Prof. Sophie Mützel, PhD
Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Professor of Sociology with emphasis on media and social networks
sophie.muetzel@unilu.ch
@sophiemuetzel.bsky.social
Google Scholar
T +41 41 229 55 63
Frohburgstrasse 3, room 3.A33
CV
Sophie Mützel is Professor of Sociology, Media, and Networks at the Department of Sociology, University of Lucerne, Switzerland. Since August 1, 2026, she has also been Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Lucerne. She currently directs the MA program "Media & digital transformation." She is also a co-founder of the MA in Computational Social Sciences (LuMACCS). From June 2023 to September 2025, she was Chair of the Department of Sociology; from August 2019 to July 2023, she was Vice Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her research interests include economic and cultural sociology, computational text analysis methods, digital sociology, social network analysis, and sociological theory. In 2022, Stanford University Press published her recent book, "Making Sense: Markets from Stories in New Breast Cancer Therapeutics." Sophie Mützel is currently the principal investigator (PI) of the SNSF-funded research project "Digital payments: Making payments personal and social" (2021-2025). In April 2021, she completed another SNSF/NRP75-funded research project, “Facing Big Data: Methods and Skills Needed for a 21st-Century Sociology."
Before becoming a Full Professor in 2018, Sophie Mützel was Assistant Professor (2014-2017) and Associate Professor (2017) at the University of Lucerne. Prior to joining the University of Lucerne, she was a Senior Researcher at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) in the Research Unit “Cultural Sources of Newness.” Sophie has been a visiting scholar at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University; a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence; and a visiting professor at the University of Vienna, Department of Sociology. Between 2003 and 2008, Sophie held a post-doc position at the Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology at the Department of Sociology, Columbia University, her MA in Sociology at Cornell University, and her BA in Political Science at UC Berkeley.
Research
Research Interests
• Digital Sociology
• Social Network Analysis
• Sociology of digital media
• Economic sociology
• Sociology of culture
• STS
• Sociological theory
• Computational text analysis
Current Research
Digital payments: Making payments personal and social
Principal Investigator: Prof. Sophie Mützel, Ph.D.
Project employees: Markus Unternährer, Dr. des.; Tatjana Graf, MSc; Antonia Steigerwald, MA
Funding Sources: Project Funding, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), grant # 200764
Duration: 01.09.2021 – 28.02.2026 (54 Months)
Website: digital-payments.ch
Fostering relations through digital payments
This research project asks How do digital payments create, shape, and alter social relations in the digital economy? Building on current sociological research on payments and the data economy, the project examines practices and future imaginaries of users, retailers, banks, fintech, and other intermediaries with regard to payment apps and the production of digital data. The project proposes that payment apps are central devices in the digital economy: They provide for streams of user-generated transactional data – the economic assets – including purchasing preferences, amount spent, location, and time. Moreover, payment apps also produce transactional data that can be linked to other streams of trace data from that shopper’s smartphone. Such transactional data bring into focus relations between payment app users, retailers, banks, fintech intermediaries, and marketing agencies. The project proposes that digital payments alter existing and create new relations.
Data-driven personalization
For companies, payment apps may serve as the so far missing prism to see whole chains of transactions between users, customers, banking industry, retailers, and brands, which in turn allow for enhanced “personalized recommendations.” For users, payment apps may become social media, ease and increase consumption—they are also another element in the engineered reciprocal relations of data given to receive services. The project contends that in digital payments two fundamental mechanisms of the digital economy concomitantly interconnect: processes of personalization and relational embedding on the basis of transactional data. The project’s goals are (1) to identify and describe the practices and future imaginaries of payments and data, (2) to analyze changes in existing social relations and the creation of new relations, and (3) to explain processes of personalization and relational embedding in the data economy.
European insights on digital payments
The project draws on the economic sociology and anthropology on money and payment, platform studies, and a transdisciplinary field of science and technology studies and the sociology on future imaginaries and expectations as drivers for innovation. Empirically, the project examines the field of digital payments from the perspectives of customers, retailers, and the banking industry in two contrasting cases: in Switzerland, where digital payments usage is low and in Sweden, where digital payments usage is pervasive. To obtain insights into changing and new relations, the project focuses on practices and narrated future imaginaries of diverse sets of actors involved in the field of digital payments in both Switzerland and Sweden. Using a multi-methodological research design, the project works with unique data sets. Data collection is based on traditional qualitative methods of interviews and ethnographic fieldwork as well as on collecting textual data from archival and digital documents. Data analysis rests on pattern search based on systematic close readings as well as on large-scale computational textual analysis. Four subprojects investigate (1) retail customers and retail companies in Switzerland, (2) banking and fintech industry in Switzerland and comparatively in Sweden, (3) digital payments in everyday life in Sweden, and (4) macroscopically, future imaginaries of policy makers, lobbyists, and business consultancies globally, in Switzerland, and in Sweden. The research project will make key contributions to an economic sociology of payments. In doing so, it will advance debates and empirical research on the digital economy and data capitalism.
