Sovereignty and Imagined Communities" (2022-2025), which examines the imaginations and ideologies of digital infrastructures. The digitalization drives aimed at "sovereignty"—such as the expansion of mobile networks or the establishment of semiconductor production—are particularly interesting. What does this "new" sovereignty concretely mean, who are the subjects of "digital sovereignty," and how and where do their infrastructures manifest in everyday life? I pursue these interests further in collaborative projects (Circle-U 2023: "Grounding Crypto" with Bernd Kasparek, Tobias Boos, Juan Grigera) as well as seminars (Winter Semester 22/23: "Code, Computation, Culture" with Bernd Kasparek).

Research Interests:

  • Anthropology of digital/programmable infrastructures
  • Transformation of work and social reproduction
  • Research on right-wing populism and racism
  • Structures of digital media public spheres
  • Digitalization and geopolitics
  • Theories of media

 

Publications (Selection)

 

  • Forthcoming: Vom Netzwerk zum Stapel. Neue Allegorien für die ethnografische Erforschung des Digitalen. Berliner Blätter (mit Manuela Bojadžijev)
  • 2025: "KI-Modelle sind Trojanische Pferde” – Im Gespräch mit Cecilia Rikap. Das Tagebuch. Zeitschrift für Auseinandersetzung
  • 2023: “Special Issue: Digital Truth-making: Anthropological Perspectives on Right-wing Politics and Social Media in "Post-truth" Societies”, Ethnologia Europaea 53(2), 1–20. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ee.9594 (mit Bareither, C. & Eckhardt, D.)
  • 2023: »Everything has changed«: right-wing politics and experiences of transformation among German retail workers. In: Patterns of Predjudice 56 (4-5), 219-235. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2023.2214421
  • 2023 "Of Cars and Riots". In: Boasblog "Undoing Race and Racism". www.boasblog.org.
  • 2022 Cultures of Rejection in the COVID-Crisis. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/25407. (Herausgegeben mit Manuela Bojadžijev)
  • 2022: Cultures of rejection at work: Investigating the acceptability of authoritarian populism. In: Ethnicities, 22(3), 425-455. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968211012. (mit Benjamin Opratko)
  • 2021: Autoritärer Populismus und Krisen des Alltags. Erste Einblicke in »Ablehnungskulturen«. Widersprüche, Band 162.
  • 2021: Sozialer Zusammenhalt und das Gefühl, fremd im eigenen Land zu sein. Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (mit Manuela Bojadžijev)
  • 2021: Kein Schaf sein. Die Kultur der Ablehnung und Ihr Klassencharakter. In: LuXemburg 05/2021 (mit Benjamin Opratko)
  • 2021: Digitale Abründe. In: Das Tagebuch. Zeitschrift für Auseinandersetzung 05/2021 (mit Benjamin Opratko)
  • 2021: Cultures of rejection in the Covid-19 crisis. In: Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(5), 893–905. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1859575.(mit Opratko, B., Bojadžijev, M., Bojanić, S. M., Fiket, I., Jonsson, S., Nećak, M., Neegard, A., Ortega Soto, C., Pudar Draško, G., Sauer, B., & Stojanović Čehajić, K)
  • 2020: Konferenzbericht »Anthropologists Struggling with Neo-Nationalism and Authoritarianism: Challenges for Ethnography in Turbulent Times«. Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 1/2020.
  • 2018: Gorillataktik. Der Freitag 24/2018.
  • 2018: Die Angst vor dem Feminismus. Jungle World 18/2018

   

 

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