https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/598 2026-04-10T19:40:27Z 2026-04-10T19:40:27Z Mayer, Maximilian Lu, Yen-Chi https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/13631 2025-11-05T17:32:23Z 2025-05-05T00:00:00Z

Global structures of digital dependence and the rise of technopoles Mayer, Maximilian; Lu, Yen-Chi What are the global structures of digital dependency, and to what extent do the US and China dominate them? How can patterns of digital dependency be understood theoretically and measured empirically? These questions are crucial for both policymakers and academics. Our paper contributes to ongoing debates on the implications of increasing asymmetries and power concentrations driven by digital transformation and the rise of platforms. Building on insights from international relations (IR), international political economy (IPE), and scholarship on (infra)structural dependencies and the weaponisation of interdependence, this article draws on a comprehensive dataset from the Digital Dependence Index (DDI) to offer a framework for mapping and theorising the global structures of digital dependency. Across three dimensions – hardware, platforms and patents – we show that high and increasing levels of digital dependence have emerged, and that the US and China can be characterised as technopoles with significant technological autonomy and great potential to weaponise infrastructure and technologies. Such a structural perspective can be used to further explore and conceptualise the nexus between digital infrastructures, dependency and autonomy on the one hand, and the emergence of a new techno-geopolitical world order on the other.

2025-05-05T00:00:00Z Rüffin, Nicolas V. Cramer, Katharina C. Tiemann, Maren https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/13347 2025-08-12T08:42:25Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

The European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as the New Normal? Rüffin, Nicolas V.; Cramer, Katharina C.; Tiemann, Maren The establishment of Research Infrastructures in Europe, often referred to as Big Science, has been a consistent focus of ad-hoc intergovernmental politics among member states and international partners since the latter half of the 20th century. In 2009, the European Commission introduced the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), a unique legal framework governed by Community law for the operation of these infrastructures. This marked a pivotal moment in the organisation and governance of Research Infrastructures. This article represents a first attempt to trace the emerging role of the ERIC framework within the Research Infrastructure landscape in Europe. Taking a historical perspective starting in the early 2000s, we explore the evolving organisation of Research Infrastructures in Europe and its effects on processes of Europeanisation. Despite the novelty of the ERIC framework, our analysis reveals significant parallels with established patterns of negotiating Big Science projects in Europe during the second half of the 20th century.

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z Montenegro, Aida Schmidt, Manuela https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/12821 2025-02-14T15:02:21Z 2023-09-08T00:00:00Z

Achievement Goals, Student Engagement, and the Mediatory Role of Autonomy Support in Lecture-Based Courses Montenegro, Aida; Schmidt, Manuela What makes first-semester students stay engaged in non-mandatory lecture-based courses? This study aims to answer this question by analyzing the relationship between student engagement with autonomy support and achievement goals. Data gathered through self-reports from 340 students attending four introductory lecture-based courses at four German universities were used to test the following hypotheses: (1) students who pursue goals for self-improvement display emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement, (2) emotional engagement is predicted by students’ perceptions of autonomy support, and (3) students who aim to outperform their peers display higher emotional engagement compared to cognitive engagement. After confirming the hypotheses with multiple regression analyses, additional results indicated a statistically significant relationship between both emotional engagement and achievement goals with autonomy. Further, results indicate a moderate positive association between emotional engagement and both behavioral and cognitive engagements. These findings confirm the presence of both mastery and performance goals in courses with a lecture-based teaching. This study highlights some limitations for statistical analyses with agentic engagement as well as the need to analyze study participants’ school culture for further research on student engagement.

2023-09-08T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/11821 2024-08-13T08:17:07Z 2023-10-02T00:00:00Z

Multivariate scaling methods and the reconstruction of social spaces Barth, Alice; Leßke, Felix; Atakan, Rebekka; Schmidt, Manuela; Scheit, Yvonne This edited volume assembles contributions of leading scholars in the fields of statistical methods and applications in the social sciences. Multivariate scaling methods for categorical data, in particular correspondence analysis, are used to extract the most important dimensions from complex data tables and to visualize relationships in the data. The volume treats recent statistical developments, methodological considerations, and empirical applications. A special emphasis is placed on multiple aspects of space and their sociological significance: the reconstruction of “social spaces” with statistical methods, illustrations of spatial relations involving proximity, distance and inequality, and concrete interactions in urban neighbourhoods. The edited volume is meant to honour the lifetime achievements of Prof. Jörg Blasius (Chair of Sociology/ Empirical Research Methods, Bonn).

2023-10-02T00:00:00Z