Jonas Fegert

Dr. Jonas Fegert

  • FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik

    Außenstelle Berlin

    Friedrichstr. 60, 10117 Berlin

     

Jonas Fegert leads the joint Digital Democracy & Participation research group of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the FZI Research Center for Information Technology, with teams based in Karlsruhe and Berlin. At FZI he heads the House of Participation. Since 2026 he is also a Visiting Research Collaborator at the Accelerator at Princeton University (School of Public and International Affairs). His research focuses on societal polarization, digital participation, and information manipulation (such as disinformation and deepfakes). He holds a PhD in Information Systems from KIT, where his dissertation examined the use of immersive systems for public participation. He is the principal investigator of research projects funded by German federal ministries, the European Commission, and foundations, including the consortium project kuKI and the transatlantic project TACIT with Princeton University. In his research, he combines qualitative and quantitative (experimental) approaches with Design Science Research and computational social science methods. This work examines how platform mechanisms and technological advances such as generative AI shape democratic discourse, and how more resilient information systems can be designed in response. Earlier in his career, he studied Political Science, Governance, and Public Policy and worked in the German Bundestag and at the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Scholarship Fund

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Current Projects

  • SOSEC – Social Sentiment in Times of Crises (Alfred Landecker Foundation)
  • TACIT – Transatlantic Analysis of Civic Involvement in the Transformation of Democracy (Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, "International Excellence in Research", with Princeton University)
  • kuKI – Culturalization-Sensitive AI Assistance for a Disinformation-Resilient Multilingual Society (BMFTR, 04/2026–03/2029)
  • DisCoBoard – An AI Dashboard Helping Youth Uncover Online Disinformation (BMBFSFJ, "Demokratie leben!")

Completed Projects

  • TWON – Twin of Online Social Networks (European Commission, Horizon Europe, 04/2023–03/2026)
  • MuDDi – Multi-modal Deepfake Detection (SPRIND Funke "Deepfake Detection and Prevention", on behalf of BMDV, 11/2024-06/2025)
  • DeFaktS – Addressing Disinformation Campaigns by Disclosing Factors and Stylistic Devices (BMBF, 12/2021–12/2024)
  • VIRTUS – Virtual Reality Tools for Analog and Digital Participation in Processes of Spatial Urban Development (BMBF, 08/2021–07/2024)
  • Tech for Democracy – German-Israeli Research Initiative on Digital Democracy (Carl Zeiss Foundation, 10/2024–09/2025)

CV

 

since 2026 Visiting Research Collaborator, Accelerator, Princeton University (School of Public and International Affairs)
since 2023 Head of the House of Participation / Senior Expert, FZI Research Center for Information Technology
since 02/2023 Research Group Lead "Digital Democracy & Participation", KIT
06/2022 Dissertation "Digital Citizen Participation: Involving Citizens Through Immersive Systems in Urban Planning" (Dr. rer. pol., magna cum laude; supervised by Christof Weinhardt)
09 – 10/2021 Visiting Scholar, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, Los Angeles
04/2019 – 09/2021 Research Associate, later Department Head, FZI Research Center for Information Technology
08/2014 – 09/2018 Senior Program Manager, Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Scholarship Fund (ELES)
2010 – 2018 B.A. and M.A. in Political Science, Free University of Berlin; studies in Intersectoral Leadership & Governance, Zeppelin University; semester abroad in Public Policy, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
12/2008 – 08/2014 Student Assistant, German Bundestag

Fellowships & Awards

2026 Wolfgang Heilmann Prize, Recognition Award (2nd place), Integrata Foundation, for the DisCoBoard project
2026 European Newspaper Award / Winning data analysis with Tagesspiegel Innovation Lab based on the SOSEC project: "Which Issues Divide Germany in the 2025 Election Campaign?"
2025 Two Best Paper Award Nominations at the 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-58)
since 2022 ROI Fellowship, Schusterman Family Foundation
2021 Visiting Scholar, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, Los Angeles (DAAD Networking Grant, Karlsruhe House of Young Scientists)
2010 – 2016 Scholarship holder of the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Scholarship Fund (ELES) and the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt

Professional Affiliations and Memberships

Since 06/2023

Die Wirtschaftsinformatik e.V. (WI)
Advisory Board Member (Transfer & Society)

Since 06/2023

Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Scholarship Fund (ELES)

Advisory Board Member

Since 09/2021

German Political Science Association
Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW)

Since 05/2021

Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD)

An initiative of the DialoguePerspectives program supported by the Federal Foreign Office and the Commissioner for Culture