Please see digital-payments.ch for more information.
Projects
Publications
- Mützel, S. (2022). Making Sense: Markets from Stories in New Breast Cancer Therapeutics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Retrieved from https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=34849
- Mützel, S. (2002). Making meaning of the move of the German capital: Networks, logics, and the emergence of capital city journalism. Ann Arbor: UMI.
- Kahlenborn, W., Dierkes, M., Krebsbach-Gnath, C., Mützel, S., & Zimmermann, K. (1995). Berlin – Zukunft aus eigener Kraft: Ein Leitbild für den Wirtschaftsstandort Berlin. Berlin: FAB Verlag.
- Mützel, S., & Unternährer, M. (2024). Digital payments and relational embedding: Turning relations into data and data into relations. Big Data & Society, 11 (3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241266432
- Hurtado Bodell, M., Magnusson, M., & Mützel, S. (2022). From Documents to Data: A Framework for Total Corpus Quality. Socius, 8, 1–15. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231221135523
- Mützel, S. (2021). Unlocking the payment experience: Future imaginaries in the case of digital payments. New Media & Society, 23 (2), 284–301. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820929317
- Mützel, S. (2015). Facing Big Data: Making sociology relevant. Big Data & Society, 2 (2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951715599179
- Mützel, S. (2015). ‘Netzwerke als Prozesse’, Symposiumsbeitrag zu John Padgett und Walter Powell. The Emergence of Organizations and Markets. Princeton: Princeton UP. Soziologische Revue, 38 (1), 22–29.
- Fuhse, J., & Mützel, S. (2011). Tackling Connections, Structure, and Meaning in Networks: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Sociological Network Research. Quality & Quantity, 45 (5), 1067–1089.
- Mützel, S. (2010). Koordinierung von Märkten durch narrativen Wettbewerb. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 49. Sonderband, Thema Wirtschaftssoziologie, 87–106.
- Mützel, S. (2009). Networks as cultural constructions: a comparison of relational sociology and actor-network-theory. Current Sociology, 57 (6), 871–887.
- Mützel, S. (2007). Marktkonstitution durch narrativen Wettbewerb. Berliner Journal für Soziologie, 17 (4), 451–464.
- Mützel, S. (2025). Big Data and Machine Learning Methods. In Schulz-Schaeffer, Ingo, Windeler, Arnold & Blättel-Mink, Birgit (Eds.), Handbook of Innovation. Cham: Springer. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-031-25143-6_56-1
- Mützel, S., & Ollion, É. (im Druck). Machine Learning and the Analysis of Culture. In Borch, Christian & Pardo-Guerra, Juan Pablo (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Machine Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197653609.013.39
- Mützel, S. (2024). Neuer US-amerikanischer Strukturalismus. In Stegbauer, Christian & Häußling, Roger (Eds.), Handbuch Netzwerkforschung (pp. 1–10). Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37507-2_26-1
- Mützel, S. (2023). Netzwerkansätze in der Wirtschaftssoziologie. In Stegbauer, Christian & Häußling, Roger (Eds.), Handbuch Netzwerkforschung (pp. 1–9). Wiesbaden: VS Springer. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-658-37507-2_53-1
- Mützel, S., & Kressin, L. (2021). From Simmel to Relational Sociology. In Abrutyn, Seth: Lizardo, Omar (Ed.), Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory (pp. 217–238). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78205-4
- Mützel, S., & Breiger, R. (2020). Duality beyond persons and groups: culture and affiliation. In Light, Ryan & Moody, James (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Social Networks (pp. 392–413). Oxfrod: Oxford University Press.
