Research Area: Austria and Malaysia
#Research Project
Negotiating Social Life and Learning in cON/FFlating Spaces: A Comparative Study of University Students in Malaysia and Austria
Funded by: Federal Ministry Republic of Austria Education, Science and Research (ASEA-UNINET)
Principal Investigator: Tabea Bork-Hüffer (PI), Alexander Trupp (PI)
Project Researchers, Austria: Jacqueline Kowalski
Project Researchers, Malaysia: Kim Ling Geraldine Chang (co-PI), Muhammad Safuan bin Abdul Latip (co-PI)
Project Period: 2025
University students today are situated in complex cON/FFlating spaces, which substantially affect the negotiation of their social lives and their learning. Since the COVID-19 era and the acceptance of a broader variety of types of e-, blended and hybrid learning formats as well as the further encroachment of technology and media in everyday social lives this has become ever more complex. No doubt, generation Z youth, among whom are university students, are tech-savvy, creative and innovative more than previous generations. However, the challenge in experiencing and dealing with cON/FFlating spaces is inevitable and requires constant negotiations of space for a socially, mentally, and physical healthy life and learning. Knowledge and skills on technology and media thereby is crucial. A specific human capital skill can be created in the process of negotiation. It can be termed as “space negotiation skill”. Material and digital university space is specific and contextual. Therefore, this proposal aims to study how the youths in Malaysia and Austria actually experience negotiating, dealing with the challenges they face, devising ways to overcome the challenges, and most importantly, creating and developing particular forms of human capital, i.e. “space negotiation skill”. The research objectives are 1) to identify the ways in which the cON/FFlating spaces of the university students in Malaysia and Austria affect their negotiation of their social lives, identities and academic learning, 2) to determine the potentials and skills that youth develop from the negotiation process, 3) to determine the challenges they face, and 4) to ascertain the efforts of the youth in overcoming the challenges to achieve sustained academic learning in campus. The youth’ experiences shall be studied and analysed using a qualitative multi-method design. The implications of the study are the potentiality of that particular form of human capital for future university graduates, namely in private organisations and industries engaging in hybrid and remote work, including in and beyond Malaysia and Austria.
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© 2025
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