Current Research Project “Overseas Communities in the Digital Age” (collaborative research project in preparation) 

Based on concepts of cultural and public diplomacy, social network building, and social media this project will explore various Taiwanese and Chinese overseas communities in certain world regions (planned: examples from Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe): the research focus will be the interaction between state/government actions/actors and the overseas communities (between the state and the respective community as a collective actor and the interactions between the community, the individual member and the respective state). The expected research output will be a clearer understanding of role of social media in forming these communities as well as the role of social media for the value formation within these communities. 
The project will employ on qualitative research methods such observation, guideline interviews etc., digital ethnography, but also employ mobile data collection for a quantitative analysis. My subproject will build on my previous research on sola media and internet usage as well as my previous research project on China’s cultural diplomacy (Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, China's Cultural Diplomacy and the Role of Non-state Actors", 2015-2017 [PI], GARC, in preparation: Gary Rawnsley, Jarmila Ptackova, Ondrej Klimeš, Jens Damm (eds.) Chinese Cultural Diplomacy and the Role of Non-State Actors, Palgrave 2019/2020. 

Related publications

Damm, Jens. 2019. “China and the Ethnic Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Discourses, Perceptions and Cultural Diplomacy”. Berliner China-Hefte/Chinese History and Society (51), 23-41.
- 2014. “Cross-Strait Cyberspace: Between Public Sphere and Nationalist Battleground”. In Paul Irwin Crookes & Jan Knoerich (Eds.), Cross-Taiwan Strait Relations in an Era of Technological Change: Security, Economic and Cultural Dimensions. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- 2012. “The Multiculturalization of Taiwan: From a Unified Han-Identity to the ‘Four Great Ethnic Groups’”. Berliner Chinahefte/Chinese History and Society, 38, 72-89.
- 2012. “The Cross-Strait Perception of the Taiwanese in Cyberspace: The Case of Xiamen.” Information and Society, 23, 55-82.
- 2011. “Taiwan's Ethnicities and their Representation on the Internet.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 40(1), 99-131.
- 2011. “From ‘Overseas Chinese’ to ‘Overseas Taiwanese’: Questions of Identity and Belonging.” In Jens Damm & Gunter Schubert (Eds.), Taiwanese Identity in the 21st Century: Domestic, Regional and Global Perspectives (pp. 218-236). London and New York: Routledge.
- 2010. “Chinese Cyberspaces: Defining the Spatial Component of a ‘Borderless’ Media.” Electronic Journal of Communication, 19(3/4).
- 2006. “China’s E-policy: Examples of Local E-government in Guangdong and Fujian.” In Jens Damm & Simona Thomas (Eds.), Chinese Cyberspaces: Technological Changes and Political Effects (pp. 102-131). London and New York: Routledge.
Damm, Jens, & Thomas, Simona (Eds.). (2006). Chinese Cyberspaces: Technological Changes and Political Effects. London, New York: Routledge.
Damm, Jens, & Schubert, Gunter (Eds.). (2007). Taiwanese Identity from Domestic, Regional and Global Perspectives (Chinese History and Society/Berliner Chinahefte 32/2007). Münster: LIT.