- Hasse, R., Mützel, S., & Nyfeler, J. (2020). Hauptsache neu? Zur Organisation von Innovation und Kreativität. In Apelt, M. et al. (Ed.), Handbuch Organisationssoziologie (pp. 1–17). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-15953-5_36-1
- Mützel, S. (2018). Brian Uzzi & Jarrett Spiro. Collaboration and Creativity: The Small World Problem. In Boris Holzer, Christian Stegbauer (Ed.), Schlüsselwerke der Netzwerkforschung (pp. 539–541). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2018). Charles Kudushin. Networks and circles in the production of culture. In Boris Holzer, Christian Stegbauer (Ed.), Schlüsselwerke der Netzwerkforschung (pp. 281–283). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Mützel, S., Saner, P., & Unternährer, M. (2018). Schöne Daten! Konstruktion und Verarbeitung von digitalen Daten. In Houben, Daniel & Prietl, Bianca (Eds.), Datengesellschaft: Einsichten in die Datafizierung des Sozialen (pp. 111–132). Bielefeld: Transcript. Retrieved from http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3957-5/datengesellschaft
- Mützel, S. (2017). David Stark: The Sense of Dissonance. In Klaus Kraemer & Florian Brugger (Eds.), Schlüsselwerke der Wirtschaftssoziologie (pp. 499–506). WIesbaden: Springer VS. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-08184-3_57
- Mützel, S. (2016). Netzwerkperspektiven in der Wirtschaftssoziologie. In Andrea Maurer (Ed.), Handbuch der Wirtschaftssoziologie (2nd ed., pp. 473–499). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Farías, I., & Mützel, S. (2015). Culture and Actor Network Theory. In James D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd edition, pp. 523–527). Oxford: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.10448-9
- Mützel, S. (2015). Geschichten als Signale: Zur diskursiven Konstruktion von Märkten. In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Gertraude Krell (Eds.), Diskurs und Ökonomie: Diskursanalytische Perspektiven auf Märkte und Organisationen (2., durchgesehene Auflage, pp. 263–284). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2015). Structures of the Tasted: Restaurant Reviews in Berlin Between 1995 and 2012. In Ariane Berthoin Antal, Michael Hutter & David Stark (Eds.), Moments of Valuation: Exploring Sites of Dissonance (pp. 147–167). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Mützel, S., & Fuhse, J. (2010). Einleitung: Zur relationalen Soziologie. Grundgedanken, Entwicklungslinien und transatlantische Brückenschläge. In Jan Fuhse & Sophie Mützel (Eds.), Relationale Soziologie: Zur kulturellen Wende der Netzwerkforschung (pp. 7–35). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2010). Netzwerkansätze in der Wirtschaftssoziologie. In Christian Stegbauer & Roger Häußling (Eds.), Handbuch Netzwerkforschung (pp. 595–607). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2010). Neuer amerikanischer Strukturalismus. In Christian Stegbauer & Roger Häußling (Eds.), Handbuch Netzwerkforschung (pp. 303–313). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2009). Geschichten als Signale: Zur diskursiven Konstruktion von Märkten. In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Gertraude Krell (Eds.), Diskurs und Ökonomie: Diskursanalytische Perspektiven auf Märkte und Organisationen (pp. 225–244). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2008). Handlungskoordination in der neuen Wirtschaftssoziologie: Französische und US-amerikanische Ansätze im Vergleich. In Karl-Siegbert Rehberg (Ed.), Die Natur der Gesellschaft, Verhandlungsband des 33. Kongresses der DGS. Frankfurt/M.: Campus.
- Haas, J., & Mützel, S. (2008). Netzwerkanalyse und Netzwerktheorie in Deutschland - eine empirische Übersicht und theoretische Entwicklungspotentiale. In Christian Stegbauer (Ed.), Netzwerkanalyse und Netzwerktheorie: Ein neues Paradigma in den Sozialwissenschaften (pp. 49–62). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2008). Netzwerkperspektiven in der Wirtschaftssoziologie. In Andrea Maurer (Ed.), Handbuch der Wirtschaftssoziologie (pp. 185–206). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2007). Von Bonn nach Berlin: Der gewachsene Hauptstadtjournalismus. In Stephan Weichert & Christian Zabel (Eds.), Die Alpha-Journalisten: Deutschlands Wortführer im Portrait (pp. 55–73). Köln: Herbert von Halem Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2006). Strukturelle Netzwerkanalyse und Bourdieus Praxistheorie: Weiterführende Ideen für die neue Wirtschaftssoziologie. In Michael Florian & Frank Hillebrandt (Eds.), Pierre Bourdieu: Neue Perspektiven für die Soziologie der Wirtschaft? (pp. 109–125). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
- Dierkes, M., & Mützel, S. (1999). Unternehmensethik jenseits von Rhetorik. In Lutz von Rosenstiel, Erika Regnet & Michael Domsch (Eds.), Führung von Mitarbeitern - Handbuch für erfolgreiches Personalmanagement (4. Auflage, pp. 823–832). Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag.
