Mag.a rer. nat., PhD
Belinda Mahlknecht
Senior Lecturer in Qualitative Methods | Postdoctoral Researcher | Human Geographer
I am a human geographer and qualitative researcher working at the intersection of Human Geography and Psychology. My research focuses on young people’s embodied, socio-spatial and digitally mediated everyday lives, with particular attention to connections and disconnections, belonging, inequality, vulnerability and youth agency. I am especially interested in how social relations, spaces, institutions, material conditions and digital technologies come together within concrete situations and how young people navigate these relations over time.
My previous research has examined (cyber-)bullying, mundane digital violence, gendered vulnerabilities and exclusion in entangled socio-material-digital spaces. Building on this work, my current research develops a broader relational and process-oriented perspective on connections, disconnections, belonging, loneliness and solitude. Methodologically, I specialise in qualitative longitudinal, mobile and participant-centred research, particularly in combining interviews with mobile and in-situ approaches.
Contact
Office Location
Location: Institute of Psychology
University of Innsbruck
Universitätsstraße 5–7
6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Office: 3S20
Consultation
By appointment
Phone
Phone: +43 (0)512 507-56025
Postal address
Universität Innsbruck
Universitätsstraße 5-7
6020 Innsbruck, Österreich
Platforms & Social Media
Research Foci
At a Glance
Regional
Europe (Austria)
Thematic
Youth and everyday life
Connections & disconnections
Digital geographies
Inequalities & belonging
Digital violence
Concepts & Theories
Relational geographies
Embodiment & affect
Belonging
Youth agency
cON/FFlating spaces
Methods
Qualitative methods
Longitudinal research
Mobile methods
In-situ approaches
Participant-centred research
Academic Career
Positions:
10/2026–2030 | Senior Lecturer for Qualitative Methods (50%, fixed-term), Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck
03/2026–09/2026 | External Lecturer (25%; four courses), Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck
05/2024–09/2026 | Postdoctoral Researcher (75%), Department of Geography, University of Innsbruck
10/2026 | Postdoctoral Researcher (50%), Department of Geography, University of Innsbruck
11/2019–04/2024 | Doctoral Researcher (75%), Department of Geography, University of Innsbruck
Education:
2019–2024 | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Geography, University of Innsbruck
2013–2019 | Diploma Programme in Teacher Education, Geography and History, University of Innsbruck; graduated with distinction
Additional Research Achievements:
- FWF-funded research: Substantial contribution across the full research cycle of beYOND – Young People Negotiating Difference in cON/FFlating Spaces (P34691; 2021–2026), including proposal development, research design, an 18-month qualitative longitudinal study, qualitative analysis, publications and supervision of student research.
- AK Award (2020): Award for the diploma thesis Mobbing mit digitalen Medien: Eine Untersuchung von individuellen Erfahrungsberichten von Schülerinnen und Schülern.
- Excellence Doctoral Scholarship (2020): University of Innsbruck.
- Doctoral Scholarship for the Promotion of Young Scientists (2019): University of Innsbruck.
- International research network: Member of the Research Group Transient Spaces & Societies.
- Doctoral research network: Member of the Doctoral Programme Dynamics of Inequality and Difference in the Age of Globalization, University of Innsbruck.
- Knowledge Transfer / Third Mission: Trainer at the Chamber of Labour Tyrol, Arbeitswelt und Schule – AK Werkstatt (2019–ongoing), developing and delivering participatory educational formats for young people and training new facilitators.
Featured Publications
A Selection
Publications
Manuscripts under review
Mahlknecht, B., Riedl, N., & Bork-Hüffer, T. (under review). Reworking vulnerability through creative articulations: Situated youth agency amid (cyber-)violence. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.
DOI: Not yet assigned. Public article link: Not yet available.
Mahlknecht, B., Bork-Hüffer, T., & Golz, J. M. (under review). TikTok as a trigger and visibility space: Young women’s negotiations of algorithmic feeds and biographical vulnerabilities. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.
DOI: Not yet assigned. Public article link: Not yet available.
Markl, A., Bork-Hüffer, T.& Mahlknecht, B. (under review). Mobile messengers in qualitative longitudinal research: The example of Mobile Messenger Dossiers. International Journal of Qualitative Methods.
DOI: Not yet assigned. Public article link: Not yet available.
Published work
Bendler, D., Bork-Hüffer, T., & Mahlknecht, B. (2026). Digital affordances and the normalization of (cyber-)bullying among young people in Austria, Germany, and Spain. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. Advance online publication.
DOI: 10.1177/23996544261494345
Link: DOI / publisher article page
Kuenz, C., Mahlknecht, B., & Bork-Hüffer, T. (2026). ‘It wasn’t the pupils—it was the teachers’: How pupils perceive teachers’ involvement in (cyber-)bullying in Austria. Societies, 16(3), 99.
