X-ray absorption spectroscopy facilitated by state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation technology is presented as a powerful tool to study nanoscale systems, in particular revealing their static element-specific magnetic and electronic properties on a microscopic level. A survey is given on the properties of nanoparticles, nanocomposites and thin films covering a broad range of possible applications. It ranges from the ageing effects of iron oxide nanoparticles in dispersion for biomedical applications to the characterisation on a microscopic level of nanoscale systems for data storage devices. In this respect, new concepts for electrically addressable magnetic data storage devices are highlighted by characterising the coupling in a BaTiO(3)/CoFe(2)O(4) nanocomposite as prototypical model system. But classical magnetically addressable devices are also discussed on the basis of tailoring the magnetic properties of self-assembled ensembles of FePt nanoparticles for data storage and the high-moment material Fe/Cr/Gd for write heads. For the latter cases, the importance is emphasised of combining experimental approaches in x-ray absorption spectroscopy with density functional theory to gain a more fundamental understanding.