- Dierkes, M., & Mützel, S. (1998). Methoden der Technikfolgenabschätzung. In Erich Zahn (Ed.), Handbuch Technologiemanagement (pp. 645–662). Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2013). On Coordination: Stories and Meaning Making in Markets. Economic Sociology, the European Electronic Newsletter, 14 (2), 4–9.
- Mützel, S. (2010). Stories machen Märkte. WZB Mitteilungen, (130), 40–42.
- Mützel, S. (2005). Kollaboratives Lernen mit Moodle. cms-journal, (26), 54–55.
- Dederke, J., Mützel, S., & Oros, A. (2000). National Identity and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective. Asian Studies Newsletter, Association for Asian Studies, 45 (4), 18–19.
- Dederke, J., Mützel, S., & Salomon, H. (2000). National Identity and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective. Minikomi, (4), 29–31.
- Mützel, S. (2015). Computational Social Science. In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Christoph Weischer (Eds.), Methoden-Lexikon für die Sozialwissenschaften. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2015). Data mining. In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Christoph Weischer (Eds.), Methoden-Lexikon für die Sozialwissenschaften. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2015). Narrationsanalyse, quantitative. In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Christoph Weischer (Eds.), Methoden-Lexikon für die Sozialwissenschaften. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2015). Netzwerke, narrative. In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Christoph Weischer (Eds.), Methoden-Lexikon für die Sozialwissenschaften. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2015). Topic modeling. In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Christoph Weischer (Eds.), Methoden-Lexikon für die Sozialwissenschaften. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
- Mützel, S. (2014). Beziehung, soziale. In Hans Peter Müller & Steffen Sigmund (Eds.), Max Weber-Handbuch (pp. 34–35). Stuttgart: Verlag J.B. Metzler.
- Mützel, S. (2008). USA. In Lutz Hachmeister (Ed.), Grundlagen der Medienpolitik. Ein Handbuch (pp. 393–398). München: DVA.
- Mützel, S. (November 2022). Eszter Hargittai (Ed.). Research exposed. How empirical social science gets done in the digital age. Studies in Communication Sciences, 22 (2), 405–407. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2022.02.031
- Mützel, S. (2011). Besprechung von ‘Mark Lutter, “Märkte für Träume”’. Soziologische Revue, 35, 74–78.
- Mützel, S. (2009). Comment on Emmanuel Lazega/2. Sociologica, (1).
- Mützel, S. (2006). Rezension von ‘Joel Podolny, “Status Signals”.’ Economic Sociology European Electronic Newsletter, 7 (3), 40–41.
Achievements
- In memoriam Harrison White. Kick-off speech, International Network for Social Network Analysis, Sunbelt 2025, SciencesPo, Sorbonne, Paris, 2025
- When broligarchs create the market of genetic selection. (Panel) contribution, 8th Interdisciplinary Market Studies Workshop, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, 2025
- Theorien und Bezugspunkte. Discussion contribution, Zur Zukunft der Wirtschaftssoziologie, Sektion Wirtschaftssoziologie der DGS, Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, Hamburg, 2024
- Chair of panel session "Seeing like an investor" Chair/panel-moderation, Capitalization and the Start-Up Economy, Université de Lausanne, Universität St. Gallen, Lausanne, 2024
- Computational analyses to measure culture. Key Note, Measuring Culture, BIGSSS, Bremen, 2023
- Digital payments and relational embedding: data-generating relationships and relationship-generating data. Lecture, Economic Sociology; 118th ASA Annual Meeting, American Sociological Association (ASA), Philadelphia, 2023
- Digital Skills in Spaces of Opportunities. (Panel) contribution, 39th EGOS Colloquium. Organizing for the Good Life: Between Legacy and Imagination, European Group of Organisation Studies (EGOS), Cagliari, 2023
- The analysis of culture: formal modeling using qualitative data. Lecture, Large Scale Data and Qualitative Research Conference, Betina Hollstein; Mario L. Small, Bremen, 2023
- Markets of embedded digital payments. Lecture, Interdisciplinary Market Studies Workshop, University of Edinburgh Business School, Edinburgh, 2023
- Digitale Zahlungen: Datengenerierende Beziehungen und beziehungsgenerierende Daten. Lecture, 41. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, Sektion Wirtschaftssoziologie der DGS, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, 2022
