Marco Waehner

Postdoctoral Researcher

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum. I joined CAIS in 2023 as part of the Research Data and Methods team. My research focuses on collective action problems, with a particular interest in political online participation and decentralised networks (e.g., the Fediverse or Tor). For instance, I examine the unforeseen outcomes that arise from self-organisation. I also have a strong methodological background in computational and quantitative methods. Recently, I have been working increasingly on mixed methods, combining the breadth and depth of different approaches. At CAIS, however, I am also working on good practices for research data management, open science, and research ethics. Through my research, I aim to contribute to the development of a free, sovereign, and common-good-oriented internet.


contact: [my first name].[my last name]@cais-research.de (PGP Key)

  • Publications

    • Wähner, M., Escher, T., & Holec, K. (2026). Soziale Nachhaltigkeit in der Klimatransformation: Wie Anreize die Bürger:innenbeteiligung in Online-Konsultationsverfahren fördern. In H. Riedel, A. Ullrich, Bertelsmann Stiftung, & Weizenbaum-Institut (Eds.), Nachhaltige Kommunen und digitale Partizipation: Analysen – Beispiele – Empfehlungen (1. Auflage, pp. 137–158). Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung.

    Wähner, M. (2025). Dark Web. In A. Nai, M. Grömping, & D. Wirz (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Wähner, M. (2025). Die „guten Gründe“ politischer Partizipation im Internet: Ein Anreizmodell zur Teilnahme an Online-Konsultationsverfahren. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-47441-6

    Wähner, M., Deubel, A., Breuer, J., & Weller, K. (2024). “Don’t research us”—How Mastodon instance rules connect to research ethics. Publizistik, 69(3), 357–380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-024-00855-6

  • (Selected) Academic Talks

    • Wähner, M. (2026, July 2). Decentralized by Design, Centralized in Practice: Mastodon as a Collective Action Problem. 18th Annual Conference of the International Network of Analytical Sociology, Nuffield College, Oxford.

    Breuer, J., & Wähner, M. (2026, March 5). Souveränität, Offenheit und Nachhaltigkeit als zentrale Kriterien für die Arbeit mit Software, Daten und künstlicher Intelligenz [Workshop]. Bits & Bäume NRW 26, Bochum.

    Wähner, M., & Soldner, F. (2025, June 23). The prevalence and use of conspiracy theories in anonymity networks. Eighth Annual Cybercrime Conference, Cambridge, UK.

    Wähner, M., & Breuer, J. (2025, November 27). FAIR Data Principles in Interdisciplinary Digitalization Research. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.17734964

    Wähner, M. (2024, July 16). Beyond Twitter: Data Ethics in the Decentralized Social Media Landscape. The Case of Mastodon Instance Rules (Wähner, Deubel, Breuer, Weller). International Social Media & Society Conference, London.

  • (Selected) Public Talks

    • Wähner, M. (2026, September 12). Against All Odds: The Fediverse from a Sociological Perspective. In Science Track. Berlin FediDay 2026, Berlin. https://ctalx.c-base.org/fediday-2026/talk/RK9QFN/

    Wähner, M. (2026, May 20). Digitale Souveränität durch dezentrale Netzwerke? Potenziale und Widersprüche am Beispiel Mastodon. In Re:publica26. https://re-publica.com/de/session/digitale-souveraenitaet-durch-dezentrale-netzwerke-potenziale-und-widersprueche-am-beispiel

    Wähner, M. (2025, December 28). Auf die Dauer hilft nur Power—Herausforderungen für dezentrale Netzwerke aus Sicht der Soziologie. In 39C3—Power Cycles. here

  • Teaching

    • Introduction to R (bachelor and master degree)

    Computational Social Sciences (master degree)

    Log


    [2026-10-08] Presented my research on the Fediverse/Mastodon at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy.

    [2026-09-12] Happy to contribute to a panel discussion at the Berlin FediDay 2026. Took place at the c-base. The topic was improving researchability of the Fediverse. See the discussion (here)