Hybrid epistemic practices and the transformation of academic assemblages

Generative AI and epistemic messiness in the qualitative social sciences and humanities

Bibliographic Data

ID17675950
AuthorsChristoph Bareither (0000-0002-1784-0773, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Tübingen, corresponding author), Lukas Griessl (0000-0002-9565-5864, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Tübingen)
Year2026
Volume41
Issue7
Pages6459-6475
Publication date2026-03-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAI & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0951-5666 • E-ISSN: 1435-5655
PublisherSpringer Nature (PUBLISHER • SG)
DOI10.1007/s00146-026-02988-w
OpenAlexW7140030876
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited49

This paper addresses the transformations of the qualitative social sciences and humanities (QSSH) in the wake of the introduction of generative AI (GenAI). It presents the findings of an ethnographic study investigating the impact of GenAI on the QSSH at the University of Tübingen in Germany, with a particular focus on epistemic practices relating to the reading, understanding, and writing of texts. The concepts of “academic assemblage,” “hybrid epistemic practices,” and “epistemic messiness” are introduced as key concepts for understanding these transformations. Our central argument is that GenAI leads to “epistemic messiness,” which we define as a state of the academic assemblage caused by two seemingly incompatible tendencies of hybrid epistemic practices that simultaneously strengthen and weaken epistemic relations. Our ethnographic data demonstrate how this epistemic messiness is intensified at the social, emotional, and ethical level through emerging issues such as the threat of deskilling, feelings of devaluation and disorientation, mistrust between students and educators, uncertainty, and conflicting ethical norms for “good” academic practice. Based on this assessment, we provide several key questions that we think the QSSH need to address to navigate the challenges arising from GenAI

Argument (complex analysis) · Assemblage (archaeology) · Deleuze and Guattari · Ethnography · Focus (optics) · Generative grammar · Key (lock) · Perspective (graphical) · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies · Qualitative Research Methods and Applications

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access