Lea Schneidemesser

Lea Schneidemesser is a researcher in the department “Sociology of Digital Transformation and Work” at the Institute of Sociology at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and an associate researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute and the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). She works on topics related to economic, labor, and industrial sociology, as well as the political economy of innovation and technology, with a regional focus on Germany and China. Her research focuses on the internationalization of Chinese companies in the digitalizing European economy, as well as on digital business models and data work in AI implementation processes in manufacturing industries.

Before joining the Institute of Sociology at Goethe University Frankfurt in July 2025, Lea was a research associate at the WZB in the research group Globalization, Work, and Production, studying the use of digital platforms in industrial value chains in Germany and China. She was a member of the research group “Working with Artificial Intelligence” at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin, researching how work is changing through the use of AI. She was also a member of the DFG Collaborative Research Center 294 “Structural Change of Property” at the University of Erfurt, studying direct investments by Chinese companies in Germany and the European Union.

Web Link: https://www.fb03.uni-frankfurt.de/181092959/Lea_Schneidemesser