Dr Robert Dorschel

Robert Dorschel is Assistant Professor in Digital Sociology at the University of Cambridge. His research investigates how processes of digitalisation relate to work, class, and culture. He has studied the work ethic and class formation of tech workers, the professionalisation of data scientists, and the corporate cultures of the tech industry. Additionally, he has developed theoretical work that advocates for a broadening of the digital labour concept. Recently, his research has explored the green tech industry as well as the class divides in contemporary society more generally.

Robert studied sociology and political science at Humboldt-University Berlin, Duke University, and the University of Kiel, before completing a PhD in Sociology at the University of Cambridge in 2023. His PhD dissertation, „The Social Codes of Tech Workers“, was awarded the Dissertation Prize by the Association of Internet Researchers and will be published as a monograph by MIT Press in December 2025. Between 2022 and 2024, Robert held a position as Assistant Professor in Social Inequality at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

Research Interests

Digital sociology, social class, cultural sociology, economic sociology, labour, subjectivity, science and technology studies, classical and contemporary social theory

Teaching

Courses

MPhil in Media and Culture

SOC7: Media, Culture and Society

Sociology Undergraduate Dissertation (Paper Organiser)

SOC1 supervisor at Christ’s College and Peterhouse College

Graduate and Postgraduate supervision

Robert is available to supervise (post)graduate students working in the following research areas: digital sociology, social class, cultural sociology, economic sociology, labour studies, subjectivity studies, science and technology studies, classical and contemporary social theory

Publications

Books

Dorschel, Robert (2025): The Social Codes of Tech Workers: A Contradictory Middle Class in the Making (forthcoming, MIT Press, Labor and Technology Series).

Journal Articles

Dorschel, Robert (2025): Global Warming as Investment Climate: Green Tech and the Translation of Needs. Journal of Cultural Economy, 1-16 [online first].

Lindner, Michael / Dorschel, Robert / Schuster, Antonia (2025): Climate Change and Class Structure: Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Social Classes in the United Kingdom. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 1-25 [online first].

Dorschel, Robert (2024): Middle-Class Responses to Climate Change: An Analysis of the Ecological Habitus of Tech Workers. Current Sociology, 72(7), 1301-1318.

Dorschel, Robert (2022): A New Middle-Class Fraction with a Distinct Subjectivity. Tech Workers and the Transformation of the Entrepreneurial Self. The Sociological Review, 70(6), 1302-1320.

Dorschel, Robert (2022) Reconsidering Digital Labour: Bringing Tech Workers into the Debate. New Technology, Work and Employment, 37(2), 288-307,

Dorschel, Robert (2022): Tech Workers und das achtsam-moralische Selbst. Jenseits von Künstlerkritik und Arbeitskraftunternehmer. Arbeits- und Industriesoziologische Studien, 15(1), 125-143.

Dorschel, Robert (2021): Discovering Needs for Digital Capitalism. The Hybrid Profession of Data Science. Big Data & Society, 8(2), 1-13.

Dorschel, Robert / Brandt, Philipp (2021): Professionalisierung mittels Ambiguität. Die diskursive Konstruktion von Data Scientists in Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft. Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 50(3-4), 193-210.

Allmendinger, Jutta / Dorschel, Robert (2021): Der Raum des Möglichen. Kursbuch, 207, 61-72.

Dorschel, Robert (2021): “Data Science“ Analyse einer emergierenden Profession mittels einer Verknüpfung von Diskurs- und Feldtheorie. Soziologie, 50(1), 94-102.

Book Chapters

Dorschel, Robert (2020): A Field Theoretical Discovery of the Tourism Industry. In: Pietzcker, Dominik/Vaih-Baur, Christina: Ökonomische und Soziologische Tourismustrends. Strategien und Konzepte im globalen Destinationsmarketing. Springer, Wiesbaden, pp. 29-44.

Dorschel, Robert/Allmendinger, Jutta (2019): Über die sozialen Fesseln unserer Sprache. In: Eichinger, Ludwig / Plewnia, Albrecht (Hrsg.): Neues vom heutigen Deutsch. Empirisch – methodisch – theoretisch. Jahrbuch des Instituts für Deutsche Sprache 2018. Berlin / Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 313-23.

Other

Dorschel, Robert (2021): Contours of the Networked Self. New Media & Society, 23(1), 193-198. [Book Review Essay]