TEC_KNO_logical Activities

Despite all the skepticism and debate about limitations and dangers, current discussions in the field of qualitative research deal less with whether AI technologies can be used at all and more with the “how”. There do exist proposals on how AI can be used as an element in data interpretation, evaluation software integrates functions and there are attempts to use AI as a co-interpreter in research workshops/groups. This gives the impression of an infinite wealth of possibilities. However, there are also initial sobering experiences from research practice that show that the development of useful application scenarios for AI in qualitative research is still in its infancy. Against this background, the symposium will comment on the developments and discuss the challenges, whereby the focus is not limited to AI in data analysis, but includes all other phases of research: from researching the current state of research, formulating the research question and developing “instruments” (guidelines etc.) to the presentation of research results (including visual animations). Aspects of research ethics and questions of “good scientific practice” in general are also examined.

“Technicalization of knowledge – Interventions in the sources of certainty of everyday action”: Sociology of knowledge does not use the concept of knowledge to address epistemological problems. Its subject are the pragmatic and social-communicative sources of certainty on which our actions are based, as well as the problematic nature of these sources of certainty and, not least, their social processing and transformation. In this sense, it is necessary to describe the extent to which the sources of certainty of everyday actions change not only in the context of religious or political processes, but also in the context of the development and use of complex digital technologies.

Tagung: Die Zukunft der Tradition

As part of the exhibition „Sieh dir die Menschen an! Das neusachliche Typenporträt im Kontext der Weimarer Zeit“, the Gunzenhauser Museum, the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz and Chemnitz University of Technology are organizing a lecture series on the subject of "Measurement, Normalization, Classification". In our lecture, we will look at concepts of ‘the human’ and ‘the social’ in technological design. We will trace the paths and aberrations of anthropomorphism and discuss current developments towards a sociomorphic technology design.

The German Summer School for Human Factors 2023 had the theme “Technology for Good”. All contributions consider how their research could serve the “greater good” of individuals and society.
The event was organized for postgraduate students (Masters & PhD) and postdoctoral researchers interested in how humans perceive, reason and feel about, and behave with technical systems. The objective of the Summer School for Human Factors was to offer a space for early-career researchers (ECRs) to connect with one another and to help each other with planning, interpreting, and handling problems encountered during one’s early scientific career. Beside the support from other ECRs, the summer school has been attended by invited late-career researchers to provide constructive scientific and career feedback This was a free event for all members of the DGPs (and affiliates).

official website

The spread of digital media has brought about new everyday uses of images and other visual artifacts and is significantly changing social life and social communication. Consequently, face-to-face relationships are medialized, and bodily references are transformed, not least in technical interfaces such as interaction with robots. In digital and especially social media, photographs become a means of expression of personal self-presentation and social self-location. Videos are not only presented to document experiences and events but, in their use on portals such as YouTube or TikTok, also prove to be a way of participating in public discourses against the background of visual media. All this has consequences for the theoretical understanding of the interplay of communication, interaction and action. The challenge of developing adequate concepts in view of new social realities is accompanied by the methodological challenge of designing appropriate social science analyses of these constantly changing and newly emerging phenomena.

www.qualitative-research.net

Technology is developed by people for people and is used by individuals for their own goals, for cooperating in organizations for common goals and the goals of others, for communication, as an instrument of discovery, and for technically mediated access to the world. Technology is a cultural achievement that has human society as a prerequisite while having an impact on human societies and changing the world as a living space. The area of Humans and Technology is one of three Core Competencies of the Chemnitz University of Technology and the one in which the Faculty of Humanities plays a key role.
This was a one-day retreat to demonstrate the potential of good collaboration and develop new research strategies, hosted by the eponymous professorship of Humans and Technology in the Virtual Environment Learning Lab.