Teaching

Academic Term

Course
Winter 2025/2026 Digital Democracy Lecture
Summer 2025 Digital Democracy Seminar

Winter 2024/2025

Digital Democracy Lecture, Lecture (Units) Platform Economics

in German: Seminar Informationssysteme und demokratische Resilienz (University of Potsdam)

Summer 2024

Digital Democracy Seminar, Lecture Platform & Market Engineering: Commerce, Media, and Digital Democracy

Winter 2023/2024

Digital Democracy Lecture

Summer 2023

Digital Democracy Seminar

Winter 2022/2023

Digital Democracy Seminar

Summer 2022

Lecture Market Engineering

Winter 2021/2022

Seminar Digital Experience and Participation

Summer 2021

Lecture Internet Business Models (Units: Sharing Economy, CrowdX, Digital Citizen Participation)

Winter 2020/2021

Lecture Information Systems I (Units: Decisions and Decision Support Systems); Seminar Digital Experience and Participation

Summer 2020

Seminar Digital Experience and Participation

Winter 2019/2020

Lecture Information Systems I (Units: Decisions and Decision Support Systems); Seminar Digital Experience and Participation; Lecture Platform Economics (Units: CrowdX, e-Participation and Digital Citizen Science)

Summer 2019

Seminar Digital Experience and Participation

HoPcast

HoPcast: the House of Participation podcast on democracy and participation in the digital age.

