#rp25-speakers Philipp Staab and Lion Hubrich: Digitalisation Elites in Germany: The social structure of backwardness

American companys – or internet giants – are among the most valuable companies in the world today. They dominate digital markets, have a hand in new innovations thanks to their financial strength, and have long since become the pacesetters of the global economy in areas such as industrial production. On both sides of the Atlantic, the power and wealth that the American tech elite has amassed has been granted too freely for too long, in the belief that their unbridled innovative and creative power would advance society as a whole. But the entanglements between Silicon Valley and the Trump administration should have made it clear that they have a destructive potential.

At re:publica 25 we want to know: What is the actual situation of the digitalisation elites in Germany? What can we expect of them? Are they merely imitating Silicon Valley or are they confidently going their own way? Sociologists Philipp Staab and Lion Hubrich will elaborate on these questions on the basis of a recent study on the social structure of the German digital elite.

Philipp Staab is Professor of the Sociology of Labour, the Economy and Technological Change at the Humboldt University in Berlin and Co-Director of the Einstein Center Digital Future. His research combines labour, social structure analysis, sociology of technology and political economy with a contemporary analytical approach.

Lion Hubrich is a doctoral candidate at the Humboldt University in Berlin and a research associate at the Department of Social Structure at the University of Halle. His research focuses on the elites of digital capitalism in Germany.