Leonie Jahn

Leonie Jahn is a research assistant at the Chair of Business Informatics and New Media at the University of Siegen, where she conducts research in Human-Food-Interaction within the Foodsharing.de platform context. She joined the university in January 2023 after previously working at the Private University Witten/Herdecke and holding research positions in consumer protection and digital health projects.

Leonie completed both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Social Sciences in Europe at the University of Siegen. Her Master's thesis focused on political attitudes and protest readiness in the Querdenken movement, which she completed in September 2022 with excellent results.

Her research interests center around Human-Computer Interaction with a focus on sustainable practices, grassroots movements, and community-driven open-source software development. She specifically investigates how digital platforms can support food sharing initiatives and reduce waste through community engagement, examining the intersection of technical development and social commitment in volunteer-driven projects.

Leonie's recent publications reveal a strong focus on understanding volunteer motivations in open-source software development within the Foodsharing.de ecosystem. Her work explores concepts like "serendipitous connections" between users and developers, "utopian design spaces" for surplus redistribution, and the balance between technical skills and social commitment in sustaining community-driven platforms.

As a researcher, Leonie has contributed to understanding how digital technologies can support grassroots movements addressing food waste. Her work combines qualitative methods including interviews, observations, and participatory research to examine the socio-technical dynamics of community-driven platforms.