Publications


2026
E-Partizipation in der Wirtschaftsinformatik: Zwischen technischer Innovation und demokratischem Anspruch
Wulf, J.; Büll, J.; Weinhardt, C.; Fegert, J.
2026. HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik. doi:10.1365/s40702-026-01346-0
Platform Mechanisms and the Democratic Public Sphere: A Scoping Review of TikTok
Ni, I.; Büll, J.; Ernst, S.; Fegert, J.
2026. Wirtschaftsinformatik 2026. Proceedings
A Context-Aware Cybersecurity Lens for Information Systems Research
Fegert, J.
2026. AMCIS 2026 Proceedings, 41, Association for Information Systems (AIS)
Resilient Digital Democracy: A Contextual Refinement of a Research Framework
Pfannschmidt, C.; Linde, M.; Fegert, J.
2026. AMCIS 2026: Digital Government: Transforming the Future (SIG EGOV), 12, Association for Information Systems (AIS)
Young Adults Between Climate Change and Geopolitical Conflict: Environmental Concerns and War-Related Fears in Germany
Peter, L.; Sitarski, E.; Köhler-Dauner, F.; Hirschhausen, E. Von; Fegert, J. M.; Fegert, J.
2026, June 25. How are you, Democracy - As part of the TRIANGEL Days of Democracy (2026), Karlsruhe, Germany, June 25, 2026
Generation Z in Crisis? Persistent Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Among Young Adults in Germany After the Pandemic
Peter, L.; Sitarski, E.; Hammann, J.; Köhler-Dauner, F.; Fegert, J. M.; Fegert, J.
2026, June 25. How are you, Democracy - As part of the TRIANGEL Days of Democracy (2026), Karlsruhe, Germany, June 25, 2026
Diverging associations of traditional versus social media with government trust
Borukhson, D.; Fegert, J.; Lorenz-Spreen, P.
2026, June 25. How are you, Democracy - As part of the TRIANGEL Days of Democracy (2026), Karlsruhe, Germany, June 25, 2026
Antisemitism and Social Sentiment in Times of Crises: Exploring antisemitic attitudes in the United States and Germany since October 7, 2023
Pimlott, W.; Fegert, J.; Glaum, L.; Patt, A.
2026. doi:10.5445/IR/1000192750
Learning While Earning? A Literature Review and Case Study on Learning Opportunities in Crowdwork
Stein, C.; Soßdorf, A.; Kirikci, O. K.; Fegert, J.
2026. People, Society, and Ethical Challenges of Information Systems – Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Würzburg, Germany, 2024 - Vol. 3. Ed.: C. Flath, 333–348, Springer Nature Switzerland. doi:10.1007/978-3-032-08486-6_23
Citizen Science Design in Practice: A Taxonomic Study of Configurations, Clusters, and Disciplinary Influences in German Initiatives
Stein, C.; Müller, M.; Fegert, J.
2026. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 11 (1), 1–15. doi:10.5334/cstp.830
E-participation and the Metaverse – insights from a Design Science Research project on immersive public participation
Fegert, J.; Pfeiffer, J.
2026. European Journal of Information Systems, 1–28. doi:10.1080/0960085X.2026.2721630
“How are you, democracy?” : Proceedings of the SOSEC Academic Conference
Le Corre Juratic, M.; Ni, I.; Fegert, J. (Eds.)
2026
Multimodale Deepfake-Erkennung in der Praxis: Framework und Prototyp für die digitale Forensik
Jarvers, L.; Bezzaoui, I.; Fegert, J.
2026. HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik. doi:10.1365/s40702-026-01314-8
Diverging associations of traditional versus social media with government trust
Borukhson, D.; Fegert, J.; Lorenz-Spreen, P.
2026. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 13 (1), 1157. doi:10.1057/s41599-026-08323-4
Elevated depression and anxiety symptoms among younger adults in Germany during the post-pandemic period
Peter, L.; Sitarsky, E.; Hammann, J.; Köhler-Dauner, F.; Fegert, J. M.; Fegert, J.
2026. BMC Public Health, 26 (1), 1420. doi:10.1186/s12889-026-27600-0
Digital Democracy and Social Cohesion: From Promise to Practice
Fegert, J.; Slivko, O.; Stieglitz, S.; Weinhardt, C.
2026. 59th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2026). Ed.: T.X. Bui, 6789–6791, University of Hawaii
2025
Designing Deepfake Detection Systems: Practitioner Requirements Across Sectors
Bezzaoui, I.; Jarvers, L.; Weinhardt, C.; Fegert, J.
2025. ICIS 2025 Proceedings, 17 S., AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)
Explainable AI for online disinformation detection: Insights from a design science research project
Bezzaoui, I.; Stein, C.; Weinhardt, C.; Fegert, J.
2025. Electronic Markets, 35 (1), 66. doi:10.1007/s12525-025-00799-3
Social media and society
Stieglitz, S.; Fegert, J.; Krasnova, H.; Voronin, G.; Weinhardt, C.
2025. i-com, 24 (2), 323–326. doi:10.1515/icom-2025-0029
Understanding Anti-Democratic Sentiments: A Longitudinal Network Approach
Ni, I.
2025, July 22. 11th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2 2025), Norrköping, Sweden, July 21–24, 2025
Beyond Transparency: Evaluating Explainability in AI-Supported Fact-Checking
Schmitt, V.; Bezzaoui, I.; Jakob, C.; Sahitaj, P.; Wang, Q.; Hilbert, A.; Upravitelev, M.; Fegert, J.; Möller, S.; Solopova, V.
2025. Proceedings of the 4th ACM International Workshop on Multimedia AI against Disinformation, 63–72, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi:10.1145/3733567.3735566
