Muhle, Florian | Germany

Actually, Florian Muhle is a PhD student at the 'Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology' at Bielefeld University (Germany). In his doctoral thesis he investigates whether and how (humanoid) machines, especially so-called embodied conversational agents, can become social actors in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Therefore, he conducts social-theoretical reasoning as well as empirical research of CMC.

Florian got his MA in Interdisciplinary Media Studies at Bielefeld University in autumn 2007. From 2008 to 2011 he was a scholarship holder at the Research Training Group Automatisms at the University of Paderborn. His research interests include science and technology studies, media studies, social theory and qualitative research methods.

Project at IAS-STS: Drifting ice floes: Enacting common knowledge of climate change

Florian will finish his doctoral thesis in winter 2011/12. This means, that he will use the fellowship at the IAS-STS for a start-up of his postdoctoral thesis. The planned research project Drifting Ice Floes: Enacting common knowledge of climate change aims to analyse (1) the scientific production of knowledge about climate change and (2) its transformation into public knowledge which can be distributed by mass media. For this purpose, it is planned to follow drifting ice floes on their journey from the Arctic Sea into scientific reports, their circulation within a scientific organization onward into press releases for the public. In doing so the research project connects reasoning from different research fields like STS, material semiotics, media studies and Niklas Luhmann's theory of modern society.
 

Selected Publications

Edited Book

Conradi, T., Derwanz, H. & Muhle, F. (Eds.) (2011): Strukturentstehung durch Verflechtung. Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie(n) und Automatismen. München: Fink.

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Conradi, T. & Muhle, F. (2011): Verbinden oder trennen? Über das schwierige Verhältnis der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie zur Kritik. In: Conradi, T., Derwanz, H. & Muhle, F. (Eds.): Strukturentstehung durch Verflechtung. Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie(n) und Automatismen. München: Fink, 313-334.

Muhle, F. (2010): Social machines? Critical refections on the agency of 'Embodied Conversational Agents'. In: Getzinger, Günter; Karner, Sandra (Eds.): Proceedings 9th Annual IAS-STS Conference: Critical Issues in Science and Technology Studies.

Muhle, F. (2008): „Versteh ich grad nicht“ – Mensch-Maschine-Kommunikation als Problem. In: kommunikation@gesellschaft, Jg. 9, Beitrag 4. Online publication.