Joshua Weber

Joshua Weber is a Research Associate at the University Center, School of Social Work FHNW, where he focuses on digitalization in social work and specialized software development. He is concurrently a doctoral student at the University of Cologne, Faculty of Human Sciences since 2018.

• Education: Master's (2012–2014) and Bachelor's (2008–2012) in Social Work from Evangelical University of Freiburg
• Professional Experience: Research roles at University Center (2017–present), Evangelical University of Freiburg (2014–2016), and Mannheim University of Applied Sciences (2014–2015)

His research explores digitalization in social work, including specialist software, curricular integration, and materiality-sensitive approaches. He has published extensively on AI empowerment, ecosystemic competency models, and sociotechnical systems in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Recent work includes collaborations on Actor-Network Theory and digital artifacts in social contexts.

Joshua teaches courses like BA 101: Social Work as a Science and Profession and BA 115: Support for BA theses Digitalization, emphasizing digital transformation in social work. He is active in the German Society for Social Work (Specialist Group: Digitalization) and Swiss Society for Social Work (Expert Commission: Digitalization).

Key contributions include framing digital participation in software development, AI-driven educational tools, and ethical considerations in digital social work. His work bridges academic research with practical implementation through projects like Fachsoftware selection frameworks and digital competency models for universities.