Viral engagement? The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on e‑participation
Büll, J.; Fegert, J.
2025. Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 35 (1), 1–25. doi:10.1007/s41358-025-00406-z
Integrating European contexts and needs into WHO guiding principles on online mental health content for young people: five recommendations
Ludwig-Walz, H.; Bujard, M.; Fegert, J.; Fegert, J. M.
2025. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 34 (3), 1221–1224. doi:10.1007/s00787-024-02566-9
Interview with Tobias Lindner on the Relationship Between Academia and Politics: Digital Transformation, Participation, and Mitigating Disinformation
Weinhardt, C.; Fegert, J.
2025. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 67 (1), 137–139. doi:10.1007/s12599-025-00927-5
Real Participation in Virtual Environments: Navigating Public Participation in the Metaverse
Fegert, J.
2025. Democratic Culture in the Metaverse – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Potentials and Perils, 203–214, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. doi:10.5771/9783748948117-203
Understanding Public Opinion in Times of Crises Combining Survey and News Data Through Multimodal XAI
Labbouz, A.; Borukhson, D.; Fegert, J.; Weinhardt, C.
2025. 11th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2 2025), Norrköping, Sweden, July 21–24, 2025. doi:10.5445/IR/1000183585
The Devil is in the Details? Investigating 3D Visualization Types for E-Participation in Urban Planning
Stein, C.; Wittmer, A.; Buß, L.; Fegert, J.
2025. Proceedings of the 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Waikoloa, 7th-10th January 2025. Hrsg. von: Tung X. Bui
From (Design) Theory to (Participation) Practice: Leveraging a Taxonomy for Digital Involvement Projects
Stein, C.; Wittmer, A.; Weinhardt, C.; Fegert, J.
2025. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Ed.: Tung X. Bui, 2093–2101, IEEE Computer Society. doi:10.24251/hicss.2025.257
Visualizing Social Sentiment: Designing an Interactive Dashboard for Informed Decision-Making
Borukhson, D.; Glaum, L.; Weinhardt, C.; Fegert, J.
2025. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Ed.: T.X. Bui, 1493–1502, IEEE Computer Society. doi:10.24251/hicss.2025.180
2024
Defakts - Ein Leuchtturmprojekt gegen Desinformation
Fegert, J.
2024. Agile Demokratie : wie künstliche Intelligenz bessere Politik ermöglicht. Hrsg.: J. Schnöller, 110–114, Murmann
Organized sexualized and ritual violence: Results from two representative German samples
Gerke, J.; Fegert, J.; Rassenhofer, M.; Fegert, J. M.
2024. Child Abuse & Neglect, 152, Article no: 106792. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106792
Learning while Earning? A Literature Review and Case Study on Learning Opportunities in Crowdwork
Stein, C.; Soßdorf, A.; Kirikci, O. K.; Fegert, J.
2024. Wirtschaftsinformatik 2024 Proceedings: 19. Internationale Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik. Hrsg. von: Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Association for Information Systems (AIS)
Guiding Policy Communication: Tailoring Energy Education to Diverse Public Sentiments
Speck, C.; Fritz, P.; Weinhardt, C.; Fegert, J.
2024. First International Conference on Sustainable Energy Education (SEED 2024). Book of Proceedings, 378–386, Universitat Politècnica de València
Designing (for) change: a taxonomy-based approach to project design
Stein, C.; Müller, M.; Fegert, J.
2024. Conference of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA 2024), Vienna, Austria, April 3–6, 2024
Bridging Realities: Exploring Enablement Factors for XR Participatory Urban Planning
Stein, C.; Fegert, J.
2024. Thirty-Second European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 2024 Proceedings. 32, 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2024), Paphos, Zypern, 13.06.2024–19.06.2024, AIS eLibrary (AISeL)
DeFaktS: A German Dataset for Fine-Grained Disinformation Detection through Social Media Framing
Ashraf, S.; Bezzaoui, I.; Andone, I.; Markowetz, A.; Fegert, J.; Flek, L.
2024. Proceedings of the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024). Ed.: N. Calzolari, 4580–4591, ELRA Language Resources Association
Literacies Against Fake News : Examining the Role of Data Literacy and Critical Media Literacy to Counteract Disinformation
Soßdorf, A.; Stein, C.; Bezzaoui, I.; Fegert, J.
2024. MedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung, 59, 55–76. doi:10.21240/mpaed/59/2024.04.10.X
Digital Democracy: A Wake-Up Call – How IS Research Can Contribute to Strengthening the Resilience of Modern Democracies
Weinhardt, C.; Fegert, J.; Hinz, O.; Aalst, W. M. P. van der
2024. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 66 (2), 127–134. doi:10.1007/s12599-024-00862-x
2023
Virtuelle Realitäten, echte Partizipation: über Herausforderung und Chancen der Bürger:innenbeteiligung im Metaverse
Fegert, J.
2023, November 13
Same same but different - Towards a taxonomy for digital involvement projects
Stein, C.; Straub, T.; Jachimowicz, J.; Fegert, J.
