Schäfer conducted research on hacker communities, user participation and their impact on cultural industries. In stark contrast to the general field of new media studies his research on participatory culture provides a critical deconstruction of user participation. Coining the term of an extended culture industry he builds upon the cultural critique of the Frankfurt School, most notably Adorno and Horkheimer. Developing the concept of an extended culture industry, Schäfer could show to what extent appropriation of design by users is embedded into corporate production. Through distinguishing user participation into explicit participation and implicit participation, Schäfer delivers a terminology to separate conscious and active user engagement from user activities that are channeled by user interface design. Schäfer's contribution to the field of participatory culture was his distinction of implicit and explicit participation. Explicit participation refers to the conscious activities of cultural production and social interaction as it has been covered by Henry Jenkins in his work on fan culture. Implicit participation refers to the subtle ways of channeling user activities through interface design. Schäfer considers strategies of implicit participation as key aspect in popular social media application He argues that media practices that had been developed in using the world wide web, now are implemented in easy to use interfaces and new business models. Schäfer's analysis of participatory culture depicts an accurate "shift within the commercial media industries to embrace certain conceptions of the fan as an idealized consumer of transmedia entertainment." Schäfer investigates how social media platforms affect practices of political organization. In his analysis, Schäfer focuses on the role of user interface design, platform governance and methods of controlling and channeling user activities. His recent research is situated in the emerging field of critical data studies and revolves around investigating the impact of data practices on citizenship and democracy.
Utrecht Data School
Together with Thomas Boeschoten, at the time MA student, Schäfer founded the Utrecht Data School in 2013. It is a platform for teaching data analysis and digital methods. Initially a lack of funding pushed the founders to reach out to external partners, e.g. corporations, government organisations and NGO's, to finance the courses through commissioned research projects. That allowed them and their students to work on actual projects and experience how datafication manifests and transforms organisations. Consequently, the Utrecht Data School developed services and products that would enable researchers to enter societal fields as "experts and not as mere researchers." Schäfer dubbed this approach entrepreneurial research. At the core of the teaching programme is the Practicum of the Utrecht Data School in which students learn basic data analysis and digital methods. They practice their skills through working on an applied research project in cooperation with an external partner of the school. The Data Ethics Decision Aid is an ethical impact assessment for data projects. While organizations using DEDA can review and improve their data practices in view of values and responsibilities, the researchers who function as workshop moderators can gather empirical data about the participants awareness for data ethics, the organizations operational capacities and their data practices.
Publications
Schäfer, M.T.; Van Es, K. The Datafied Society. Studying Culture through Data. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press Schäfer, M.T. Bastard Culture! How User Participation Transforms Cultural Production. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Schäfer, M.T.; Van den Boomen, M; Lehmann, AS; Lammes, S.; Raessens, J. Digital Material. Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and Technology. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