- Digitale Zahlungen: Datengenerierende Beziehungen und beziehungsgenerierende Daten. Lecture, Aktuelle wirtschaftssoziologische Forschung, DGS Sektion Wirtschaftssoziologie, Bielefeld, 2022
- Digital payments: making payments personal and social. Key Note, Emerging Platform Society, University of Bologna & Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, digital, 2022
- How digital payments create social relations in the data economy. Lecture, Markets and power in the digital age, Research Committee in Economic Sociology, Swiss Sociological Association, Neuchatel, 2021
- Digital payments: making payments personal and social. Lecture, Lucerne Master Class 2021, Graduate School Lucerne, Luzern, 2021
- Roundtable on "Crisis" Discussion contribution, "Multiple Matters", Swiss STS Meeting 2021, Swiss Association for the Studies of Science, Technology & Society, digital, 2021
- Gegenseitige Verbindlichkeiten: Personalisierung und Einbettung im Digitalen. Lecture, DGS Kongress 2020, digital, Sektionsveranstaltung Medienevolution und Digitalisierung, Sektion Soziologische Theorie, digital, 2020
- Podiumsdiskussion: Kritische Reflektion über Partizipative Ansätze in den Sozialwissenschaften. Chair/panel-moderation, Ad Hoc254: Citizen Science in der Soziologie: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen, Ad Hoc Gruppe, digital, 2020
- Culture across cultures. Lecture, Opening event of RG on Multimodal Rhetoric in Online Communication, ZiF Bielefeld, Bielefeld, 2020
- From Documents to Data: A Framework for Total Corpus Quality. Lecture, Workshop on Dealing with Data, Universitet Umea, Umea & digital, 2020
- Als geladene Expertin mehrere Kommentare zu Präsentationen. Closing statement, Young Scholars in Computational Social Science, Computational Method Working Group, Uni Zürich, digital, 2020
- Coleman 2.0 - Überlegungen zur asymmetrischen Gesellschaft im 21. Jahrhundert. Lecture, Herbsttagung der Sektion Organisationssoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), Sektion Organisationssoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), Luzern, 2019
- Sociological resarch in the digital age: analytical and methodological challenges and opportunities. Key Note, Digital Societies, Akademie für Soziologie, Konstanz, 2019
- Facing Big Data. Lecture, Second Symposium: Ethical and Legal Issues in Big Data Research, Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Basel, 2019
- ML and some of its effects on the social. (Panel) contribution, Applied Machine Learning Days 2019, EPFL, Lausanne, 2019
- Die Sozialität digitaler Zahlungen. Lecture, Zukunft der Datenökonomie - Gestaltungsperspektiven zwischen Geschäftsmodell, Kollektivgut und Verbraucherschutz, Forum Privatheit, München, 2018
- Texte als Daten für die Soziologie: Einblicke in globale Herausforderungen. Lecture, Sektion Soziologische Netzwerkforschung: Computational Social Science und Netzwerkforschung, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, Göttingen, 2018
- The emergence of a new global scientific category: a cultural analysis. Lecture, NetGloW2018: Principles behind structures: patterns of complexity in European societies and beyond, The Center for German and European Studies, Saint Petersburg State Universit, St. Petersburg, 2018
- Facing Big Data. Key Note, Die Soziologie soziologischen Methodenwissens, DFG-Netzwerk "Die Soziologie soziologischen Wissens", Universität Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 2018
- Texte als „historische Massendaten“ - alte Quellen neu schürfen mithilfe computergestützter Textanalyse. Lecture, Masse statt Klasse? Entstehungsprozesse, Qualitätsprobleme und Verwendungsmöglichkeiten von prozessgenerierten Daten im digitalen Zeitalter, CAU Kiel (P. Graeff ), TU Berlin (I. Stamm & N. Baur), Kiel, 2018
- Das Digitale: Neue Chancen und Herausforderungen für die Soziologie. Key Note, DFG-Netzwerktreffen Digitale Diskurse, DFG-Netzwerk Digitale Diskurse; Universität Zürich, Zürich, 2017
- Chair for session: "Society through the eyes of robots, algorithms and AI" Chair/panel-moderation, Society through the lens of the digital, Herrenhausen Conference, Volkswagen-Stiftung, Hannover, 2017
- The emergence of a new scientific category. Lecture, Socio-semantic patterns, Medialab, Sciences Po, Paris, Paris, 2017
- Texte als Daten für die Netzwerkforschung. (Panel) contribution, Der Stand der Netzwerkforschung, Schader-Stiftung, Darmstadt, 2016