2023. ECIS 2023 Proceedings. Ed.: M. Aanestad, AIS eLibrary (AISeL)
Demokratiegefährdende Plattform-Mechanismen – Erkennen, Verstehen, Bekämpfen
Bezzaoui, I.; Nikolajevic, N.; Fegert, J.
2023, June 29. KI | Konflikte | Konventionen – PolKomm2023 (2023), Düsseldorf, Germany, June 28–30, 2023
Towards Inclusive Digital Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Digital Citizen Participation
Fegert, J.
2023. International Conferences e-Society and Mobile Learning. Ed.: P. Kommers
Citizen Science as a Service? A Review of Multi-Project Citizen Science Platforms
Stein, C.; Wittmer, A.; Fegert, J.; Weinhardt, C.
2023. Proceedings of the ES 2023 + ML 2023, 36–55, IADIS Press. doi:10.33965/ES_ML2023_202302L005
2022
Truth or Fake? Developing a Taxonomical Framework for the Textual Detection of Online Disinformation
Bezzaoui, I.; Fegert, J.; Weinhardt, C.
2022. International journal on advances in internet technology, 15 (3/4), 53–63
Democratic by Design? On the Difficulties of Creating Open and Free Spaces in the Digital Sphere
Fegert, J.; Reitzer, P.
2022, September 8. 4th MANCEPT WORKSHOPS 2022 (2022), Manchester, United Kingdom, September 7–9, 2022
Distinguishing Between Truth and Fake: Using Explainable AI to Understand and Combat Online Disinformation
Bezzaoui, I.; Fegert, J.; Weinhardt, C.
2022. The 16th International Conference on Digital Society, International Academy Research and Industry Association (IARIA)
Digital Citizen Participation – Involving Citizens Through Immersive Systems in Urban Planning. PhD dissertation
Fegert, J.
2022, June 9. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). doi:10.5445/IR/1000147640
Facilitating Mixed Reality Public Participation for Modern Construction Projects: Guiding Project Planners with a Configurator
Schramm, L. T.; Hariharan, A.; Götz, T.; Fegert, J.; Schmidt, A. P.
2022. ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation - Creative Heritage. New Perspectives from Media Arts and Artificial Intelligence. 10th EAI International Conference, ArtsIT 2021, Virtual Event, December 2-3, 2021, Proceedings. Ed.: M. Wölfel, 275–291, Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95531-1_19
2021
Bürger:innen sind auch User:innen – Ein Forschungsbeitrag zu zeitgemäßen Formen digitaler Partizipation
Fegert, J.
2021, September 23. UIG-Tagung (2021), Online, September 23, 2021
“It’s the platform design, stupid“ – Studienergebnisse zu zeitgemäßen Formen digitaler Partizipation
Fegert, J.; Golubyeva, A.
2021, September 15. 28. Wissenschaftlicher Kongress der Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW 2021), Online, September 14–16, 2021
Ich sehe was, was du auch siehst. Über die Möglichkeiten von Augmented und Virtual Reality für die digitale Beteiligung von Bürger:innen in der Bau- und Stadtplanung
Fegert, J.; Pfeiffer, J.; Reitzer, P.; Götz, T.; Hariharan, A.; Pfeiffer-Leßmann, N.; Renner, P.; Pfeiffer, T.; Weinhardt, C.
2021. HMD, 58, 1180–1195. doi:10.1365/s40702-021-00772-6
Mission Statement Accomplished: Promises And Challenges In Using E-Participation For Mission Statement Development
Fegert, J.; Stein, C.; Peukert, C.; Weinhardt, C.
2021. IADIS International Journal on Computer Science and Information Systems, 16 (1), 30–45
Can Immersive Systems Help Address Sustainability Goals? Insights from Research in Information Systems
Pfeiffer, J.; Fegert, J.; Greif-Winzrieth, A.; Hoffmann, G.; Peukert, C.
2021. Market Engineering : Insights from Two Decades of Research on Markets and Information. Ed.: H. Gimpel, 135–150, Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-66661-3_8
Using e-Participation for Mission Statement Development: Promises and Challenges
Fegert, J.; Stein, C.; Peukert, C.; Weinhardt, C.
2021. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference "e-Society", 2021. Ed.: P. Kommers, 233–241
2020
Combining e-Participation with Augmented and Virtual Reality: Insights from a Design Science Research Project
Fegert, J.; Pfeiffer, J.; Peukert, C.; Golubyeva, A.; Weinhardt, C.
2020. ICIS 2020 Proceedings, Paper- Nr.: 1521, AIS eLibrary (AISeL)
Zum Gedenken an Prof. Dr. Gerhard Oskar Baader (1928–2020)
Kölch, M.; Fegert, J. M.; Levitan, N.; Fegert, J.
2020. Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie, 48 (5), 410–411. doi:10.1024/1422-4917/a000750
Enriching E-Participation through Augmented Reality: First Results of a Qualitative Study
Fegert, J.; Pfeiffer, J.; Peukert, C.; Weinhardt, C.
2020. WI 2020 : Entwicklungen, Chancen und Herausforderungen der Digitalisierung. Proceedings der 15. Internationalen Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik 2020. Hrsg.: N. Gronau, 560–567, GITO Verlag. doi:10.30844/wi_2020_e5-fegert
2019
Take Part Prototype: Creating New Ways of Participation Through Augmented and Virtual Reality [in press]
Fegert, J.; Pfeiffer, J.; Golubyeva, A.; Pfeiffer-Leßmann, N.; Hariharan, A.; Renner, P.; Pfeiffer, T.; Hefke, M.; Straub, T.; Weinhardt, C.
2019. 29th Workshop an Information Technologies and Systems (WITS), Munich Germany, December 18-20 2019. Ed.: Y. Lu