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Joint Workshop on Digital Infrastructures, Space and Communication: SFB 1265 and ComAI in Dialogue

On 11 and 12 November 2025, SFB 1265 “Re-Figuration of Spaces” and FOR 5656 “Communicative AI” hosted the joint workshop “Digital Infrastructures, Space and Communication” at Technische Universität Berlin, featuring keynote impulses by Martina Löw, Silke Steets, Andreas Hepp, and Hubert Knoblauch.

The workshop centred on discussing different concepts of infrastructure within both research consortia, introduced by Martina Löw and Andreas Hepp. Drawing on her article “Network Figures: Reconfigurations of the Internet as Re-Figuration of Spaces”, Silke Steets presented a spatial-sociological and figurational perspective on digital infrastructures. Participants then examined how this approach can be applied to analyses of communicative AI. This was followed by a lively exchange on the role of infrastructures and spaces in the automation of communication, based on the article “ChatGPT, LaMDA and the hype around Communicative AI: The automation of communication as a field of research in media and communication studies” by Hepp et al.

The second day opened with a talk by Andreas Hepp titled “From Figuration to Hybrid Figuration.” Building on the concept of hybrid figuration, participants debated questions of emergence, actor status, and figurative agency. The workshop concluded with a presentation by Hubert Knoblauch on “The State of Communicative Constructivism.” In the final discussion, participants explored communication as a fundamental social process, the profound permeation of the communication society by digitalisation, and the links between theories of mediatization and relational space. Both research groups expressed interest in continuing the exchange: initial ideas include workshops on the further development and operationalisation of figuration theory as well as methodological reflections on mapping.