- Bestimmt das Ich die Medien? Kick-off speech, Medientage München, Medientage München, München, 2016
- Topic modeling and other methods for relational cultural analysis. Lecture, How to Map Issues, ESRC Doctoral Training Workshop, Warwick University, Center for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, Coventry, 2016
- Facing Big Data. Key Note, Sino-German Symposium on Social Computing, CDZ, Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, 2016
- Big Data & Machine Learning in Innovation Research. Presentation, From analytics to action, DTU, Dept. of Management, Kopenhagen, 2026
- Keynote: Digitales in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung. Lecture, PHZH Methodenschule 2022, Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich, Zürich, 2022
- Abschlussdiskussion. Closing statement, Women in Big Data 2022, NRP75, SNF; DSI, Zürich, 2022
- Digitales in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung: Zwischen Tweets, Plattformen, Daten und Algorithmen. Lecture, Ringvorlesung Digitalisierung, Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Luzern, 2022
- Monopolisierung und Kapitalisierung des Wissens: Was ist Wissen im digitalen Zeitalter wert? Wer steuert künftig den Zugang zu Wissen? Wie kann Wissen demokratischer gestaltet werden? Discussion contribution, 20 Jahre Wikimedia CH, Wikimedia Schweiz, Luzern, 2021
- Facing Big Data: Methods and skills needed for a 21st-century sociology. Presentation, Match-Making in Big Data with Academia and Industry, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds SNF, NFP 75, Lugano / online, 2020
- Moderation des Keynote Vortrags. Moderation, Women in Computational Social Science, NFP75/ SNF, Lisa Kressin und Rahel Estermann (Uni Luzern), digital, 2020
- Facing Big Data: Methodological and analytical challenges and opportunities of large-scale textual analyses. Lecture, Methods and Research Meeting, FORS, FORS, digital, 2020
- A few reflections on sociological research in the digital age. Presentation, LUMACSS Launch Conference, University of Lucerne, KSF, Lucerne, 2019
- Some economic aspects of algorithmic systems. Presentation, Algorithmic Knowledge in Culture and in Media, The Open University, Israel, Tel Aviv, 2019
- How neutral is technology? Discussion contribution, Civic Technology Day, Karl, der Grosse, Stadt Zürich, Zürich, 2019
- Comment on project on entrepreneurial group trajectories. Kick-off speech, Mapping entrepreneurial group trajectories, Research group "Entrepreneurial group dynamics", TU Berlin, Berlin, 2019
- Sozialen Beziehungen in Familien und Freundschaften: It's complicated! Lecture, 2. Fachtagung Kinder Jugend Familie, Stadt Luzern, Kinder Jugend Familie, Stadt Luzern, Luzern, 2019
- Meaning making in sociology. Presentation, Workshop: Mining for Meaning, Institute for Analytical Sociology, Linköping University, Norrköping, 2019
- Zur digitalen Ökonomie. Discussion contribution, Big Data und die Macht von Algorithmen, Café Scientifique, Volkshochschule Basel, Basel, 2018
- Facing Big Data. Presentation, Kick-off Meeting NRP75, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds, NFP75, Bern, 2017
- Big data, ist das Wissenschaft? Lecture, Doktoratskolloquium der HSLU, Hochschule Luzern, Luzern, 2017
- Platforming Digital Payments, (Co-)Organiser, Luzern, 2026
- The legacy of Harrison White, Panel organisation, Paris, 2025
- Program Committee Member: Migration and Mobility Research in the Digital Era 2022, Member of organisation committee, Palma de Mallorca, 2022
- PC member, MIMODE2022 (Migration and mobility research in the digital era), Member of organisation committee, Mallorca, 2022
- Program Committee Member for European Conference on Social Networks (EUSN) 2022, Member of organisation committee, Greenwich, 2022
- Migration and Mobility Research in the Digital Era (MIMODE 2021), Member of organisation committee, Lyon, 2021
- PC member, Human migration - potential areas for combinations of big data - SocInfo2020 Workshop, Member of organisation committee, Pisa, 2020
- Workshop on Computational Text Analysis in the Social Sciences, Member of organisation committee, Norrköping, 2019
- Program Committee Member: EUSN 2019, Member of organisation committee, Zürich, 2019
- Programm committee member, European Symposium Series on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science, Zurich 2019, Member of organisation committee, Zürich, 2019
- Sektion Medien- und Kommunikationssoziologie: Soziologie des Digitalen - Digitale Soziologie, Panel organisation, Panel moderation, Göttingen, 2018
