Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

18.05. Tech Elites in Germany -- Lion Hubrich

  • Wann 18.05.2026 von 18:00 bis 20:00
  • Wo IAAW, Invalidenstr. 118, Room 117
  • iCal

Tech Elites in Germany

Lion Hubrich (Humboldt University of Berlin)

 

Abstract: 

A few powerful “big tech” firms from the US dominate more and more parts of the global digital economy. They monopolize digital markets, they control new innovation dynamics thanks to their financial clout, and they have become important infrastructure providers and gatekeepers for many economic sectors. The advance of the tech elites running these companies was long widely tolerated due to the amount of economic growth and innovation that they promised. Today, however, it is increasingly obvious that the American tech elites have amassed too much power and wealth over time – not least due to the alliance between Silicon Valley and the Trump administration.

Yet, while the role of tech elites in the US is currently much discussed, little is known about if and how such processes of power structure disruption diffuse to other societies. Who are the tech elites of Germany, and what can be expected from them? Are they merely copycats of their counterparts in the US, or can they confidently forge their own paths? In this presentation, Lion Hubrich approaches this question from a sociological perspective and based on a recent study on the social structure of the German digital elite. He will show that in terms of their social structure, Germany’s tech elites have more in common with economic elites from the 1990s than with the Silicon Valley.

 

Lion Hubrich is an associated researcher in the working group on the sociology of work, political economy and technological change at Humboldt University of Berlin. In his doctoral thesis, he analysed the German tech economy by interviewing some of the country’s most successful start-up entrepreneurs, surveying the CVs and networks of German tech elites, and examining the business strategies of German tech companies.

 

When? May 18th, 6 PM

Where? IAAW, Invalidenstr. 118, Room 117