Prof. Dr. Dr. Björn Bohnenkamp
Programme Director Digital Management & Communication Management
Björn’s passion is the moment a familiar thing suddenly turns strange. A YouTube channel whose success nobody can quite explain. A remake nobody asked for that everyone ends up watching. A generation that only exists because we keep telling stories about it. Everything he teaches starts there — with the conviction that management becomes far more interesting once you stop treating markets as machines and start reading them as culture.
Two disciplines, one classroom
There are two doctorates behind that conviction: one in business administration, one in theatre, film and television studies. Most academics pick a side. Björn refused — and his students are the ones who benefit. In his courses a brand is a business asset and a narrative at the same time; a consumer is a market segment and a person telling themselves a story about who they are. Learning to hold both readings at once is, he argues, the single most useful thing a manager can learn. It is exactly what he trains.
He won’t tell you what to think
A session with Björn rarely begins with a definition. It begins with material that has no settled answer yet — a platform trend, a campaign that shouldn’t have worked, a piece of trash television everyone claims not to watch — and the task of building an argument that survives being challenged. He is generous with theory and unsparing about lazy conclusions. Students leave able to defend a position, take it apart again, and explain what changed their mind. That method runs all the way through: from the first-year introduction to academic work to the theses he supervises in the final semester.
The cases are real
Alongside his academic work Björn has advised media companies, cultural institutions and retailers — among them Studiocanal, TV 60, ZKM and Infinity Docs — and works as a career coach on self-marketing, self-organisation and the digital self. He has taught at the European Television and Media Academy in Strasbourg, at the University of Münster and at DHBW, and since 2018 he has been a reviewer for AQAS and the German Council of Science and Humanities. What comes back into the seminar room is not a textbook example. It is a problem someone actually had to solve.
Why students stay after class
Björn has been part of Karlshochschule since April 2014 and leads the Digital Management and Communication Management programmes. His current work runs from the attention economy on YouTube to employer branding, from ethics and sustainability in digital ecosystems to the question of why every few years we invent a new generation to argue about. If you want to be told what to think about markets, there are easier places to study. If you want to learn how to think about them, his seminar room is a very good place to start.
Read markets as culture, not as machines.
Facts, figures and the full CV
Teaching areas
- Academic research methods and empirical social research
- Marketing and Consumer Culture
- Media and communication
- Cultural management and cultural marketing
- Digitalisation and innovation
Roles: Programme Director Digital Management · Programme Director Communication Management · at Karlshochschule since 1 April 2014
Research interests
- Media and cultural marketing
- Consumer Culture Theory and market discourse dynamics
- Generation studies
- Digital ecosystems (consumption, communication and sustainability)
- Visual culture (film, television)
Current teaching and research projects
- The attention economy and success factors on YouTube
- Employer branding & corporate citizenship
- Ethics and sustainability in digital ecosystems
- Generation studies: consumer and working generations, evidence effects and identity politics
- Constructivist and cultural-studies theories of marketing
- Media brands: adaptations, sequels and remakes
- Trash consumption: taste regimes, justification and the normalisation of consumption
Academic background
- Dr. rer. pol. in Business Administration, University of Münster
- Dr. phil. in Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Cologne
- Visiting Student Research Collaborator, Princeton University, USA
- Semester abroad at Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France
- Business Administration, University of Cologne
- Economics, FernUniversität Hagen
- Theatre, Film and Television Studies, German Philology and Political Science, University of Cologne
Professional experience
- Career coach (self-marketing, self-organisation, the digital self)
- Freelance marketing consultancy, in particular for media companies, cultural organisations and retail (incl. TV 60, Studiocanal, Agentur Rights, ZKM, Infinity Docs, Motion Capture Group, IG Südliche Waldstraße)
- Freelance teaching for the European Television and Media Academy Strasbourg, the University of Münster and Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg
Appointments, reviewing and awards
- Since 2018: reviewer for AQAS and the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat)
- 2010–2016: board member, Netzwerk Generationenforschung e.V.
- 2005–2008: DFG doctoral scholarship
- 2000–2004: scholarship of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
Selected publications
Peer-reviewed articles
- Bohnenkamp, B. (2020): Heimatmarketing. In: Politik und Kultur. Dossier Heimat & Nachhaltigkeit, 46–47.
- Bohnenkamp, B., Knapp, A.-K., Hennig-Thurau, T. & Schauerte, R. (2014): When Does It Make Sense To Do It Again? An Empirical Investigation of Contingency Factors of Movie Remakes. Journal of Cultural Economics, 39(1), 15–41.
Monographs and edited volumes
- Bohnenkamp, B. (2011): Doing Generation: zur Inszenierung von generationeller Gemeinschaft in deutschsprachigen Schriftmedien. Bielefeld: Transcript.
- Bohnenkamp, B., Manning, T. & Silies, E.-M. (eds.) (2009): Generation als Erzählung. Göttingen: Wallstein.
- Bohnenkamp, B. et al. (eds.) (2006): Einführung in die Medienkulturwissenschaft. Münster: LIT.
Selected book chapters
- Bohnenkamp, B. (2020): Die Evolution von Marken und Marketing. In: Zukunftsinstitut (ed.): Transforming Brands. Frankfurt am Main, 94–100.
- Bohnenkamp, B. (2017): ReThinking Studying Marketing. In: Küpers, W., Sonnenburg, S. & Zierold, M. (eds.): ReThinking Management. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 191–204.
- Bohnenkamp, B. (2014): Telefonie im Film. In: Kirchmann, K. & Ruchatz, J. (eds.): Medienreflexion im Film. Bielefeld: Transcript, 349–366.
The full publication list is available on request.
Want to study with Björn?
His courses run in the Digital Management and Communication Management programmes. Come to an info day, sit in on a session, or write to him directly.