- Programm committee member, European Symposium Series on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science, Köln 2018, Member of organisation committee, Köln, 2018
- International Workshop on Women in Big Data, (Co-)Organiser, Zürich, 2018
- Programm committee member, European Symposium Series on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science, London, UK, Member of organisation committee, London, 2017
- Kultur messen, aber wie? Summer School 2026 «Longue Durée digital», Zürich, 2026
- Eating Data: The making of new expertise in digital foodscapes. STS Research Seminar, Kopenhagen, 2026
- Mapping the convergence of capital and genomics: making markets of the “future perfect”. Lunchtalk, Kopenhagen, 2026
- On duality. Duality @50, Monte Veritá, 2024
- Ethische Fragen in der soziologischen Forschung zwischen Daten, Algorithmen und neuen Werkzeugen. Ringvorlesung «Ethik der digitalen Transformation – aktuelle Fragen», Luzern, 2023
- Digital payments: New relations in embedded finance. MPIfG Lecture, Köln, 2023
- Making Sense: Markets from Stories in New Breast Cancer Therapeutics. Medialab series of talks, Paris, 2022
- Making Sense: Markets from Stories in New Breast Cancer Therapeutics. Forschungskolloquium, Halle, 2022
- Es gibt noch viel zu tun! Frauen und Medien, Luzern, 2021
- Digitales Bezahlen: Apps, Daten, BigTechs und Nutzer:innen im Geflecht reziproker Beziehungen. Ringvorlesung, Neue Mensch-Maschinen Beziehungen, digital, 2020
- Soziologische Perspektiven auf algorithmische Realitäten. Vortragsreihe Digitalisierung aus soziologischer Perspektive, Bamberg, 2020
- Facing Big Data: Some challenges of large-scale textual analyses for sociologists. Media Practice Theory, digital, 2020
- Big Data & Soziologie. CAS Big Data Analytics, Rotkreuz, 2019
- Mein Smartphone und ich. KKL Impulse, Luzern, 2018
- Facing Big Data. GCDH Evening Lecture, Göttingen, 2018
- Facing Big Data: Methodological and analytical challenges and opportunities of large-scale textual analyses. Research Seminar, Institute for Analytical Sociology, Linköping University, Norrköping, 2018
- Zur Relevanz von Algorithmen. Eröffnung des media policy labs, Berlin, 2018
- Big Data und die Soziologie. Methodische und analytische Chancen und Herausforderungen. Forschungskolloquium Allgemeine Soziologie/ Kultursoziologie und Makrosoziologie, Konstanz, 2017
- On Big Data: methodological and analytical challenges for sociology. Contemporary Debates: Ethical and Legal Regulation of Big Data Research, Basel, 2017
- On the relevance of algorithms. Speaker Series at the IPMZ, University of Zurich, Zürich, 2017
- Zur digitalen Aufklärung. Interdisziplinäre Ringvorlesung "Aufklärung unter Druck?", Luzern, 2017
- Zur Relevanz von Algorithmen. Forum, Wädenswil, 2017
- Markets from stories. Heidelberg Research Lectures in Economic Geography, Heidelberg, 2017
- Sociological engagements with big data. Soziologisches Forschungskolloquium, Zürich, 2016
- Sociological engagements with big data. WZB Big Data Lunch Seminar, Berlin, 2016
- Häußling Roger, Kinder-Kurlanda Katharina, Mützel Sophie, Passoth Jan-Hendrik, Schmitz Andreas, Digitale Soziologie, (Co-) editor of book series, 2022–
- European Journal of Sociology, Member of a journal's editorial board, 2021–
- Political Analysis, Member of a journal's editorial board, 2020–
- Frontiers Big Data Networks, Member of a journal's editorial board, 2020–
- Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, Member of a journal's editorial board, 2016–2021
- Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 2026
- IC2S2 Conference, 2026
- Poetics, 2025
- Social Networks, 2025
- IC2S2 conference, 2025
- Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society, 2025
- American Sociological Review, 2025
- Political Analysis, 2024
- Frontiers in Big Data Analysis, 2024
- Socius, 2024
- American Journal of Sociology, 2024
- Social Networks, 2024
- Stanford University Press, 2024
- Political Analysis, 2023
- Journal of Cultural Economy, 2023
- Stanford University Press, 2023
- American Journal of Sociology, 2023
- Journal of Cultural Economy, 2022
- Poetics, 2021
- sociologica, 2021
- Marketing Theory, 2020
- Sociological Theory, 2019
- American Sociological Review, 2019
- Stanford University Press, 2019
- Journal of Cultural Economy, 2019
- American Sociological Review, 2018
- Theory and Society, 2018
- Poetics, 2017
- Big Data & Society, 2017
- Poetics, 2017