DOI: 10.3390/soc16030099
Link: DOI / publisher article page
Bork-Hüffer, T., Lübbert, L., & Mahlknecht, B. (2026). Coping with mundane (cyber-)violence: FLINTA* youth’s strategies in the resurgent patriarchy. Digital Geography and Society, 10, 100155.
DOI: 10.1016/j.diggeo.2025.100155
Link: DOI / publisher article page
Bork-Hüffer, T., Mahlknecht, B., & Markl, A. (2024). Identitätsentwicklung in, mit und gegen Social Media: Die Bedeutung verschränkter On- und Offline-Räume. Schüler. Wissen für Lehrer 2024, 70–72.
DOI: No DOI assigned.
Link: Publisher issue / article
Bork-Hüffer, T., Mahlknecht, B., Markl, A., & Kaufmann, K. (2023). Digital geographies of mundane violence: Outline of an emerging research field and the example of (cyber-)bullying in young people’s lives. Erdkunde, 77(3), 169–194.
DOI: 10.3112/erdkunde.2023.03.01
Link: DOI / open-access article
Mahlknecht, B., & Bork-Hüffer, T. (2023). ‘She felt incredibly ashamed’: Gendered (cyber-)bullying and the hypersexualized female body. Gender, Place & Culture, 30(7), 989–1011.
DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2022.2115981
Link: DOI / publisher article page
Mahlknecht, B., Kempert, R., & Bork-Hüffer, T. (2022). Graduating during the COVID-19 pandemic: Digital media practices and learning spaces among pupils taking their school-leaving exams. Sustainability, 14(14), 8628.
DOI: 10.3390/su14148628
Link: DOI / open-access article
Bork-Hüffer, T., Mahlknecht, B., & Kaufmann, K. (2021). (Cyber)Bullying in schools – When bullying stretches across cON/FFlating spaces. Children’s Geographies, 19(2), 241–253.
DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2020.1784850
Link: DOI / publisher article page
Bork-Hüffer, T., Mahlknecht, B., & Markl, A. (2020). Kollektivität in und durch cON/FFlating spaces: Acht Thesen zu Verschränkungen, multiplen Historizitäten und Intra-Aktionen in sozio-materiell-technologischen (Alltags-)Räumen. Zeitschrift für Kultur- und Kollektivwissenschaft, 6(2), 131–170.
DOI: 10.14361/zkkw-2020-060208
Link: DOI / publisher article page
Bork-Hüffer, T., Mahlknecht, B., & Kaufmann, K. (2020). Bullying in cON/FFlating spaces – Why a ‘space’ perspective matters for understanding young people’s experiences and practices of bullying. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020.
DOI: 10.5210/spir.v2020i0.11176
Link: DOI / open-access article
Mahlknecht, B., & Bork-Hüffer, T. (2019). Cybermobbing: Eine Untersuchung von individuellen Erfahrungen und Ängsten von Innsbrucker Schüler*innen. In Innsbrucker Geographische Gesellschaft (Ed.), Innsbrucker Jahresbericht 2018–2019 (pp. 78–101). Innsbrucker Geographische Gesellschaft.
DOI: No DOI assigned.
ISBN: 978-3-901182-75-4
Link: Open-access issue / institutional publication page
About Me
I am a human geographer and qualitative researcher working at the intersection of Human Geography and Psychology. I currently combine my role as Senior Lecturer in Qualitative Methods at the Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, with postdoctoral research in Human Geography.
I study how young people experience, negotiate and make sense of their everyday lives within changing social, spatial and digitally mediated relations. My research began with questions around (cyber-)bullying, digital violence and gendered vulnerabilities and has since expanded towards broader questions of connection and disconnection, belonging, inequality and youth agency. Across these topics, I use relational and process-oriented perspectives to understand how experiences emerge within particular social and socio-spatial configurations and change over time.
I use qualitative research to investigate these processes in depth. I specialise in qualitative longitudinal, mobile and participant-centred methods that allow me to examine everyday experiences close to the situations in which they unfold while tracing how meanings, practices and relationships develop over time.
I also teach and supervise qualitative research at the Institute of Psychology. I particularly enjoy supporting students in developing their own research projects and in using qualitative methodology to engage critically and reflexively with complex social processes. Beyond the university, my long-standing work with young people in educational settings connects my academic research with knowledge transfer and practice.
© 2019-2026
Research Group Transient Spaces & Societies
Department of Geography Heidelberg University
Berliner Str. 48, 69120 Heidelberg
Department of Geography University of Innsbruck
Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck
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