Sebastian Berg
Contact
Hardenbergstraße 32
D-10623 Berlin
Sebastian Berg is a political theorist in the research group “Technology, Power, and Domination“ and a member of the research group “Globalization, Work, and Production“ at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. He studied Political Science and Public Law and has conducted research and taught at FU Berlin, Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, and Princeton University.
His current research is devoted to a critical theory of digital statehood: he examines how, in the course of administrative digitalization and the growing penetration of state structures by private actors, digital infrastructures as well as political institutions are subjected to a profound transformation – and what shifts in political relations of domination ensue, reverberating in contested concepts such as digital sovereignty and democratic self-determination.
He further pursues research on theories and approaches to digital democracy, democratic representation, and political phenomenology. In his dissertation Operations at the Site of Power. A Critique of the Political in the Digital Constellation, he draws on the work of Claude Lefort to develop a critical-phenomenological perspective on the principle of operativity – at once a generative core principle of digital technology and an emergent political and social ordering principle – interrogating it with regard to its implications for democratic theory.
Research fields
Selected Publications
2026: "It’s the objectives, stupid! Literary essay on 'The Means of Prediction. How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits)' von Maximilian Kasy." (with Ann-Kathrin Koster) on Soziopolis – Gesellschaft beobachten.
2023: "Im Maschinenraum politischer Repräsentation: Über den Umgang mit politischen Grundbegriffen in der digitalen Konstellation“, in: Tobias Adler-Bartels et al. (eds.): Politische Grundbegriffe im 21. Jahrhundert. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 365-388. PDF
*2023: "Innovating Democracy? Analyzing the #WirVsVirus Hackathon", in Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society 3(1) (with Thorsten Thiel, Niklas Rakowski, Veza Clute-Simon). PDF
2023: “Nachhaltige Updates statt disruptiver Innovation – Kommentar zum ZPTH-Artikel von Robert Brumme und Dennis Bastian Rudolf” (with Ann-Kathrin Koster) on theorieblog.de
2023: "Algorithmen der Alterität –Alterität der Algorithmen. Überlegungen zu einem komplexen Verhältnis", in Algorithmen der Alterität - Alterität der Algorithmen, Sonderheft Behemoth. A Journal of Civilization 15(2), 1-16 (with Ann-Kathrin Koster, Felix Maschewski, Tobias Matzner & Anna-Verena Nosthoff). PDF
2023: Algorithmen der Alterität - Alterität der Algorithmen, Sonderheft Behemoth. A Journal of Civilization 15(2) (editor with Ann-Kathrin Koster, Felix Maschewski, Tobias Matzner & Anna-Verena Nosthoff). PDF
2022:
2022: Political Theory of the Digital Constellation, Special Issue Journal of Political Science (Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft) 32(2) (editor, with Daniel Staemmler & Thorsten Thiel).
2022: "Political Theory of the Digital Constellation", in Sebastian Berg, Daniel Staemmler & Thorsten Thiel (ed.) Political Theory of the Digital Constellation, Special Issue Journal of Political Science (Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft) 32(2) (with Daniel Staemmler & Thorsten Thiel). PDF
*2021: "Digital democracy", in Internet Policy Review 10 (4) (with Jeanette Hofmann). PDF
2021: "#WirVsVirus Hackathon: Wie die digitale Zivilgesellschaft die Politik erreicht – und warum sich das Versprechen auf Demokratisierung dennoch nicht einlöst" (with Veza Clute-Simon, Rebecca-Lea Freudl, Niklas Rakowski & Thorsten Thiel), on dvpw.de
*2021: "Civic Hackathons und der Formwandel der Demokratie. Eine repräsentationstheoretische Analyse von #WirVsVirus.", in Politische Vierteljahresschrift 62, 621-642 (with Veza Clute-Simon, Rebecca-Lea Freudl, Niklas Rakowski & Thorsten Thiel). PDF
2021: „UpdateDeutschland: Zivilgesellschaft im Wettbewerbsformat“ (with Daniel Staemmler), on netzpolitik.org
2021: "Die Unmittelbarkeit der Daten. Auch digitale Demokratie kann auf politische Repräsentation nicht verzichten", in WZB Mitteilungen Von Computern und Menschen (171), 12-14. PDF
2020: "The Digital Constellation", in Weizenbaum Series, 14. Berlin: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute (with Niklas Rakowski & Thorsten Thiel). PDF
2020: "Zur Konstitution der digitalen Gesellschaft. Alternative Infrastrukturen als Element demokratischer Digitalisierung", in: Isabelle Borucki and Michael T. Oswald (eds.): Demokratietheorie im Zeitalter der Frühdigitalisierung. Wiesbaden: Springer (with Daniel Staemmler). PDF
*2020: Political Opinion Formation as Epistemic Practice: The Hashtag Assemblage of #metwo, in Emiliana De Blasio, Marianne Kneuer, Wolf J. Schünemann and Michele Sorice (eds.): The Ongoing Transformation of the Digital Public Sphere, Special Issue Media and Communication 8 (4), 84-95 (with Ann-Kathrin Koster & Tim König). PDF
2020: "Krisen-Experiment. Wie der Hackathon #WirVsVirus neue Formen demokratischer Beteiligung erprobt.", in WZB Mitteilungen (168), 30-32 (with Veza Clute-Simon, Rebecca-Lea Korinek, Niklas Rakowski & Thorsten Thiel). PDF
*2020: "Widerstand und die Formierung von Ordnung in der digitalen Konstellation", in: Robin Celikates and Frauke Höntzsch (eds.): Transnationaler Widerstand. Special Issue Zeitschrift für Politische Theorie (with Thorsten Thiel), 67-86. PDF
*2020: "Die digitale Konstellation – eine Positionsbestimmung", in Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 20, 171-191 (with Niklas Rakowski und Thorsten Thiel). PDF
2019: "The Internet enables organizing without organization", in: Matthias C. Kettemann und Stephan Dreyer (eds.): Busted! The Truth About the 50 Most Common Internet Myths. Hamburg: Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), 142-145. PDF
2018: "Materielle Grenzziehungen der Demokratie – ein Tagungsbericht als Spurensuche" (with Ann-Kathrin Koster), on theorieblog.de.
2018: „Politisches Gestalten als Herausforderung der Digitalisierung“, in: Stalder, Wolfgang (ed.): Mehr als Algorithmen? Digitalisierung in Gesellschaft und Sozialer Arbeit, Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa, pp. 40-48. PDF
2018: „Ein neues Recht für die digitale Gesellschaft? Tagungsbericht ‚Künstliche Intelligenz und Demokratie‘ (Trier)“ (with Florian Eyert), on theorieblog.de
CV
Since 07/2023
Fellow Weizenbaum Institute, Research Group Technology, Power, and Domination
Since 04/2023
Guest Researcher WZB Berlin Social Science Center, "Politics of Digitalization"
Since 04/2023
Research Associate Helmut Schmidt-University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, Chair for Political Science, in particular Political Theory
Since 2021
Research Affiliate Critical Data Lab
11/2017 - 03/2022
Research Associate WZB Berlin Social Science Center, "Politics of Digitalization"
02/2020 – 04/2020
Fellow at the Politics Department, Princeton University
11/2017 – 09/2022
Research associate at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, research group “Democracy and Digitalization”
10/2011 – 12/2017
Studies in Political Science and Public Law at Trier University (M.A.)