- Soziale Welt, 2016
- American Sociological Review, 2016
- Internet Policy Review, 2016
- Sciences Po Paris, Paris, 2026
- EU, Brüssel, 2025
- SNF, Bern, 2025
- SNF, Bern, 2025
- SNF, Bern, 2025
- SNF, Bern, 2025
- SNF, Bern, 2025
- SNF, Bern, 2025
- SNF, Bern, 2025
- SNF doc.CH, Bern, 2024
- SNF doc.CH, Bern, 2024
- SNF doc.CH, Bern, 2024
- SNF doc.CH, Bern, 2024
- SNF doc.CH, Bern, 2024
- SNF doc.CH, Bern, 2024
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, Bonn, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- Max Planck Gesellschaft, München, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- SNF, Bern, 2023
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, Bonn, 2023
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, Bonn, 2023
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, Bonn, 2023
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, Bonn, 2023
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, Bonn, 2023
- Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), 2022
- SNF, Bern, 2022
- SNF, Bern, 2022
- SNF, Bern, 2022
- SNF, Bern, 2022
- SNF, Bern, 2022
- University of Mississippi, University, MS, 2021
- University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 2021
- SNF, Bern, 2021
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2020
- Universität Bamberg, Bamberg, 2020
- SNF, Bern, 2019
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Bonn, 2018
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn, 2018
- SNF, Bern, 2018
- SNF, Bern, 2017
- SNF, Bern, 2017
- SNF, Bern, 2016
- Dean, 2026–
- Mitglied des Prüfungsausschusses der KSF, 2021–
- Seminarleitung, 2023–2025
- Mitglied Kommission beste Abschlussarbeiten der KSF, 2023–2025
- Member of appointments committee, 2024–2024
- Member of appointments committee, 2023–2024
- Prodekanin, 2019–2023
- Member of appointments committee, 2020–2021
- Mitglied der Kommission für beste Abschlussarbeiten der KSF, 2015–2019
- Member of the research committee, 2014–2019
- Member of appointments committee, 2018–2019
- Member of commission, SNSF Starting Grants SSH Panel A, 2024–
- Mitglied des Advisory Boards, Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS), 2021–
- Member of commission, SNF, Evaluationskommission SSH für doc.CH, 2021–
- Member of a scientific advisory board, Research Ethics Committee of the H2020 Project HumMingBird, KU Leuven, 2020–
- Member of a scientific advisory board, Center for Advanced Studies der Universität Mannheim, 2025–2028
- Member of commission, Sciences Po Paris, 2025–2026
- Member of commission, University of Copenhagen, Department of Sociology, 2025–2026
- external evaluator, hiring committee, University of Copenhagen, Dept of Sociology, 2025–2026
- Visiting (guest) researcher, Danish Technical University (DTU), Dept of Technology, Management, and Economics, Science and Technology Studies Section, 2026–2026
- Member of commission, external opponent, 80% seminar, Institute for Analytical Sociology, Linköping University, 2024–2024
- Chair, Evaluation Committee, SNF, SNSF Starting Grants, SSH-A Evaluation Committee, 2023–2024
- Member of commission, Dissertationsverteidigung, Ecole normale supérieure, président du jury, 2024–2024
- Member of commission, Københavns Universitet, 2023–2023
- Member of commission, DFG, Auswahlgremium SPP "Digitalization of Working Worlds, 2. Phase, 2023–2023
- externe Begutachterin, TU Dresden, 2022–2022
- Member of commission, Sciences Po, 2022–2022
- Member of commission, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, externes Mitglied der Berufungskommission W2 Soziologie mit Schwerpunkt Computational Social Sciences, 2021–2022
- Member of commission, Jurymitglied, ELSI Award, Swiss Data Science Conference 2021, 2021–2021
- Expert Group, HERA-NORFACE, 2019–2020
- Jurymitglied, Sektion Wirtschaftssoziologie der DGS, Karl-Polanyi-Preis 2020, 2020–2020
- Member of commission, Jurymitglied, Karl-Polanyi-Preis der Sektion Wirtschaftssoziologie, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, 2020–2020
- Member of commission, GESIS, gemeinsame Berufungskommission mit RWTH Aachen, directorship "Applied Computational Social Science", 2018–2020
- Member of commission, DFG, Auswahlgremium SPP "Digitalization of Working Worlds", 2019–2020
- Member of commission, Universität Kopenhagen, Soziologisches Institut, 2018–2018
- Member of commission, Jurymitglied, Nachwuchspreis der Sektion Netzwerkforschung, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, 2017–2017
